The Mental Models Training App: Enhancing verbal reasoning through a cognitive training mobile application.

Introduction: Reasoning is a complex form of human cognition whose nature has long been debated. While a number of neurocognitive mechanisms for deductive reasoning have been offered, one of the most prominent accounts is Mental Model Theory (MMT). According to MMT, humans are able to manipulate and represent information for reasoning and problem solving by leveraging the brain's evolved visuospatial resources. Thus, when solving deductive reasoning problems, reasoners build "mental models" of the essential pieces of information conveyed in the premises, with their relations to each other represented spatially-even when the information contained within a reasoning problem is not intrinsically spatial. Crucially, taking a spatially-based approach, such as building mental models, supports higher accuracy on deductive reasoning problems. However, no study has empirically tested whether explicitly training this mental modeling ability leads to improved deductive reasoning performance. Method: Therefore, we designed the Mental Models Training App, a cognitive training mobile application which requires participants to complete increasingly difficult reasoning problems while using an external mental modeling tool. In this preregistered study (https://osf.io/4b7kn), we conducted a between-subjects experiment (N = 301) which compared the Mental Models Training App to 3 distinct control conditions in order to examine which specific components (if any) of the training were causally responsible for improved reasoning performance. Results: Results demonstrate that, when compared to a passive control condition, the Mental Models Training App led to improvements in adults' verbal deductive reasoning performance both during and after the training intervention. However, contrary to our preregistered hypotheses, the training-induced improvements were not significantly larger than the effects of the active control conditions-one which included adaptive practice of the reasoning problems, and one which included adaptive practice as well as a spatial alphabetization control task. Discussion: Therefore, while the present results demonstrate the ability of the Mental Models Training App to enhance verbal deductive reasoning, they do not support the hypothesis that directly training participants mental modeling ability yields improved performance beyond the effects of adaptive practice of reasoning. Future research should examine the long-term effects of repeated usage of the Mental Models Training App, as well as transfer effects to other forms of reasoning. Finally, we present the Mental Models Training App as a free mobile application available on the Apple App store (https://apps.apple.com/us/app/mental-models-training/id1664939931), in the hope that this translational research may be utilized by the general public to improve their reasoning ability.

Transfer from spatial education to verbal reasoning and prediction of transfer from learning-related neural change.

Current debate surrounds the promise of neuroscience for education, including whether learning-related neural changes can predict learning transfer better than traditional performance-based learning assessments. Longstanding debate in philosophy and psychology concerns the proposition that spatial processes underlie seemingly nonspatial/verbal reasoning (mental model theory). If so, education that fosters spatial cognition might improve verbal reasoning. Here, in a quasi-experimental design in real-world STEM classrooms, a curriculum devised to foster spatial cognition yielded transfer to improved verbal reasoning. Further indicating a spatial basis for verbal transfer, students' spatial cognition gains predicted and mediated their reasoning improvement. Longitudinal fMRI detected learning-related changes in neural activity, connectivity, and representational similarity in spatial cognition-implicated regions. Neural changes predicted and mediated learning transfer. Ensemble modeling demonstrated better prediction of transfer from neural change than from traditional measures (tests and grades). Results support in-school "spatial education" and suggest that neural change can inform future development of transferable curricula.

Dynamic development of intuitions and explicit knowledge during implicit learning.

Implicit learning refers to learning without conscious awareness of the content acquired. Theoretical frameworks of human cognition suggest that intuitions develop based on incomplete perceptions of regularity during implicit learning and, in turn, lead to the development of more explicit, consciously-accessible knowledge. Surprisingly, however, this putative information processing pathway (i.e., implicit learning ➔ intuition ➔ explicit knowledge) has yet to be empirically demonstrated. The present study investigated the relationship between implicit learning, intuitions, and explicit knowledge using a modified Serial Reaction Time Task. Results indicate that intuitions of implicitly-learned patterns emerge prior to the development of explicit knowledge. Moreover, intuition timing and accuracy were significantly associated with accuracy of explicit reports. We did not, however, find that stronger implicit learners developed more accurate intuitions. Our findings suggest a crucial role of intuition in the formation of explicit knowledge from implicit learning.

Analogical mapping across sensory modalities and evidence for a general analogy factor.

Analogy is a central component of human cognition. Analogical "mapping" of similarities between pieces of information present in our experiences supports cognitive and social development, classroom learning, and creative insights and innovation. To date, analogical mapping has primarily been studied within separate modalities of information (e.g., verbal analogies between words, visuo-spatial analogies between objects). However, human experience, in development and adulthood, includes highly variegated information (e.g., words, sounds, objects) received via multiple sensory and information-processing pathways (e.g., visual vs. auditory pathways). Whereas cross-modal correspondences (e.g., between pitch and height) have been observed, the correspondences were between individual items, rather than between relations. Thus, analogical mapping (characterized by second-order relations between relations) has not been directly tested as a basis for cross-modal correspondence. Here, we devised novel cross-modality analogical stimuli (lines-to-sounds, lines-to-words, words-to-sounds) that explicated second-order comparisons between relations. In four samples across three studies-participants demonstrated well-above-chance identification of cross-modal second-order relations, providing robust evidence of analogy across modalities. Further, performance across all analogy types was explained by a single factor, indicating a modality-general analogical ability (i.e., an "analo-g" factor). Analo-g explained performance over-and-above fluid intelligence as well as verbal and spatial abilities, though a stronger relationship to verbal than visuo-spatial ability emerged, consistent with verbal/semantic contributions to analogy. The present data suggests novel questions about our ability to find/learn second-order relations among the diverse information sources that populate human experience, and about cross-modal human and AI analogical mapping in developmental, educational, and creative contexts.

What Makes Mental Modeling Difficult? Normative Data for the Multidimensional Relational Reasoning Task.

Relational reasoning is a complex form of human cognition involving the evaluation of relations between mental representations of information. Prior studies have modified stimulus properties of relational reasoning problems and examined differences in difficulty between different problem types. While subsets of these stimulus properties have been addressed in separate studies, there has not been a comprehensive study, to our knowledge, which investigates all of these properties in the same set of stimuli. This investigative gap has resulted in different findings across studies which vary in task design, making it challenging to determine what stimulus properties make relational reasoning-and the putative formation of mental models underlying reasoning-difficult. In this article, we present the Multidimensional Relational Reasoning Task (MRRT), a task which systematically varied an array of stimulus properties within a single set of relational reasoning problems. Using a mixed-effects framework, we demonstrate that reasoning problems containing a greater number of the premises as well as multidimensional relations led to greater task difficulty. The MRRT has been made publicly available for use in future research, along with normative data regarding the relative difficulty of each problem.

Functional Realignment of Frontoparietal Subnetworks during Divergent Creative Thinking.

Creative cognition has been consistently associated with functional connectivity between frontoparietal control and default networks. However, recent research identified distinct connectivity dynamics for subnetworks within the larger frontoparietal system-one subnetwork (FPCNa) shows positive coupling with the default network and another subnetwork (FPCNb) shows negative default coupling-raising questions about how these networks interact during creative cognition. Here we examine frontoparietal subnetwork functional connectivity in a large sample of participants (n = 171) who completed a divergent creative thinking task and a resting-state scan during fMRI. We replicated recent findings on functional connectivity of frontoparietal subnetworks at rest: FPCNa positively correlated with the default network and FPCNb negatively correlated with the default network. Critically, we found that divergent thinking evoked functional connectivity between both frontoparietal subnetworks and the default network, but in different ways. Using community detection, we found that FPCNa regions showed greater coassignment to a default network community. However, FPCNb showed overall stronger functional connectivity with the default network-reflecting a reversal of negative connectivity at rest-and the strength of FPCNb-default network connectivity correlated with individual creative ability. These findings provide novel evidence of a behavioral benefit to the cooperation of typically anticorrelated brain networks.

Spatial activity participation in childhood and adolescence: consistency and relations to spatial thinking in adolescence.

BACKGROUND: Prior research has revealed positive effects of spatial activity participation (e.g., playing with blocks, sports) on current and future spatial skills. However, research has not examined the degree to which spatial activity participation remains stable over time, and little is known about how participating in spatial activities at multiple points in development impacts spatial thinking. In this study, adolescents completed measures of spatial thinking and questionnaires assessing their current and previous participation in spatial activities. RESULTS: Participation in childhood spatial activities predicted adolescent spatial activity participation, and the relation was stronger for females than for males. Adolescents' current participation in spatial activities predicted spatial thinking skills, whereas participation in childhood spatial activities predicted adolescents' spatial habits of mind, even when accounting for factors such as gender and academic performance. No cumulative benefit was incurred due to participating in spatial activities in both childhood and adolescence, and a lack of spatial activities in childhood was not made up for by later spatial activity participation. CONCLUSIONS: These findings reveal a consistently positive relationship in spatial activity participation between childhood and adolescence. Results highlight the importance of participating in spatial activities during childhood, and underscore the differential impact that participation in spatial activities during childhood versus adolescence has on different facets of adolescents' spatial thinking. Implications for the timing of interventions is discussed.

Implicit pattern learning predicts individual differences in belief in God in the United States and Afghanistan.

Most humans believe in a god, but many do not. Differences in belief have profound societal impacts. Anthropological accounts implicate bottom-up perceptual processes in shaping religious belief, suggesting that individual differences in these processes may help explain variation in belief. Here, in findings replicated across socio-religiously disparate samples studied in the U.S. and Afghanistan, implicit learning of patterns/order within visuospatial sequences (IL-pat) in a strongly bottom-up paradigm predict 1) stronger belief in an intervening/ordering god, and 2) increased strength-of-belief from childhood to adulthood, controlling for explicit learning and parental belief. Consistent with research implicating IL-pat as a basis of intuition, and intuition as a basis of belief, mediation models support a hypothesized effect pathway whereby IL-pat leads to intuitions of order which, in turn, lead to belief in ordering gods. The universality and variability of human IL-pat may thus contribute to the global presence and variability of religious belief.

Using Transcranial Direct Current Stimulation to Enhance Creative Cognition: Interactions between Task, Polarity, and Stimulation Site.

Creative cognition is frequently described as involving two primary processes, idea generation and idea selection. A growing body of research has used transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS) to examine the neural mechanisms implicated in each of these processes. This literature has yielded a diverse set of findings that vary depending on the location and type (anodal, cathodal, or both) of electrical stimulation employed, as well as the task's reliance on idea generation or idea selection. As a result, understanding the interactions between stimulation site, polarity and task demands is required to evaluate the potential of tDCS to enhance creative performance. Here, we review tDCS designs that have elicited reliable and dissociable enhancements for creative cognition. Cathodal stimulation over the left inferior frontotemporal cortex has been associated with improvements on tasks that rely primarily on idea generation, whereas anodal tDCS over left dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (DLPFC) and frontopolar cortex has been shown to augment performance on tasks that impose high demands on creative idea selection. These results highlight the functional selectivity of tDCS for different components of creative thinking and confirm the dissociable contributions of left dorsal and inferior lateral frontotemporal cortex for different creativity tasks. We discuss promising avenues for future research that can advance our understanding of the effectiveness of tDCS as a method to enhance creative cognition.

Thinking Cap Plus Thinking Zap: tDCS of Frontopolar Cortex Improves Creative Analogical Reasoning and Facilitates Conscious Augmentation of State Creativity in Verb Generation.

Recent neuroimaging evidence indicates neural mechanisms that support transient improvements in creative performance (augmented state creativity) in response to cognitive interventions (creativity cueing). Separately, neural interventions via tDCS show encouraging potential for modulating neuronal function during creative performance. If cognitive and neural interventions are separately effective, can they be combined? Does state creativity augmentation represent "real" creativity, or do interventions simply yield divergence by diminishing meaningfulness/appropriateness? Can augmenting state creativity bolster creative reasoning that supports innovation, particularly analogical reasoning? To address these questions, we combined tDCS with creativity cueing. Testing a regionally specific hypothesis from neuroimaging, high-definition tDCS-targeted frontopolar cortex activity recently shown to predict state creativity augmentation. In a novel analogy finding task, participants under tDCS formulated substantially more creative analogical connections in a large matrix search space (creativity indexed via latent semantic analysis). Critically, increased analogical creativity was not due to diminished accuracy in discerning valid analogies, indicating "real" creativity rather than inappropriate divergence. A simpler relational creativity paradigm (modified verb generation) revealed a tDCS-by-cue interaction; tDCS further enhanced creativity cue-related increases in semantic distance. Findings point to the potential of noninvasive neuromodulation to enhance creative relational cognition, including augmentation of the deliberate effort to formulate connections between distant concepts.

Conscious Augmentation of Creative State Enhances "Real" Creativity in Open-Ended Analogical Reasoning.

Humans have an impressive ability to augment their creative state (i.e., to consciously try and succeed at thinking more creatively). Though this "thinking cap" phenomenon is commonly experienced, the range of its potential has not been fully explored by creativity research, which has often focused instead on creativity as a trait. A key question concerns the extent to which conscious augmentation of state creativity can improve creative reasoning. Although artistic creativity is also of great interest, it is creative reasoning that frequently leads to innovative advances in science and industry. Here, we studied state creativity in analogical reasoning, a form of relational reasoning that spans the conceptual divide between intelligence and creativity and is a core mechanism for creative innovation. Participants performed a novel Analogy Finding Task paradigm in which they sought valid analogical connections in a matrix of word-pairs. An explicit creativity cue elicited formation of substantially more creative analogical connections (measured via latent semantic analysis). Critically, the increase in creative analogy formation was not due to a generally more liberal criterion for analogy formation (that is, it appeared to reflect "real" creativity rather than divergence at the expense of appropriateness). The use of an online sample provided evidence that state creativity augmentation can be successfully elicited by remote cuing in an online environment. Analysis of an intelligence measure provided preliminary indication that the influential "threshold hypothesis," which has been proposed to characterize the relationship between intelligence and trait creativity, may be extensible to the new domain of state creativity.