The University of Maine DigitalCommons@UMaine Electronic Theses and Dissertations Fogler Library 8-2003 The syP chological Correlates of Asymmetric Cerebral Activation Lisle R. Kingery Follow this and additional works at: http://digitalcommons.library.umaine.edu/etd Part of the Cognition and Perception Commons Recommended Citation Kingery, Lisle R., "The sP ychological Correlates of Asymmetric Cerebral Activation" (2003). Electronic Theses and Dissertations. 54. http://digitalcommons.library.umaine.edu/etd/54 This Open-Access Dissertation is brought to you for free and open access by DigitalCommons@UMaine. It has been accepted for inclusion in Electronic Theses and Dissertations by an authorized administrator of DigitalCommons@UMaine. THE PSYCHOLOGICAL CORRELATES OF ASYMMETRIC CEREBRAL ACTIVATION BY Lisle R. Kingery B.A. East Carolina University, 1992 M.A. East Carolina University, 1994 A THESIS Submitted in Partial Fultillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy (in Psychology) The Graduate School The University of Maine August, 2003 Advisory Committee: Colin Martindale, Professor of Psychology. Advisor Jonathan Borkum, Adjunct Faculty Marie Hayes, Associate Professor of Psychology Alan M. Rosennasser. Professor of Psychology Geoffrey L. Thorpe, Professor of Psychology Copyright 2003 Lisle R. Kingery All Rights Reserved THE PSYCHOLOGICAL CORRELATES OF ASYMMETRIC CEREBRAL ACTIVATION By Lisle R. Kingery Thesis Advisor: Dr. Colin Martindale An Abstract of the Thesis Presented in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements tor the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy (in Psychology) August. 2003 This study examined the psychological correlates of asymmetric cerebral activation as measured by electroencephalograph (EEG) recordings. Five content areas were investigated in the context of EEG asymmetry: hierarchical visual processing, creative potential, mood, personality, and EEG asymmetry, and the effect of a mood induction procedure on cognition and EEG asymmetry. Undergraduate participants completed two experimental sessions separated by two to three weeks. Participants completed a comprehensive set of emotion, personality, and creative potential measures, a cognitive task assessing individual differences in hierarchical visual processing. and a short form of the Rorschach inkblot test. Additionally. each participant underwent either a happy or a sad mood induction procedure to examine the effects of mood on verbal and spatial fluency tasks and EEG asymmetry. EEG was measured in frontal, central. and parietal locations. The primary findings regarding the psychometrics of EEG asymmetry suggested that a large proportion of participants show relatively stable EEG asymmetry across two to three weeks. The results failed to replicate previous research suggesting a relationship between hierarchical visual analysis and mood using a Global-Local task. The results also failed to support the hypothesis that the Rorschach could be used as a measure of hierarchical visual analysis. However, Minor Detail location responses on the Rorschach correlated positively with negative affect and negatively with positive affect. Regarding creativity, the Rorschach was found to be a viable means of assessing individual differences in primary process cognition using the Regressive Imagery Dictionary (Martindale, 1975). Additionally, the results partially supported Martindale's (1 999) hypothesis that creative people show greater right-hemisphere activation. No support was found for the hypothesized relationships between frontal activation asymmetry and mood or personality. Regarding the effect of mood on verbal and spatial fluency, no support was found for the hypothesis that happy moods increase verbal fluency and decrease spatial fluency or that sad moods increase spatial tluency and decrease verbal fluency. Happy and sad mood also did not have a significant effect on EEG asymmetry in the predicted directions. The results are discussed in terms of the status of recent research on EEG asymmetry and its relation to cognition, creativity, emotion and personality. ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS Without the guidance and assistance of many colleagues and loved ones, this work would have never been completed. I would first like to thank the diligent research assistants who assisted in the data collection and execution of this project, including Jaren Bates, Casey Brown, Macklin Gaynor, Johnny Jones, Mindy Oliver. and Audrey Waltz. They certainly deserve more than a few course credits for their efforts and I will always be grateful for their help. When I started graduate school at the University of Maine, I had no idea that it would lead to working with some of the most inspiring and brilliant intellectual mentors I have ever known. Luckily for me, Geoffrey Thorpe saw that I had potential as a psychologist and accepted me as his student. I have thoroughly enjoyed working with him. My interest in the topics explored in this research began in Alan Rosenwasser's Physiological Psychology course. I was in search of a topic for the class paper and I stumbled across an article on personality and EEG asymmetry. His interest and positive feedback opened the first door to the development of this project. The next door was opened by Colin Martindale. Colin's impact on my intellectual and professional development has been incalculable and I deeply appreciate his willingness to serve as chair of this project. I would like to express my deep appreciation for the contributions of Marie Hayes and Jonathan Borkum. They both provided invaluable feedback that improved the quality of this research. Sharon Crook deserves special mention because she was kind enough to generously share her time and expertise with a complete stranger from another department. I would like to express my appreciation to Jonna Kwiatkowski, whose help enabled me to learn how to use an EEG machine. Thanks also to Oshin Vartanian for providing invaluable assistance with obtaining some of the questionnaires used in this study. For her love, encouragement, and help with all the "details," I would like to thank my best friend and fiance, Julie Newman. There is nothing that I look forward to more than spending the rest of our lives together. To my brother and sister-in-law, Robert and Maria Kingery. thank you for your constant support and love. Finally, this work is dedicated to my parents, Robert E. and Frances S. Kingery. TABLE OF CONTENTS ... ACKNOWLEDGMENTS ......................................................................... 111 LIST OF TABLES ................................................................................... x .. LIST OF FIGURES ............................................................................... xvii Chapter 1 . INTRODUCTION .............................................................................. 1 Cerebral Functioning . Cognition. Emotion, Personality. and Creativity .............1 Brain-Behavior Relationships and Operational Definitions ........................... 2 Overview of the Study ...................................................................... 4 Region Specific Cortical Functioning ..................................................... 7 EEG Measurement ........................................................................... 8 Procedural Considerations ....................................................... 10 Asymmetry Measures ............................................................ II Reliability of EEG Asymmetry Measures ..................................... 12 Introduction to Martindale's Neural-Network Theory of Mind ......................14 Stages of Mental Processing ..................................................... 15 Bottom-Up versus Top-Down Activation ...................................... 16 Biological Basis of Creativity ................................................... 17 Measuring Creativity ............................................................. 19 Empirical Rationale for Using Ambiguous Stimuli ........................... 22 Martindale's 'Theory of Personality: The Action System ..................... 22 Limitations ......................................................................... 24 Hierarchical Visual Processing and Parietal Cortical Functioning .................. 25 Double Filtering by Frequency (DFF) Theory ................................. 25 Hierarchical Visual Processing and Emotion ................................. 27 Hierarchical Visual Processing and Personality .............................. 28 Assessing Hierarchical Visual Analysis ....................................... 29 Anterior Cortical Functioning, Cognition. Emotion . Personality . and Creativity ............................................................................... 33 Emotion and Frontal Lobe Activation .......................................... 34 Emotion. Cognition, and Frontal Lobe Functioning .......................... 41 Emotion . Personality, and Frontal Lobe Activation .......................... 45 Summary and Hypotheses ............................................................... .SO Hierarchical Visual Analysis, Emotion . Personality. and EEG Asymmetry ............................................................. 50 Creativity . Primary Process Cognition. and EEG Asymmetry .............. 52 Emotion. Cognition. Personality. and EEG Asymmetry ..................... 53 2 . METHOD ....................................................................................... 55 Participants ................................................................................