Forgetting of competing solutions as a consequence of analogical problem-solving attempts.

ABSTRACTThree experiments used a paradigm based on Retrieval-Induced Forgetting research to test for the competition from non-useful sources of information in cross-domain analogical transfer. This was accomplished by presenting people with texts introducing multiple candidate solutions prior to attempting the Radiation problem, and later testing memory for the texts. In Experiment 1, viable and unviable candidate solutions that varied in surface and structural similarity were presented in their own story contexts. In Experiments 2 and 3, the viable and unviable solutions were embedded within the same story context. The results suggest that forgetting unviable solutions that share surface-level overlap with the target problem may be less important than suggested by prior work. Instead, greater evidence of forgetting was obtained when unviable solutions were embedded within the same context as viable solutions. These findings suggest that competition from superficially similar, unviable solutions may not be the main obstacle during analogical problem-solving attempts, but rather the main obstacle for transfer may be the selection of relevant solution concepts.

Need something different? Here's what's been done: Effects of examples and task instructions on creative idea generation.

Creative idea generation involves search and retrieval of memory. There is a default tendency to rely too heavily on familiar or easily accessible information during idea generation, especially in tasks such as the alternate uses task (AUT) that involve generating novel uses for common objects. Knowing which obvious ideas to avoid may be important in creating more original ideas. The present experiments tested whether instructions encouraging participants to avoid a set of common example ideas would enhance originality or cause fixation on the AUT. The results of Experiment 1 demonstrated that presenting a verbal list of common example uses along with a warning to avoid those uses enhanced originality. In contrast, when the example ideas were presented in the absence of any "avoid" instructions, there was no benefit on originality, indicating that mere example exposure did not stimulate more creative idea generation. The design of Experiment 2 was parallel to that of Experiment 1, but the verbal examples were replaced with visually depicted examples. Exposure to the visual examples led to reduced originality, suggesting fixation. Although the "avoid" instruction helped to mitigate this fixation, it did not enhance originality beyond the no-example condition. The results suggest that under some conditions presenting unoriginal examples along with an "avoid" warning can allow people to shift their focus away from easily retrieved ideas and toward more novel approaches. The results are also consistent with prior work showing a negative impact of visual presentation of examples on creativity.

Foreign body aspiration in a child with cardiac arrest.

Foreign body aspiration is a true medical emergency and is the fifth most common cause of mortality due to unintentional injury in the United States. Children who have aspirated a foreign body may present with a variety of symptoms, from mild irritation and cough to respiratory failure. Treatment is removal of the foreign body, often via rigid bronchoscopy. Clinicians must have a high degree of suspicion to ensure a foreign body aspiration is not missed on initial presentation.

Hemispheric alpha asymmetry and self-rated originality of ideas.

The generation of highly original ideas in divergent thinking tasks has been found to be associated with task-related changes in the alpha band. The goal of the current study was to determine if exposure to brainwave entrainment (BWE) at the alpha centre frequency before and during performance of a divergent thinking task would result in increases in task-related, event-related synchrony and the production of more highly original ideas. We found that alpha entrainment interfered with the oscillatory dynamics associated with divergent thinking such that only the control group showed greater right hemispheric engagement. Furthermore, the control group showed greater self-rated originality. These findings provide confirmation of the importance of hemispheric asymmetry in alpha power to successful divergent thinking and indicate that refinements are required in order for BWE to be used effectively to improve divergent thinking performance.

Systematic research is needed on the potential effects of lifelong technology experience on cognition: a mini-review and recommendations.

Digital technology now occupies a fundamental space in human life. Increasingly sophisticated access to information and social interactions has enabled a sort of offloading of many aspects of cognition, and for many people, this technology use has been lifelong. While the global development of technologies advances exponentially as part of the Fourth Industrial Revolution, researchers have not yet fully characterized the human effects of this technology-centric revolution at the same pace. In this mini-review, we consider three important higher-level cognitive functions: creativity, adaptability, and decision-making, and discuss their potential relationship to lifelong digital technology experience, which here includes both passive exposure and active use of electronic devices. We then articulate the gaps in related literature and knowledge, and outline general considerations, suggestions, and challenges for future research avenues. In general, we found that prior research has investigated uses of specific technology products on lower-level cognition (e.g., how does the use of online search engines affect memory?), but there is a lack of research assessing the overall effects of technology experience on cognitive functioning, particularly complex cognition.

Retrieval dynamics in resolving relational inconsistency during verbal analogical reasoning.

Reasoning about verbal analogies requires selective retrieval of relevant relational information. A consequence of this may be that inhibitory processes in memory cause reduced recall of information associated with analogy-irrelevant relations. The current experiments apply the retrieval-induced forgetting framework to investigate the potential role of such inhibitory processes in analogical reasoning. Participants studied verbal analogies in A-B :: C-D form. Then, half of the A-B pairs from the study phase appeared in verbal analogy problems but with a new C term (A-B :: C-?), and half the items did not appear in verbal analogy problems. A final recall test was then administered for all the original analogies. When the new C term in the analogical reasoning phase conveyed a new relation that was inconsistent with the original relation, reduced recall for items appearing in analogies was observed (Experiment 1). However, when the new C term conveyed a relation that was consistent with the original relation, no forgetting effect was observed (Experiment 1). This forgetting effect occurred even when a hint of the original relation was provided at final recall (Experiment 2). These results indicate that reasoning about analogies may involve inhibitory processes that help reduce competition among competing relations. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2023 APA, all rights reserved).

When is literal meaning inhibited? Evidence from nonsense in the metaphor-induced lexical forgetting paradigm.

A common feature of metaphoric language processing is a conflict between literal and figurative aspects of meaning. A consequence of this is the need to select the most appropriate meaning among competing associates when we encounter such phrases. The goal of the present experiments was to adapt the "impossible" retrieval approach of previous retrieval-induced and problem-solving-induced forgetting (RIF; PSIF) studies to test for the use of inhibitory mechanisms during metaphor comprehension. To achieve this goal, a series of 3 studies assessed forgetting following the processing of nonsense metaphors that were unlikely to lead to viable interpretations within a short period of time (Jealousy is a barn). In the first 2 experiments, processing nonsense metaphors led to reduced recall for previously studied literal associates. In a 3rd study, processing nonsense metaphors led to longer recognition latencies for literal associates on a cue-independent task. In contrast, no evidence of forgetting was seen because of the processing of familiar metaphors in any study. Because participants are unlikely to reach a viable interpretation of these nonsense metaphors, and because results were similar using recall and cue-independent recognition measures, these results provide novel support for an inhibitory account for this forgetting effect over a blocking or cue-based interference account. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2019 APA, all rights reserved).

Medical Physics: Quality and Safety in the Cloud.

Science and technology have outpaced our human ability to process and analyze the myriad data systems that extend throughout an enterprise of health care networks. Medical physicists must learn to work collaboratively with computer programmers, data scientists, administrators, and health care providers in the data-rich environment of modern health care, embracing and practicing a new discipline: cloud-based medical physics. This article addresses four distinct topics: (1) Evolution of health care systems, networks and electronic medical records (EMR); (2) Evolution of medical physics with scientific discoveries and technological advancements; (3) Evolution of information technology including; metadata, enterprise and the cloud; and (4) Medical physics enterprise: adaptive approach to quality and safety for the 21st Century.

Forgetting the literal: The role of inhibition in metaphor comprehension.

In order for a person to comprehend metaphoric expressions, do metaphor-irrelevant aspects of literal information need to be inhibited? Previous research using sentence-verification paradigms has found that literal associates take longer to process after reading metaphorical sentences; however, it is problematic to infer inhibition from this research. Moreover, previous work has not distinguished between familiar and novel metaphor processing. To test more directly for when inhibition may be required during metaphor processing, we performed 3 experiments using a metaphor-induced lexical forgetting paradigm. Participants initially learned word pairs where the cues were potential metaphoric vehicles and the targets were literal associates (e.g., SHARK­swim). Then, participants read half the vehicles as part of metaphorical sentences, which they interpreted (The lawyer for the defense is a shark). Subsequent forgetting of the literal associates was greater when vehicles had appeared in metaphorical sentences (Experiment 1) and was observed for both familiar and novel metaphors when participants were instructed to interpret the metaphors (Experiment 2) but was observed for only novel metaphors when participants were instructed to simply read the metaphors (Experiment 3). These results suggest that forgetting occurs as a result of inhibitory mechanisms that are engaged to alter activation of irrelevant literal information during metaphor processing, and that these mechanisms are most relevant for the processing demands associated with novel metaphors.

Baseball fans don't like lumpy batters: Influence of domain knowledge on the access of subordinate meanings.

Two experiments investigated the effects of domain knowledge on the resolution of ambiguous words with dominant meanings related to baseball. When placed in a sentence context that strongly biased toward the non-baseball meaning (positive evidence), or excluded the baseball meaning (negative evidence), baseball experts had more difficulty than non-experts resolving the ambiguity. Sentence contexts containing positive evidence supported earlier resolution than did the negative evidence condition for both experts and non-experts. These experiments extend prior findings, and can be seen as support for the reordered access model of lexical access, where both prior knowledge and discourse context influence the availability of word meanings.