DOCSLIB.ORG

Relating Conceptual Structure with Flexible Concept Use

Total Page：16

File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb

Download full-text PDF Read full-text
Relating Conceptual Structure with Flexible Concept Use University of Pennsylvania ScholarlyCommons Publicly Accessible Penn Dissertations 2019 Relating Conceptual Structure With Flexible Concept Use Sarah Solomon University of Pennsylvania, [email protected] Follow this and additional works at: https://repository.upenn.edu/edissertations Part of the Cognitive Psychology Commons, and the Neuroscience and Neurobiology Commons Recommended Citation Solomon, Sarah, "Relating Conceptual Structure With Flexible Concept Use" (2019). Publicly Accessible Penn Dissertations. 3414. https://repository.upenn.edu/edissertations/3414 This paper is posted at ScholarlyCommons. https://repository.upenn.edu/edissertations/3414 For more information, please contact [email protected]. Relating Conceptual Structure With Flexible Concept Use Abstract Our mental words are populated with concepts — rich representations of knowledge about things in the world (e.g., diamonds, pumpkins). In language, words are used to refer to these concepts (e.g., “diamond”, “pumpkin”) and to communicate with others. This is quite impressive given that a word does not activate the same information each time it is used: conceptual information is flexibly activated based on the context. For example, the phrases “raw diamond”, “baseball diamond”, and “diamond eyes” evoke different kinds of diamond information. This flexible concept use is not only exemplified in creative language, but in creative thought and natural language more generally. The goal of this thesis was to leverage methods in cognitive neuroscience, network science, and computational modeling to explore the kinds of conceptual structure that can support this flexible concept use. In the first study (Chapter 2) I capture the global structure of concepts in novel feature-based networks, and show that aspects of this network structure relate to text-based and empirical measures of flexible concept use. I subsequently narrow in on the local representations of conceptual features that relate to flexible concept use yb observing what happens when concepts combine. In one fMRI study (Chapter 3) I show that feature uncertainty predicts the extent to which features (e.g., green, salty) are flexibly modulated in the brain during comprehension of adjective-noun combinations (e.g., “green pumpkin”, “salty cookie”). In follow-up studies (Chapter 4) I further reveal the relationship between feature uncertainty and flexible eaturf e activations in combined concepts. In combinations that modify conceptual brightness (e.g., “dark diamond”, “light night”), an explicit behavioral measure of conceptual feature modulation is predicted by feature uncertainty as well as by a related predictive combinatorial Bayesian model. An associated fMRI study reveals that flexible eaturf e modulation and feature uncertainty relate to responses in left inferior frontal gyrus (LIFG) and left anterior temporal lobe (LATL), suggesting roles for these regions in flexible concept activation. Taken together, this work reveals relationships between conceptual structure and flexible concept use in behavior and in the brain. Degree Type Dissertation Degree Name Doctor of Philosophy (PhD) Graduate Group Psychology First Advisor Sharon Thompson-Schill Keywords conceptual combination, conceptual knowledge, fMRI, language, network science, semantic memory Subject Categories Cognitive Psychology | Neuroscience and Neurobiology | Psychology This dissertation is available at ScholarlyCommons: https://repository.upenn.edu/edissertations/3414 RELATING CONCEPTUAL STRUCTURE WITH FLEXIBLE CONCEPT USE Sarah Solomon A DISSERTATION in Psychology Presented to the Faculties of the University of Pennsylvania in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy 2019 Supervisor of Dissertation Graduate Group Chairperson Dr. Sharon Thompson-Schill Dr. Sara Jaffee Christopher H. Browne Distinguished Professor of Psychology Professor of Psychology Dissertation Committee: Sharon Thompson-Schill, Christopher H. Browne Distinguished Professor of Psychology Russell Epstein, Professor of Psychology Lyle Ungar, Professor of Computer and Information Science ACKNOWLEDGMENTS Many people, animals, and places supported me while I completed the work in this dissertation and I would like to extend my gratitude to all of them. I first want to thank my advisor, Dr. Sharon Thompson-Schill, for the many years of mentorship. I benefited immensely from your analytical and creative insights, which gave me new ways to think about and solve problems. Thank you for letting me pursue my risky or offbeat ideas — some of which are now contained in this thesis. I am also appreciative of your culinary mentorship which introduced me to foods that I may not have tried otherwise. My research output and research experience would not be what it is without the contribution of past and current members of the Thompson-Schill lab. The fresh ideas, constructive criticism, and professional and personal companionship you all provided was immensely valuable. Thank you to everyone who put up with me popping up at your desks unexpectedly to discuss the scientific or non-scientific crisis du jour. I am also thankful for the larger communities at Penn that have supported me at various points and in various ways. I learned a lot from seminars and workshops hosted by the Center for Cognitive Neuroscience, Institute for Research in Cognitive Science, Computational Neuroscience Initiative, MindCORE, the NSF IGERT Traineeship in Complex Scene Perception, and the Psychology and Neuroscience departments. Thank you to individual faculty — especially committee members Dr. Russell Epstein and Dr. Lyle Ungar — for your valuable insights and feedback. And a big thank you to the fellow graduate students in the Psychology department who made this experience what it was (#gradschool). I am also grateful for all of the Philadelphia cafés, restaurants, and bars in which I completed much of this work. Thank you for the space, the coffee, the delicious snacks, and the wine. Thank you to Samantha (i.e., Sammies, Samsies, Sammers) the cat — you were with me for all of the highs and all of the lows. You are the cutest thing in the world. And of course, thank you to my family for your ever-flowing support. ii ABSTRACT RELATING CONCEPTUAL STRUCTURE WITH FLEXIBLE CONCEPT USE Sarah Solomon Sharon Thompson-Schill Our mental words are populated with concepts — rich representations of knowledge about things in the world (e.g., diamonds, pumpkins). In language, words are used to refer to these concepts (e.g., “diamond”, “pumpkin”) and to communicate with others. This is quite impressive given that a word does not activate the same information each time it is used: conceptual information is flexibly activated based on the context. For example, the phrases “raw diamond”, “baseball diamond”, and “diamond eyes” evoke different kinds of diamond information. This flexible concept use is not only exemplified in creative language, but in creative thought and natural language more generally. The goal of this thesis was to leverage methods in cognitive neuroscience, network science, and computational modeling to explore the kinds of conceptual structure that can support this flexible concept use. In the first study (Chapter 2) I capture the global structure of concepts in novel feature-based networks, and show that aspects of this network structure relate to text-based and empirical measures of flexible concept use. I subsequently narrow in on the local representations of conceptual features that relate to flexible concept use by observing what happens when concepts combine. In one fMRI study (Chapter 3) I show that feature uncertainty predicts the extent to which features (e.g., green, salty) are flexibly modulated in the brain during comprehension of adjective-noun combinations (e.g., “green pumpkin”, “salty cookie”). In follow-up studies (Chapter 4) I further reveal the relationship between feature uncertainty and flexible feature activations in combined concepts. In combinations that modify conceptual brightness (e.g., “dark diamond”, “light night”), an explicit behavioral measure of conceptual feature modulation is predicted by feature uncertainty as well as by a related predictive combinatorial Bayesian model. An associated fMRI study reveals that flexible feature modulation and feature uncertainty relate to responses in left inferior frontal gyrus (LIFG) and left anterior temporal lobe (LATL), suggesting roles for these regions in flexible concept activation. Taken together, this work reveals relationships between conceptual structure and flexible concept use in behavior and in the brain. iii TABLE OF CONTENTS ACKNOWLEDGMENT ........................................................................................... II ABSTRACT ............................................................................................................. III LIST OF TABLES ................................................................................................. VII LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS ............................................................................... VIII 1: GENERAL INTRODUCTION ............................................................................ 1 1.1 Conceptual compositionality ......................................................................................... 2 1.1.1 Neural models ............................................................................................................. 2 1.1.2 Cognitive models .......................................................................................................
Load more

Recommended publications
  • Divergent Thinking in a Neurodynamical Model of Ideation
    Divergent Thinking in a Neurodynamical Model of Ideation Mei Mei and Ali A. Minai, Senior Member, IEEE Abstract—Divergent thinking refers to a style of thinking that be able to make more unusual conceptual combinations than ranges across a broad range of concepts, and is considered to the former. be a core enabler of creativity. Thinking is often modeled as a Conceptual associations – or, more accurately, word asso- process of conceptual combination, and creative ideas are seen as those using unconventional combinations of concepts. Since ciations – have been studied extensively through the exper- conceptual combination is fundamentally an associative process, imental determination of association norms [7] or analysis it has been proposed that creative thinking reflects stronger than of associations using dictionaries and thesauri [8], which expected associations between normally remote associates in the provide valuable information on objective patterns of associ- mind of the thinker. We recently proposed a neurodynamical ation in a reference populatio, e.g., modern English speakers. model called Itinerant Dynamics with Emergent Attractors (IDEA) to explore the process by which ideas can emerge in Associative recall in individual subjects has been studied an associative memory system through conceptual combination. through priming and cued recall experiments [9], [10], [11], In this paper we study how the functional dynamics of this [7], and recently through experiments designed to explicitly model changes when its associative weights are changed to make map the patterns of association in individuals [12], [13]. remote associations stronger. We apply the model to data from Mednick’s hypothesis has also been evaluated experimentally four sets of papers from previous IJCNN meetings.
    [Show full text]
  • Explanation and Cognition Edited by Frank C
    Explanation and Cognition edited by Frank C. Keil and Robert A. Wilson © 2000 Massachusetts Institute of Technology All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in any form by any electronic or mechanical means (including photocopying, recording, or informa- tion storage and retrieval) without permission in writing from the publisher. This book was set in Bembo by Best-set Typesetter Ltd., Hong Kong and was printed and bound in the United States of America. Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Explanation and cognition / edited by Frank C. Keil and Robert A. Wilson. p. cm. “A Bradford book.” Includes bibliographical references and index. ISBN 0-262-11249-3 (alk. paper) 1. Cognition. 2. Explanation. I. Keil, Frank C., 1952– II. Wilson, Robert A. (Robert Andrew) BF311 .E886 2000 153—dc21 99-087946 1 Explaining Explanation Frank C. Keil and Robert A. Wilson 1.1 The Ubiquity and Uniqueness of Explanation It is not a particularly hard thing to want or seek explanations. In fact, explanations seem to be a large and natural part of our cognitive lives. Children ask why and how questions very early in development and seem genuinely to want some sort of answer, despite our often being poorly equipped to provide them at the appropriate level of sophistication and detail.We seek and receive explanations in every sphere of our adult lives, whether it be to understand why a friendship has foundered, why a car will not start, or why ice expands when it freezes. Moreover, correctly or incorrectly, most of the time we think we know when we have or have not received a good explanation.
    [Show full text]
  • Conceptual Combination with PUNC
    Conceptual Combination with PUNC Dermot Lynott, Georgios Tagalakis and Mark T. Keane Department of Computer Science, University College Dublin, National University of Ireland Abstract. Noun-noun compounds play a key role in the growth of language. In this article we present a system for Producing and Understanding Noun-Noun Com- pounds (PUNC). PUNC is based on the Constraint theory of conceptual combination and the C3 model. The new model incorporates the primary constraints of the Con- straint theory in an integrated fashion, creating a cognitively plausible mechanism of interpreting noun-noun phrases. It also tries to overcome algorithmic limitations of the C3 model in being more efficient in its computational complexity, and deal with a wider span of empirical phenomena, such as dimensions of word familiarity. We detail the model, including knowledge representation and interpretation pro- duction mechanisms. We show that by integrating the constraints of the Constraint theory of conceptual combination and prioritizing the knowledge available within a concept's representation, PUNC can not only generate interpretations that reflect those produced by people, but also mirror the differences in processing times for understanding familiar, similar and novel word combinations. Keywords: conceptual combination, diagnosticity, familiarity, plausibility, infor- mativeness, noun-noun compounds 1. Introduction Conceptual combinations are manifested in everyday language through compound phrases (e.g., trash cookies, sausage meat, jail job). These combinations have received special attention in Cognitive Science be- cause of their relevance to compositionality, language generativity and language change in general (see Clark and Hecht, 1982; Coulson, 2001; Estes and Glucksberg, 2000). Research in this field has thrown up a number of competing models of conceptual combination, each of which tries to capture the main empirical phenomena in the field.
    [Show full text]
  • Perceptual Simulation in Conceptual Combination: Evidence from Property Generation
    Author's personal copy Acta Psychologica 132 (2009) 173–189 Contents lists available at ScienceDirect Acta Psychologica journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/actpsy Perceptual simulation in conceptual combination: Evidence from property generation Ling-ling Wu a, Lawrence W. Barsalou b,* a Department of Information Management, National Taiwan University, Taiwan b Department of Psychology, Emory University, Atlanta, GA 30322, USA article info abstract In three experiments, participants received nouns or noun phrases for objects and verbally generated Available online 18 March 2009 their properties (‘‘feature listing”). Several sources of evidence indicated that participants constructed perceptual simulations to generate properties for the noun phrases during conceptual combination. First, PsycINFO classification: the production of object properties for noun phrases depended on occlusion, with unoccluded properties 2340 being generated more often than occluded properties. Because a perceptual variable affected conceptual combination, perceptual simulations appeared central to combining the concepts for modifiers and head Keywords: nouns. Second, neutral participants produced the same distributions of properties as participants Perceptual simulation instructed to describe images, suggesting that the conceptual representations used by neutral partici- Conceptual combination Property generation pants were similar to the mental images used by imagery participants. Furthermore, the property distri- Feature listing butions for neutral and imagery
    [Show full text]
  • Exploring Conceptual Combination in Vision ∗
    Building a bagpipe with a bag and a pipe: Exploring Conceptual Combination in Vision ∗ Sandro Pezzelle and Ravi Shekhar† and Raffaella Bernardi CIMeC - Center for Mind/Brain Sciences, University of Trento †DISI, University of Trento firstname.lastname @unitn.it { } Abstract This preliminary study investigates whether, and to what extent, conceptual combination is conveyed by vision. Work- ing with noun-noun compounds we show that, for some cases, the composed visual vector built with a simple additive model is effective in approximating the visual vector representing the complex concept. Figure 1: Can we obtain a clipboard by combining 1 Introduction clip and board with a compositional function f ? Conceptual combination is the cognitive process by which two or more existing concepts are com- in vision as the result of adding together two sin- bined to form new complex concepts (Wisniewski, gle concepts. That is, can the visual representa- 1996; Gagne´ and Shoben, 1997; Costello and tion of clipboard be obtained by using the visual Keane, 2000). From a linguistic perspective, this representations of a clip and a board as shown mechanism can be observed in the formation and in Figure 1? In order to investigate this issue, lexicalization of compound words (eg. boathouse, we experiment with visual features that are ex- swordfish, headmaster, etc.), a widespread and tracted from images representing concrete and im- very productive linguistic device (Downing, 1977) ageable concepts. More precisely, we use noun- that is usually defined in literature as the result noun compounds for which ratings of imageabil- of the composition of two (or more) existing and ity are available.
    [Show full text]
  • A Computational Model of Conceptual Combination
    A Computational Model of Conceptual Combination Phil Maguire ([email protected]) Department of Computer Science, NUI Maynooth Co.Kildare, Ireland Rebecca Maguire ([email protected]) Department of Psychology, Dublin Business School 34/35 South William Street, Dublin 2, Ireland Arthur W.S. Cater ([email protected]) School of Computer Science and Informatics, University College Dublin, Dublin 4, Ireland Abstract accuracy of computational models has been limited by the extent of the conceptual knowledge required to generate We describe the Interactional-Constraint (ICON) model of appropriate interpretations. conceptual combination. This model is based on the idea that combinations are interpreted by incrementally constraining Outline of Theory the range of interpretation according to the interacting influence of both constituent nouns. ICON consists of a series ICON is based on the findings of a series of studies of discrete stages, combining data from the British National investigating the cognitive processes involved in Corpus, the WordNet lexicon and the Web to predict the interpreting conceptual combinations (e.g. Maguire, dominant interpretation of a combination and a range of Maguire & Cater, 2007; Maguire, Maguire & Cater, 2008). factors relating to ease of interpretation. One of the major These studies have suggested that the influence of both noun advantages of the model is that it does not require a tailored knowledge base, thus broadening its scope and utility. We constituents is an interactional one and that the range of evaluate ICON’s reliability and find that it is accurate in interpretation is incrementally constrained until an predicting word senses and relations for a wide variety of appropriate interpretation is identified, at which point a combinations.
    [Show full text]
  • Embodied Conceptual Combination
    HYPOTHESIS AND THEORY ARTICLE published: 25 November 2010 doi: 10.3389/fpsyg.2010.00212 Embodied conceptual combination Dermot Lynott1* and Louise Connell 2 1 Manchester Business School, University of Manchester, Manchester, UK 2 School of Psychological Sciences, University of Manchester, Manchester, UK Edited by: Conceptual combination research investigates the processes involved in creating new meaning Diane Pecher, Erasmus University from old referents. It is therefore essential that embodied theories of cognition are able to Rotterdam, Netherlands explain this constructive ability and predict the resultant behavior. However, by failing to take Reviewed by: Michiel van Elk, Radboud University an embodied or grounded view of the conceptual system, existing theories of conceptual Nijmegen, Netherlands combination cannot account for the role of perceptual, motor, and affective information in Lara Jones, Wayne State University, conceptual combination. In the present paper, we propose the embodied conceptual combination USA (ECCo) model to address this oversight. In ECCo, conceptual combination is the result of the *Correspondence: interaction of the linguistic and simulation systems, such that linguistic distributional information Dermot Lynott, Decision and Cognitive Sciences Research Centre, Manchester guides or facilitates the combination process, but the new concept is fundamentally a situated, Business School, University of simulated entity. So, for example, a cactus beetle is represented as a multimodal simulation Manchester, Manchester M15 6PJ, UK, that includes visual (e.g., the shiny appearance of a beetle) and haptic (e.g., the prickliness of e-mail: [email protected]. the cactus) information, all situated in the broader location of a desert environment under a hot uk; Louise Connell, School of Psychological sun, and with (at least for some people) an element of creepy-crawly revulsion.
    [Show full text]
  • The Role of Constraints In
    View metadata, citation and similar papers at core.ac.uk brought to you by CORE provided by SHAREOK repository UNIVERSITY OF OKLAHOMA GRADUATE COLLEGE ASSEMBLING THE BOX: THE ROLE OF CONSTRAINTS IN CREATIVE PROBLEM SOLVING A DISSERTATION SUBMITTED TO THE GRADUATE FACULTY in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the Degree of DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY By KELSEY MEDEIROS Norman, OKlahoma 2016 ASSEMBLING THE BOX: THE ROLE OF CONSTRAINTS IN CREATIVE PROBLEM SOLVING A DISSERTATION APPROVED FOR THE DEPARTMENT OF PSYCHOLOGY BY _______________________________________ Dr. Michael Mumford, Chair _______________________________________ Dr. Shane Connelly _______________________________________ Dr. Jorge Mendoza _______________________________________ Dr. Eric Day _______________________________________ Dr. Randa Shehab © Copyright by KELSEY MEDEIROS 2016 All Rights Reserved. Acknowledgements The authors thank Marina Soodan, Megan Harrison, Cooper Delafield, Kevin Green, Logan Steele, Logan Watts, Tyler Mulhern, Tristan McIntosh, and Paul Partlow for their contribution to the present effort. Correspondence should be addressed to Kelsey Medeiros, Department of Psychology, The University of OKlahoma, Norman, OKlahoma 73019 or [email protected] iv Table of Contents AcKnowledgements ......................................................................................................................... iv Abstract .............................................................................................................................................
    [Show full text]
  • Conceptual Combination Versus Critical Combination: Devising Creative Solutions Using the Sequential Application of Crowds
    Conceptual Combination versus Critical Combination: Devising Creative Solutions using the Sequential Application of Crowds Yuko Tanaka ([email protected]) Howe School of Technology Management, Stevens Institute of Technology Castle Point on Hudson, Hoboken, NJ 07030 USA Yasuaki Sakamoto ([email protected]) Howe School of Technology Management, Stevens Institute of Technology Castle Point on Hudson, Hoboken, NJ 07030 USA Takashi Kusumi ([email protected]) Graduate School of Education, Kyoto University, Yoshida Hon-machi, Sakyo-ku, Kyoto 606-8511 JAPAN Abstract goods and services has been regarded as a viable alternative to firms and markets (Benkler, 2006; Howe, 2006). The purpose of this study was to examine the steps involved in the sequential application of crowds to produce creative In our past work (Nickerson & Sakamoto, 2010), we have solutions for social problems. 127 university students examined one way of using crowds to design creative ideas. generated, criticized, modified, and evaluated text solutions The basic procedure was to ask the first crowd to generate a for reducing misinformation on the Internet. One crowd set of ideas, akin to divergent thinking, in which diverse generated solutions based on two ideas randomly paired from ideas are generated. The second crowd combined two ideas previous crowds’ ideas. The other crowd came up with from the first crowd, akin to convergent thinking, in which solutions based on one idea and a criticism for this idea generated by previous crowds. Whereas solutions based on ideas are filtered and integrated. Then the third crowd two ideas were on average rated more creative than those combined two ideas from the second crowd, in the hopes of based on an idea and criticisms, the five most creative further improving the creativity of the ideas.
    [Show full text]
  • Conceptual Combination: a Semantic Framework for Innovation
    1 26th EGOS Colloquium, Lisbon 2010 Conceptual combination: a semantic framework for innovation Anna Comacchio and Massimo Warglien Advanced School of Economics and Department of Business Economics and Management Ca’ Foscari University - Venice – Italy [email protected]; [email protected] Abstract An underestimated but pervasive aspect of innovation is its semantic creativity. Innovation is tangled with the generation of new meanings and new representations of familiar objects or processes. This paper explores semantic innovation arguing as a combination of pre-existing conceptual structures. First we shed light on the level at which innovative semantic combinations unfold, that is the conceptual level. Second the paper provides an in depth analysis of the dynamics of conceptual combinations, examining the processes underlying it: similarity detection, selective mapping and search for coherence. Our analysis of a rich set of cases opens up the complex architecture of conceptual combination and shows that, given its conceptual nature, semantic innovations shift among different level of abstraction (products, processes and business model)s and thus can be transferred to entirely different sets of activity. The paper provides a theoretical framework to understand the dynamics of semantic innovation and a contribution to the debate on innovation as knowledge combination in managerial and economic literature. Keywords: conceptual blend, knowledge combination, semantics, innovation 2 1. Introduction “Pocketable” is probably the first English word born in Japan. It was invented by Sony when it launched the TR-63, one of the first transistorised radios, in 1957 (Fig.1). The catch word was meant to establish a new product concept: the TR-63 wasn’t just a smaller radio, it was a portable radio people could carry on themselves.
    [Show full text]
  • City Research Online
    View metadata, citation and similar papers at core.ac.uk brought to you by CORE provided by City Research Online Gibbert, M., Hampton, J. A., Estes, Z. & Mazursky, D. (2012). The Curious Case of the Refrigerator- TV: Similarity and Hybridization. Cognitive Science, City Research Online Original citation: Gibbert, M., Hampton, J. A., Estes, Z. & Mazursky, D. (2012). The Curious Case of the Refrigerator-TV: Similarity and Hybridization. Cognitive Science, Permanent City Research Online URL: http://openaccess.city.ac.uk/932/ Copyright & reuse City University London has developed City Research Online so that its users may access the research outputs of City University London's staff. Copyright © and Moral Rights for this paper are retained by the individual author(s) and/ or other copyright holders. Users may download and/ or print one copy of any article(s) in City Research Online to facilitate their private study or for non- commercial research. Users may not engage in further distribution of the material or use it for any profit-making activities or any commercial gain. All material in City Research Online is checked for eligibility for copyright before being made available in the live archive. URLs from City Research Online may be freely distributed and linked to from other web pages. Versions of research The version in City Research Online may differ from the final published version. Users are advised to check the Permanent City Research Online URL above for the status of the paper. Enquiries If you have any enquiries about any aspect of City Research Online, or if you wish to make contact with the author(s) of this paper, please email the team at [email protected].
    [Show full text]
  • Examining the Effects of Shifting and Dwelling on Divergent and Convergent Thinking
    -1- Dynamics of Creativity: Examining the effects of shifting and dwelling on divergent and convergent thinking Pre-registration of Hypotheses and Analyses Plan for ETP-2 Yihan Wu, Wilma Koutstaal University of Minnesota December 15, 2020 Motivation of study Research Question Overview Researchers have found that task instructions encouraging more frequent switching or shifting between different task items (“item switching”) can improve an individual's performance (e.g., the novelty of their responses) on the alternative uses divergent thinking task (Lu et al., 2017) and a comparatively loosely-constrained categorical generation task (Smith et al., 2017). Yet in a 2-item Alternative Uses Task (AUT) in which participants were free to choose when to work on each item, we found that both how frequently participants shifted (shift-count) and how many responses participants on average generated before shifting (dwell-length) predicted AUT originality (Wu & Koutstaal, 2020). Furthermore, both shift- count and dwell-length together were predictive of originality on a composite measure that combined measures of originality from three different independently-assessed creativity tasks (Figural Interpretation Quest, Conceptual Combination, and Torrance Suppose). The contribution of both shift-count and dwell-length to originality on not only within- task but also between-task measures of creativity is conceptually in line with the dual pathway model of creativity, which underscores that flexibility and persistence are both crucial to creative processes (Nijstad et al., 2010). This suggests that a more comprehensive understanding of the effects of different task interventions on originality must consider manipulations of not only how often individuals switch or shift but also their propensity to stay.
    [Show full text]