The role of alpha oscillations in free- and goal-directed semantic associations.

Alpha oscillations are known to play a central role in several higher-order cognitive functions, especially selective attention, working memory, semantic memory, and creative thinking. Nonetheless, we still know very little about the role of alpha in the generation of more remote semantic associations, which is key to creative and semantic cognition. Furthermore, it remains unclear how these oscillations are shaped by the intention to "be creative," which is the case in most creativity tasks. We aimed to address these gaps in two experiments. In Experiment 1, we compared alpha oscillatory activity (using a method which distinguishes genuine oscillatory activity from transient events) during the generation of free associations which were more vs. less distant from a given concept. In Experiment 2, we replicated these findings and also compared alpha oscillatory activity when people were generating free associations versus associations with the instruction to be creative (i.e. goal-directed). We found that alpha was consistently higher during the generation of more distant semantic associations, in both experiments. This effect was widespread, involving areas in both left and right hemispheres. Importantly, the instruction to be creative seems to increase alpha phase synchronisation from left to right temporal brain areas, suggesting that intention to be creative changed the flux of information in the brain, likely reflecting an increase in top-down control of semantic search processes. We conclude that goal-directed generation of remote associations relies on top-down mechanisms compared to when associations are freely generated.

Predicting creative behavior using resting-state electroencephalography.

Neuroscience research has shown that specific brain patterns can relate to creativity during multiple tasks but also at rest. Nevertheless, the electrophysiological correlates of a highly creative brain remain largely unexplored. This study aims to uncover resting-state networks related to creative behavior using high-density electroencephalography (HD-EEG) and to test whether the strength of functional connectivity within these networks could predict individual creativity in novel subjects. We acquired resting state HD-EEG data from 90 healthy participants who completed a creative behavior inventory. We then employed connectome-based predictive modeling; a machine-learning technique that predicts behavioral measures from brain connectivity features. Using a support vector regression, our results reveal functional connectivity patterns related to high and low creativity, in the gamma frequency band (30-45 Hz). In leave-one-out cross-validation, the combined model of high and low networks predicts individual creativity with very good accuracy (r = 0.36, p = 0.00045). Furthermore, the model's predictive power is established through external validation on an independent dataset (N = 41), showing a statistically significant correlation between observed and predicted creativity scores (r = 0.35, p = 0.02). These findings reveal large-scale networks that could predict creative behavior at rest, providing a crucial foundation for developing HD-EEG-network-based markers of creativity.

Care resignification in the pandemic context. / A ressignificação do cuidado no contexto de pandemia.

This essay discusses the care process of health professionals in the context of COVID-19 from the perspectives of psychoanalysis, under the prism of Donald Winnicott's transitional space, and of collective health, under the prism of the practical wisdom of José Ricardo Ayres, the micropolitics of live work in action by Emmerson Merhy, and prudent care by Ruben Mattos. It suggests elaborating a care perspective to propose a possible resignification of illness in a pandemic, where health is marked with calamity, health catastrophe, and suffering and anguish, whether in the body or subjectively. In this way, understanding the manifestation of care by health professionals in a pandemic context brought about with narcissistic and heroic meanings and feelings of impotence and helplessness contributes to elaborating a creative conception of care. We conclude that the perspective of expanded care favors the creative possibility of new productions of meaning and support for professionals, resignifying their life experiences through love, creativity, practical wisdom, prudent care, live work in action, and motor imaginary.

Esse ensaio discute o processo de cuidado de profissionais de saúde no contexto da COVID-19 a partir das perspectivas da psicanálise, sob o prisma do espaço transicional de Donald Winnicott, e da saúde coletiva, sob o prisma da sabedoria prática de José Ricardo Ayres, da micropolítica do trabalho vivo em ato de Emmerson Merhy, e do cuidado prudente de Ruben Mattos. Propõe a elaboração de uma perspectiva de cuidado que se apresenta enquanto proposta de ressignificação possível ao adoecimento no contexto de pandemia, onde a saúde foi marcada com sentidos de calamidade e catástrofe sanitária, e expressões de sofrimento e angústia, no corpo e/ou mesmo subjetivamente. Desse modo, uma compreensão sobre a manifestação do cuidado do profissional de saúde, no contexto de pandemia, trazido com sentidos narcísicos e heroicos, e com sentidos de impotência e desamparo, contribui para a elaboração de uma concepção criativa do cuidado. Conclui-se que a perspectiva de um cuidado ampliado favorece a possibilidade criativa de novas produções de sentido e de sustentação para os profissionais, ressignificando suas experiências de vida, através do amor, da criatividade, da sabedoria prática, do cuidado prudente, do trabalho vivo em ato e do imaginário motor.

How to Improve Grit Among Deaf or Hard of Hearing Students: The Effect of Thinking Style.

The researchers examined the associations between thinking styles and grit. A cross-sectional design was adopted, with two weeks of data collection. The Thinking Styles Inventory-Revised II and the Grit Scale were administered to 365 signing deaf or hard-of-hearing (DHH) Arts and Design students and 443 hearing university students in mainland China. CFA, MANOVA, hierarchical multiple regression analyses, and a multi-group analysis were executed for data analysis. DHH and hearing students with Type I styles (i.e., more creativity-generating, less structured, and cognitively more complex) had higher grit levels, with large effect sizes for the identified relationships. There were no differences in the relations for either group. The associations between thinking styles and grit may protect against psychological pressure and rehabilitation problems and enable university/school administrators, counselors, social workers, teachers, parents, and students to enhance the grit of students who are deaf or hard of hearing.

Generative AI enhances individual creativity but reduces the collective diversity of novel content.

Creativity is core to being human. Generative artificial intelligence (AI)-including powerful large language models (LLMs)-holds promise for humans to be more creative by offering new ideas, or less creative by anchoring on generative AI ideas. We study the causal impact of generative AI ideas on the production of short stories in an online experiment where some writers obtained story ideas from an LLM. We find that access to generative AI ideas causes stories to be evaluated as more creative, better written, and more enjoyable, especially among less creative writers. However, generative AI-enabled stories are more similar to each other than stories by humans alone. These results point to an increase in individual creativity at the risk of losing collective novelty. This dynamic resembles a social dilemma: With generative AI, writers are individually better off, but collectively a narrower scope of novel content is produced. Our results have implications for researchers, policy-makers, and practitioners interested in bolstering creativity.

Creative connections: the neural correlates of semantic relatedness are associated with creativity.

The associative theory of creativity proposes that creative ideas result from connecting remotely related concepts in memory. Previous research found that higher creative individuals exhibit a more flexible organization of semantic memory, generate more uncommon word associations, and judge remote concepts as more related. In this study (N = 93), we used fMRI to investigate brain regions involved in judging the relatedness of concepts that vary in their semantic distance, and how such neural involvement relates to individual differences in creativity. Brain regions where activity increased with semantic relatedness mainly overlapped with default, control, salience, semantic control, and multiple demand networks. The default and semantic control networks exhibited increased involvement when evaluating more remote associations. Finally, higher creative people, who provided higher relatedness judgements on average, exhibited lower activity in those regions, possibly reflecting higher neural efficiency. We discuss these findings in the context of the neurocognitive processing underlying creativity. Overall, our findings indicate that judging remote concepts as related reflects a cognitive mechanism underlying creativity and shed light on the neural correlates of this mechanism.

Computational gastronomy: capturing culinary creativity by making food computable.

Cooking, a quintessential creative pursuit, holds profound significance for individuals, communities, and civilizations. Food and cooking transcend mere sensory pleasure to influence nutrition and public health outcomes. Inextricably linked to culinary and cultural heritage, food systems play a pivotal role in sustainability and the survival of life on our planet. Computational Gastronomy is a novel approach for investigating food through a data-driven paradigm. It offers a systematic, rule-based understanding of culinary arts by scrutinizing recipes for taste, nutritional value, health implications, and environmental sustainability. Probing the art of cooking through the lens of computation will open up a new realm of possibilities for culinary creativity. Amidst the ongoing quest for imitating creativity through artificial intelligence, an interesting question would be, 'Can a machine think like a Chef?' Capturing the experience and creativity of a chef in an AI algorithm presents an exciting opportunity for generating a galaxy of hitherto unseen recipes with desirable culinary, flavor, nutrition, health, and carbon footprint profiles.

Impact of the quality and diversity of reference products on creative activities in online communities.

In creativity research, an important unresolved issue relates to identifying the kind of information an individual should be exposed to in order to be highly creative. We aimed to gain insights into this issue; we collected and statistically analyzed three datasets related to three large online communities (namely Cities: Skylines, SCP-wiki, and Archive of Our Own) engaged in mod development and novel writing to examine whether the quality and diversity of other people's products referred to have a positive effect on product generation. Our analysis revealed the following three findings: (1) the quality diversity of reference products generated by others has the most positive impact on the quality of generated products when it is neither high nor low, (2) the content diversity of reference products generated by others has a negative impact on the quality of generated products, and (3) the quality of reference products generated by others has a negative impact on the quality of generated products when it is extremely high. We conclude by discussing the implications of the findings for creativity research.

The relationship between challenge-hindrance stressors and innovative behavior among medical postgraduates in China: the mediation role of academic engagement and the moderating effect of relaxation.

This study investigated the relationship between challenge-hindrance stressors and innovative behavior of medical postgraduates in China, examining the mediating role of academic engagement and the moderating effect of relaxation. Drawing from a sample of 437 medical postgraduates from three Chinese universities, our findings revealed that challenge stressors positively correlated with innovative behavior, while the direct relationship between hindrance stressors and innovative behavior was not statistically significant. Furthermore, academic engagement mediated the relationship between two types of stressors and innovative behavior. Challenge stressors enhanced academic engagement, which in turn fostered innovative behavior. Conversely, hindrance stressors were found to diminish academic engagement, which in turn indirectly limited innovative behavior. Additionally, relaxation was identified as a moderating factor that helped mitigate the negative effects of hindrance stressors on academic engagement and indirectly on innovative behavior. These results suggested that academic engagement as a mechanism played a pivotal role in determining how different stressors influenced innovative behavior, underscoring the need for stress management, particularly through relaxation techniques, to maintain high levels of academic engagement and innovative behavior. This study offers practical insights for medical education policymakers and educators in China, emphasizing the importance of balancing stressors and incorporating relaxation practices to enhance the innovative capabilities of medical postgraduates in demanding academic environments.

The effect of creative drama education given to nursing students on mental health literacy levels: A randomized controlled study.

AIM: The aim of the present study was to determine the effect of education provided to nursing students on MHL levels. METHODS: The study had a randomized pre-test post-test parallel control group design. Fifty-six (n = 56) first-year nursing students. In this study, CONSORT flow diagram was applied. The data collection forms consist of a personal information form and Mental Health Literacy Scale. In the statistical analysis Wilcoxon signed-rank test, and Mann-Whitney U test were used. RESULTS: Creative drama education was found to be significantly more effective than classroom education in increasing scores on the mental health literacy scale, including sub-dimensions for awareness of mental disorders, ability to access information, and stigma in nursing students (p < 0.05). CONCLUSIONS: Classroom education and creative drama are effective in changing mental health literacy scales. It is recommended to spread the use of creative drama, which is one of the artistic and interactive educational techniques in nursing education.

Role of social media to improve job performance with mediating role of transactive memory capability and employee creativity.

The increased usage of social media in organizational settings has raised questions about its effect on job performance. This study explains the interplay between social media usage, transactive memory capability, employee creativity, and job performance within the Chinese organizational context. The rationale for this study stems from the need to understand how social media usage can enhance job performance through cognitive and creative processes within teams. On the basis of earlier literature, the survey questionnaire was designed to collect data and the survey included validated scales to measure these constructs. The data is collected from 816 employees in China via online resources like social media and emails and then Structural Equation Modeling is used for empirical analysis through AMOS software. The findings show the positive impact of social media on job performance while transactive memory capability and employee creativity mediates this relationship. These findings contribute to a better understanding of how social media can be leveraged to improve job performance. Practical implications highlight the importance of fostering transactive memory capability through social media platforms, facilitating employee creativity, and ultimately, bolstering job performance. Additionally, this study underscores the need for organizations to strategically harness the potential of social media as a catalyst for innovation and knowledge sharing, thus optimizing workforce performance in the digital era.

An EEG study on artistic and engineering mindsets in students in creative processes.

This study aims to take higher-education students as examples to understand and compare artistic and engineering mindsets in creative processes using EEG. Fifteen Master of Fine Arts (MFA) visual arts and fifteen Master of Engineering (MEng) design engineering students were recruited and asked to complete alternative uses tasks wearing an EEG headset. The results revealed that (1) the engineering-mindset students responded to creative ideas faster than artistic-mindset students. (2) Although in creative processes both artistic- and engineering-mindset students showed Theta, Alpha, and Beta wave activity, the active brain areas are slightly different. The active brain areas of artistic-mindset students in creative processes are mainly in the frontal and occipital lobes; while the whole brain (frontal, oriental, temporal, and occipital lobes) was active in creative processes of engineering-mindset students. (3) During the whole creative process, the brain active level of artistic-mindset students was higher than that of engineering-mindset students. The results of this study fills gaps in existing research where only active brain areas and band waves were compared between artistic- and engineering-mindset students in creative processes. For quick thinking in terms of fluency of generating creative ideas, engineering students have an advantage in comparison to those from the visual arts. Also, the study provided more evidence that mindset can affect the active levels of the brain areas. Finally, this study provides educators with more insights on how to stimulate students' creative ability.

Perceived overqualification as a double-edged sword for employee creativity: The mediating role of job crafting and work withdrawal behavior.

With the continuous development of education level and the downturn of economic situation, employment competition is intensifying, more and more high-quality talents appear, and the misfit between people and posts has become a common phenomenon. However, there is no consensus on the relationship between perceived overqualification and employee creativity. Based on the conservation of resource theory, this study reveals the micro mechanism and boundary conditions of the influence of excessive qualification on employee creativity. This study analyzed 487 valid samples obtained in three stages. The results show that: (1) Job crafting has a positive mediating effect on perceived overqualification and creativity, and the path of the two halves is positive; (2) Work withdrawal behavior plays a negative mediating role between the perceived overqualification and creativity. The path in the first half is positive, and the path in the second half is negative; (3) Organizational identity moderates the effect of perceived overqualification on job crafting and work withdrawal behavior. Specifically, the higher the sense of organizational identification, the stronger the positive effect of perceived overqualification on job crafting and the weaker the positive effect on work withdrawal behavior; (4) Organizational identification moderates the mediating role of job crafting and work withdrawal behavior in the relationship between overqualification and creativity. Specifically, the higher the organizational identity, the stronger the indirect positive effect of perceived overqualification on creativity through job crafting, and the weaker the indirect negative impact of perceived overqualification on creativity through work withdrawal behavior. The study conclusion deepens the research on the mechanism of the influence of the perceived overqualification on employees' work behavior, and provides practical enlightenment for the organization and management of employees with excess qualification.

Standing out: an atypical salience account of creativity.

Creativity often entails gaining a novel perspective, yet it remains uncertain how this is accomplished. Atypical salience processing may foster creative thinking by prioritizing putatively irrelevant information, thereby broadening the material accessible for idea generation and inhibiting attentional fixedness; in essence, motivating creative individuals to incorporate information that others overlook.

[Imagination at the source of creation, in healthcare as elsewhere]. / L'imagination aux sources de la création, dans le soin comme ailleurs.

This article proposes to show not only how imagination unfolds in the various fields of our human experience, but above all to account for the emergence of significant novelties. Or how the creative imagination gives birth to novel agentivities (be they works, beings, new ways of doing, acting and becoming) and engages us in a poetics of caring for the world.

The effect of expertise on the creation and evaluation of visual compositions in terms of creativity and beauty.

The identification of artistically creative individuals is an important matter in the fields of art, design, and psychology. One promising approach involves assessing a person's products rather than his or her personality or cognitive processes. However, the necessity of expert involvement in such evaluations is still debated. To investigate this issue, two experiments were conducted, each consisting of a production phase and an evaluation phase. In Experiment 1, participants were asked to compose a most beautiful picture, which was subsequently assessed in terms of beauty. Experiment 2 was analogous, but participants were asked to compose a most creative picture, which was then assessed in terms of creativity and beauty. The results revealed that expertise did not play a crucial role in the creation or evaluation of beauty. Both experts and non-experts largely agreed on what constitutes beauty. However, when it came to the production and assessment of creative pictures, experts had an advantage. They were the only group that was able to predict a person's creativity based on the evaluation of his or her product.

Experiences of Adult Play.

IMPORTANCE: Play has been viewed as a critical occupation supporting health since the founding of occupational therapy, but the complexity of play presents challenges to scholars who study adults. Researchers in occupational science and occupational therapy often address experiential qualities of occupations, including those considered to be play. However, the literature lacks clear descriptions of what constitutes adult play as well as the experiences of adults during preferred activities. OBJECTIVE: To contribute to the body of knowledge on the wide range of preferred activities adults in the United States pursue and may perceive as play experiences. We refer to these activities as adult play because they contain experiential qualities of play described in key play literature. DESIGN: Cross-sectional survey study. SETTING: A 31-item survey, the Daily Occupational Experience Survey-revised (DOESr), was uploaded to Qualtrics for data collection using snowball sampling. The online survey link was distributed to participants aged 18-64 years. PARTICIPANTS: The survey was completed by 491 participants. Exploratory factor analysis was used to extract the most prevalent patterns of play experiences reported. Internal consistency and content validity were also examined. RESULTS: The factor analysis yielded an optimal solution of five factors representing distinct patterns of adult play experiences: Creativity-Adventure, Restoration, Deep Engagement, Ludos, and Mastery. CONCLUSIONS AND RELEVANCE: The five factors identified by the DOESr represent distinct patterns of adult play experiences. The DOESr demonstrated acceptable internal consistency for three of the five factors as well as for the overall tool. Plain-Language Summary: Previous research on adult occupations has not addressed the array of experiences that adults seek or enjoy while engaging in play. This study identified five patterns of adult play experiences. Understanding these patterns may assist occupational therapy practitioners when tailoring clients' play experiences to promote optimal health and well-being.