Cognitive control is a key factor in insight generation. However, the neurocognitive mechanisms underlying the generation of insight for different cognitive control remain poorly understood. This ...study developed a parametric fMRI design, wherein hints for solving Chinese idiom riddles were gradually provided in a stepwise manner (from the first hint, H1, to the final hint, H4). By classifying the step‐specific items solved in different hint‐uncovering steps/conditions, we could identify insightful responses for different levels of spontaneous or controlled processing. At the behavioral level, the number of insightful problem solving trials reached the maximum at a intermediate level of the cognitively controlled processing and the spontaneously idea generating in H3, while the bilateral insular cortex and thalamus showed the robust engagement, implying the function of these regions in making the optimal balance between external hint processing and internal generated ideas. In addition, we identified brain areas, including the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (dlPFC), angular gyrus (AG), dorsal anterior cingulate cortex (dACC), and precuneus (PreC), whose activities were parametrically increased with the levels of controlled (from H1 to H4) insightful processing which were increasingly produced by the sequentially revealed hints. Further representational similarity analysis (RSA) found that spontaneous processing in insight featured greater within‐condition representational variabilities in widely distributed regions in the executive, salience, and default networks. Altogether, the present study provided new evidence for the relationship between the process of cognitive control and that of spontaneous idea generation in insight problem solving and demystified the function of the insula and thalamus as an interactive interface for the optimal balance of these two processes.
Through the step‐by‐step releasing of hints for solving four‐character idiom puzzles, we found the externally induced insights and the spontaneously generated insights respectively evoked increased prefrontal and temporal activations, or the inter‐condition representation dissimilarities. The insula and thalamus were identified as the interface for the optimal balance of these two insight processes.
Platform sponsors and complementors co‐create value in digital platform ecosystems. But how does a digital platform ecosystem emerge in the incipient stage, especially in a situation where value ...co‐creation involves attracting complementors to platform sponsors who are unknown to one another? We posit that a platform sponsor’s choice of scope signals value co‐creation opportunities and thereby attracts complementors and consumers. We draw upon the problem‐solving perspective, rooted in the knowledge‐based view of the firm, to shift the emphasis away from the actor (‘who’) to the problem at hand (‘what’) and demonstrate how incipient platform sponsors can align their scope with the problem to stimulate ecosystem emergence. Using fuzzy‐set qualitative comparative analysis on a dataset of crowdfunding campaigns, we identify multiple pathways and associated propositions for successful emergence of digital platform ecosystems, notably for innovation, open‐source, and information ecosystems. The framework we conceptualize highlights novel considerations to overcome the early‐stage challenge of attracting participation to an ecosystem that is yet to emerge.
Many animals, and an increasing number of artificial agents, display sophisticated capabilities to perceive and manipulate objects. But human beings remain distinctive in their capacity for flexible, ...creative tool use—using objects in new ways to act on the world, achieve a goal, or solve a problem. To study this type of general physical problem solving, we introduce the Virtual Tools game. In this game, people solve a large range of challenging physical puzzles in just a handful of attempts. We propose that the flexibility of human physical problem solving rests on an ability to imagine the effects of hypothesized actions, while the efficiency of human search arises from rich action priors which are updated via observations of the world. We instantiate these components in the “sample, simulate, update” (SSUP) model and show that it captures human performance across 30 levels of the Virtual Tools game. More broadly, this model provides a mechanism for explaining how people condense general physical knowledge into actionable, task-specific plans to achieve flexible and efficient physical problem solving.
Although the experience of insight has long been noted, the essence of the ‘Aha!’ experience, reflecting a sudden change in the brain that accompanies an insight solution, remains largely unknown. ...This work aimed to uncover the mystery of the ‘Aha!’ experience through three studies. In Study 1, participants were required to solve a set of verbal insight problems and then subjectively report their affective experience when solving the problem. The participants were found to have experienced many types of emotions, with happiness the most frequently reported one. Multidimensional scaling was employed in Study 2 to simplify the dimensions of these reported emotions. The results showed that these different types of emotions could be clearly placed in two‐dimensional space and that components constituting the ‘Aha!’ experience mainly reflected positive emotion and approached cognition. To validate previous findings, in Study 3, participants were asked to select the most appropriate emotional item describing their feelings at the time the problem was solved. The results of this study replicated the multidimensional construct consisting of approached cognition and positive affect. These three studies provide the first direct evidence of the essence of the ‘Aha!’ experience. The potential significance of the findings was discussed.
This investigation evaluated the degree to which creativity training, idea generation instruction, and creative process impacted idea production, creativeness of solutions, and leadership ...effectiveness. Three sets of hypotheses were tested with a 114 groups of adults. First, groups whose members had some (i.e., one CPS course) or advanced training (i.e., graduate‐level study in creativity or creativity professionals) were significantly more effective at idea generation than groups without training. Furthermore, leaders with some and advanced training were perceived to be significantly more effective than those with no creativity training. With respect to creativeness of solutions, the advanced training groups outperformed all others. The second set of hypotheses focused on the effectiveness of idea generation instruction (i.e., instructions without brainstorming, brainstorming, and brainstorming with criticism). Analysis revealed no significant difference for idea generation instruction relative to idea production or creativeness of solutions. The final set of hypotheses examined the use of a simple process structure for groups without prior creativity training (i.e., distinct phases for idea generation and solution development). Analysis revealed that those meetings that followed a simple process structure out performed groups that did not follow a process for both idea generation and creativeness of solutions. Further results are presented and implications discussed.
Episodic memory plays an important role not only in remembering past experiences, but also in constructing simulations of future experiences and solving means-end social problems. We recently found ...that an episodic specificity induction-brief training in recollecting details of past experiences-enhances performance of young and older adults on memory and imagination tasks. Here we tested the hypothesis that this specificity induction would also positively impact a means-end problem-solving task on which age-related changes have been linked to impaired episodic memory. Young and older adults received the specificity induction or a control induction before completing a means-end problem-solving task, as well as memory and imagination tasks. Consistent with previous findings, older adults provided fewer relevant steps on problem solving than did young adults, and their responses also contained fewer internal (i.e., episodic) details across the 3 tasks. There was no difference in the number of other (e.g., irrelevant) steps on problem solving or external (i.e., semantic) details generated on the 3 tasks as a function of age. Critically, the specificity induction increased the number of relevant steps and internal details (but not other steps or external details) that both young and older adults generated in problem solving compared with the control induction, as well as the number of internal details (but not external details) generated for memory and imagination. Our findings support the idea that episodic retrieval processes are involved in means-end problem solving, extend the range of tasks on which a specificity induction targets these processes, and show that the problem-solving performance of older adults can benefit from a specificity induction as much as that of young adults.
Introduction
Taking microdoses (a mere fraction of normal doses) of psychedelic substances, such as truffles, recently gained popularity, as it allegedly has multiple beneficial effects including ...creativity and problem-solving performance, potentially through targeting serotonergic 5-HT
2A
receptors and promoting cognitive flexibility, crucial to creative thinking. Nevertheless, enhancing effects of microdosing remain anecdotal, and in the absence of quantitative research on microdosing psychedelics, it is impossible to draw definitive conclusions on that matter. Here, our main aim was to quantitatively explore the cognitive-enhancing potential of microdosing psychedelics in healthy adults.
Methods
During a microdosing event organized by the Dutch Psychedelic Society, we examined the effects of psychedelic truffles (which were later analyzed to quantify active psychedelic alkaloids) on two creativity-related problem-solving tasks: the Picture Concept Task assessing convergent thinking and the Alternative Uses Task assessing divergent thinking. A short version of the Ravens Progressive Matrices task assessed potential changes in fluid intelligence. We tested once before taking a microdose and once while the effects were expected to be manifested.
Results
We found that both convergent and divergent thinking performance was improved after a non-blinded microdose, whereas fluid intelligence was unaffected.
Conclusion
While this study provides quantitative support for the cognitive-enhancing properties of microdosing psychedelics, future research has to confirm these preliminary findings in more rigorous placebo-controlled study designs. Based on these preliminary results, we speculate that psychedelics might affect cognitive metacontrol policies by optimizing the balance between cognitive persistence and flexibility. We hope this study will motivate future microdosing studies with more controlled designs to test this hypothesis.
The study develops and evaluates the interpersonal problem-solving inventory for elementary school students (IPSI). In particular, the study employs a multidimensional interpersonal problem-solving ...model that is based on the cognitive-affective-behavioral approach to construct a process measure of interpersonal problem-solving inventory for 4
th
and 5
th
grade students, especially for elementary school settings in Vietnam. The inventory is a 4-point Likert-type scale consisting of 44 items and five dimensions. The IPSI was administered to a total elementary student sample that consisted of 786 Vietnamese elementary students in fourth and fifth grades (ages: 9–12, M = 10.11, SD = 0.75). The reliability of the IPSI was reported (Cronbach’s
α
= 0.90; McDonald’s ω = 0.82). EFA was conducted on the first dataset to explore the emerging factor structure of the IPSI. The EFA results suggested an exclusive five-factor solution. CFA was examined on the second dataset to define the theory-driven five-factor structure of the IPSI. The CFA findings indicated that the IPSI consented to the five-factor structure as similar as the EFA results. The assessment of the five-factor model endorsed that five of the six global fit indices (χ
2
/df = 1.406 < 2,
P
< 0.001; CFI = 0.928; TLI = 0.924; GFI = 0.875; RMSEA = 0.032 < 0.05; and SRMR = 0.049 < 0.05) are statistically acceptable, suggesting a good fitting model. The results suggest that the scale has acceptable internal reliability and construct validity. Applicability and limitations of the IPSI are discussed. Subsequent studies and possible improvements are proposed.
Highlights
The IPSI scale was developed to assess individual problem-solving skills of elementary-age school students to real-life interpersonal issues.
The construct validity of the IPSI scale for Vietnamese fourth and fifth grade student samples were analysed using EFA and CFA techniques.
The results of examining Cronbach’s coefficient alpha levels indicated that the subscale scores on the IPSI verify good internal consistencies.
•We propose magic tricks as an innovative problem solving task to investigate insight.•Magic tricks allow to differentiate between insight and noninsight solutions.•Insight solutions are more likely ...true, reached earlier, with higher confidence.•We show constraint relaxation in magic tricks with cues facilitating a solution.•Results provide empirical support for the representational change theory of insight.
We propose a new approach to differentiate between insight and noninsight problem solving, by introducing magic tricks as problem solving domain. We argue that magic tricks are ideally suited to investigate representational change, the key mechanism that yields sudden insight into the solution of a problem, because in order to gain insight into the magicians’ secret method, observers must overcome implicit constraints and thus change their problem representation. In Experiment 1, 50 participants were exposed to 34 different magic tricks, asking them to find out how the trick was accomplished. Upon solving a trick, participants indicated if they had reached the solution either with or without insight. Insight was reported in 41.1% of solutions. The new task domain revealed differences in solution accuracy, time course and solution confidence with insight solutions being more likely to be true, reached earlier, and obtaining higher confidence ratings. In Experiment 2, we explored which role self-imposed constraints actually play in magic tricks. 62 participants were presented with 12 magic tricks. One group received verbal cues, providing solution relevant information without giving the solution away. The control group received no informative cue. Experiment 2 showed that participants’ constraints were suggestible to verbal cues, resulting in higher solution rates. Thus, magic tricks provide more detailed information about the differences between insightful and noninsightful problem solving, and the underlying mechanisms that are necessary to have an insight.
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