The time course of breaking mental sets and forming novel associations in insight-like problem solving: an ERP investigation

The influence of perceptual and semantic chunking on the neural mechanism of remote association

Studies on remote association tests (RATs) have mainly focused on cognitive processes involved in searching for remote associations. However, factors affecting these search processes and remote associations remain unclear. In order to address this issue, this study compared non-chunking condition (e.g., "//") with perceptual chunking (two red color characters in the three-character item "//") and semantic chunking (high-frequency word-pair in the item; e.g., "//", "," literally "philosophy") conditions in the Chinese Remote Association Test (CRAT). The behavioral results on the CRAT found that the semantic ones resulted in significantly lower successful solving rates and longer response times than the other two conditions. The event-related potential (ERP) results showed that in contrast to the perceptual-chunking and the non-chunking condition, the semantic-chunking elicited enhanced P200, which might be related to the intuitive awareness of the mental fixation. However, relative to the non-chunking condition, the two chunking conditions evoked increased N400 and late positive component (LPC), indexing the late reflection and implementation of cognitive control. Our results suggest that it is the early awareness of the semantic chunk, rather than the general cognitive control process involved in representing and solving the semantically and perceptually chunk-induced interferences, that critically determines the final solving of RATs.

Moderating Role of Creative Mindset in the Effect of Metacognitive Experience on Insight Problem Solving

Metacognitive experience, measured by processing fluency, contributes to divergent thinking performance; however, whether it exhibits varying effects on insight problem-solving remains unknown. Additionally, as individuals' interpretation of metacognitive experience is influenced by their creative mindset, whether creative mindset plays a role in the relationship between metacognitive experience and insight problem-solving is another issue. In Experiment 1, a Chinese logogriph task was used to investigate insight problem-solving performance. The font style of logogriphs (easy versus difficult) was used to alter the ease of processing. The results showed that individuals had lower performance accuracy for logogriphs presented in difficult font styles, suggesting the negative effect of metacognitive disfluency experience on logogriph solving. In Experiment 2, different creative mindsets (entity versus incremental) were activated in individuals via prime manipulation. Individuals with an incremental creative mindset had a significantly higher performance accuracy and longer reaction time for logogriphs presented in difficult font styles than individuals with an entity creative mindset, suggesting that an incremental creative mindset might counteract the negative effect of metacognitive disfluency experience on logogriphs solving. These findings suggest that metacognitive disfluency experience has a negative effect on insight problem-solving and that a creative mindset moderated this effect.

The Neural Mechanisms of the Effect of Spontaneous Insight on Re-Solution: An ERP Study

The insight memory advantage refers to the situation in which memory performance could be improved by solving a problem with an Aha experience. In re-solution tests and recognition tests, studies demonstrate an insight memory advantage by spontaneous insight or induced insight. For the re-solution test, the neural mechanisms of the effect of induced insight were studied by the fMRI technique. However, the neural mechanisms of the effect of insight on re-solution in the temporal dimension were not known. The neural mechanisms of the effect of spontaneous insight on re-solution were not known. In the present study, we use the compound remote-associated (CRA) task to reveal the neural mechanisms of the effect of spontaneous insight on re-solution by the event-related potentials (ERPs) technique. The 25 participants were asked to solve a series of Chinese verbal CRA tasks and then perform a re-solution test 1 day later. Our results indicated that the solution with the Aha experience evoked a larger N400 in the early solution phase and a more negative wave in the late solution phase than the solution with no Aha experience. In the re-solution phase, items with an Aha during the solution phase were re-solved better with higher Aha rates than items with no Aha. In the re-solution phase, compared with items with no Aha, items with an Aha during the solution phase evoked a larger positive ERP in the 250 to 350 ms time window in the early phase, and a more negative deflection before the response (-900 to -800 ms) in the later phase. In one word, spontaneous insight during the solution phase could promote re-solution and elicit ERP deflection in the re-solution phase.

Current Understanding of the "Insight" Phenomenon Across Disciplines

Despite countless anecdotes and the historical significance of insight as a problem solving mechanism, its nature has long remained elusive. The conscious experience of insight is notoriously difficult to trace in non-verbal animals. Although studying insight has presented a significant challenge even to neurobiology and psychology, human neuroimaging studies have cleared the theoretical landscape, as they have begun to reveal the underlying mechanisms. The study of insight in non-human animals has, in contrast, remained limited to innovative adjustments to experimental designs within the classical approach of judging cognitive processes in animals, based on task performance. This leaves no apparent possibility of ending debates from different interpretations emerging from conflicting schools of thought. We believe that comparative cognition has thus much to gain by embracing advances from neuroscience and human cognitive psychology. We will review literature on insight (mainly human) and discuss the consequences of these findings to comparative cognition.

The Tactile-Visual Conflict Processing and Its Modulation by Tactile-Induced Emotional States: An Event-Related Potential Study

This experiment used event-related potentials (ERPs) to study the tactile-visual information conflict processing in a tactile-visual pairing task and its modulation by tactile-induced emotional states. Eighteen participants were asked to indicate whether the tactile sensation on their body matched or did not match the expected tactile sensation associated with the object depicted in an image. The type of tactile-visual stimuli (matched vs. mismatched) and the valence of tactile-induced emotional states (positive vs. negative) were manipulated following a 2 × 2 factorial design. Electrophysiological analyses revealed a mismatched minus matched negative difference component between 420 and 620 ms after stimulus onset in the negative tactile-induced emotional state condition. This ND420-620 component was considered as a sign of the cross-modal conflict processing during the processing of incongruent tactile-visual information. In contrast, no significant mismatched minus matched negative difference component was found in the positive tactile-induced emotional state condition. Together, these results support the hypothesis that a positive emotional state induced by a positive tactile stimulation improves tactile-visual conflict processing abilities.

The mnemonic effects of insight on false memory in the DRM paradigm

Insight accompanied by an 'aha!' experience has a mnemonic effect. Previous studies of insight have often focused on the mnemonic effect of insight on veridical memories, while the effect of insight on false memories is not known. More understanding of the mnemonic effect of insight on false memories could have implications for the mechanism of insightful mnemonic effects. The present research examined whether insight has a mnemonic effect on false memories. Participants were asked to perform Chinese verbal compound remote associate (CRA) tasks and then complete the Deese-Roediger-McDermott (DRM) task, the critical lure of which was also the solution to the Chinese CRA problem. Compared to non-insight, insight was associated with a lower critical lures rate in Experiment 1 and with lower critical lures and unrelated words rates in Experiment 2 when the presentation of DRM list words was random. Giving a warning before DRM tasks could reduce the critical lures rate of non-insight but had little effect on insightful solutions in Experiment 3. These findings indicate that insight can reduce false memories.

The effects of emotional valence on insight problem solving in global-local processing: An ERP study

Recently, some studies have reported that the joint effects of different processing types and emotions can lead to different task outcomes, but it remains unclear how they affect insight problem solving. In this study, we used event-related potentials (ERP) to examine the joint effect and neural mechanism of processing type and emotional valence on insight problem solving. Behavioural results found that, compared to positive emotion, negative emotion promoted insight problem solving in the global processing condition. In contrast, in the local processing condition, positive emotion promoted insight problem solving compared to negative emotion. ERP results further found that local processing elicited larger N1 compared with global processing, indicating more focused visual processing. Importantly, negative emotion in global processing and positive emotion in local processing elicited more negative N450 amplitudes and N600-1200 amplitudes. The findings suggest that negative emotion in global processing and positive emotion in local processing facilitated insight problem solving by promoting the breaking of mental impasses and forming novel associations. The findings contribute to a new understanding of the relationship between emotional valence and insight problem solving.

Event-Related Brain Potentials Associated With the Olfactory-Visual Stroop Effect and Its Modulation by Olfactory-Induced Emotional States

This study investigated the event-related brain potentials associated with the olfactory-visual cross-modal Stroop effect and its modulation by olfactory-induced and self-reported affective states. Eighteen healthy participants were presented with an olfactory stimulus and the image of a plant, and they had to categorize the olfactory attribute of the image as “aromatic” or “pungent” by pressing the relevant button as quickly as possible. The type of olfactory-visual stimuli (congruent or incongruent) and the valence of the olfactory-induced emotional states (positive or negative) were manipulated following a 2 × 2 factorial design. Interference effects were observed at the behavioral and the electrophysiological levels: response times recorded in the incongruent condition were higher than those observed in the congruent condition; an incongruent minus congruent negative difference component was discovered between 350 and 550 ms after stimulus onset in the negative—but not in the positive—olfactory-induced emotional state condition. This ND350-550 component was interpreted as reflecting the amount of selective attention involved in the olfactory-visual cross-modal Stroop effect. These results are also consistent with a facilitatory effect of positive emotional state on selective attention which could reduce brain potentials associated with the cross-modal interference effect.

Exploring the Experience of Novelty When Viewing Creative Adverts: An ERP Study

The electrophysiological correlates of experiencing novelty in creative advertising were studied in 28 healthy subjects using event-related potentials. Participants viewed images that were difficult to interpret until a description was presented providing either a creative description (CD) featuring an unexpected description of the image based on the original advertisement, or a normal description (ND), which was a literal description of the image (and served as a baseline condition). Participants evaluated the level of creativity of the description. The results showed that the N2 amplitude was higher for CDs than for NDs across middle and right scalp regions between 240 and 270 ms, most likely reflecting conflict detection. Moreover, CDs demonstrated greater N400 than NDs in a time window between 380 and 500 ms, it is argued that this reflects semantic integration. The present study investigates the electrophysiological correlates of experiencing novelty in advertising with ecologically valid stimuli. This substantially extends the findings of earlier laboratory studies with more artificial stimuli.

The Neural Basis of Taste-visual Modal Conflict Control in Appetitive and Aversive Gustatory Context

The functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) technique was used to investigate brain activations related to conflict control in a taste-visual cross-modal pairing task. On each trial, participants had to decide whether the taste of a gustatory stimulus matched or did not match the expected taste of the food item depicted in an image. There were four conditions: Negative match (NM; sour gustatory stimulus and image of sour food), negative mismatch (NMM; sour gustatory stimulus and image of sweet food), positive match (PM; sweet gustatory stimulus and image of sweet food), positive mismatch (PMM; sweet gustatory stimulus and image of sour food). Blood oxygenation level-dependent (BOLD) contrasts between the NMM and the NM conditions revealed an increased activity in the middle frontal gyrus (MFG) (BA 6), the lingual gyrus (LG) (BA 18), and the postcentral gyrus. Furthermore, the NMM minus NM BOLD differences observed in the MFG were correlated with the NMM minus NM differences in response time. These activations were specifically associated with conflict control during the aversive gustatory stimulation. BOLD contrasts between the PMM and the PM condition revealed no significant positive activation, which supported the hypothesis that the human brain is especially sensitive to aversive stimuli. Altogether, these results suggest that the MFG is associated with the taste-visual cross-modal conflict control. A possible role of the LG as an information conflict detector at an early perceptual stage is further discussed, along with a possible involvement of the postcentral gyrus in the processing of the taste-visual cross-modal sensory contrast.

Is creative insight task-specific? A coordinate-based meta-analysis of neuroimaging studies on insightful problem solving

The question of whether creative insight varies across problem types has recently come to the forefront of studies of creative cognition. In the present study, to address the nature of creative insight, the coordinate-based activation likelihood estimation (ALE) technique was utilized to individually conduct three quantitative meta-analyses of neuroimaging experiments that used the compound remote associate (CRA) task, the prototype heuristic (PH) task and the Chinese character chunk decomposition (CCD) task. These tasks were chosen because they are frequently used to uncover the neurocognitive correlates of insight. Our results demonstrated that creative insight reliably activates largely non-overlapping brain regions across task types, with the exception of some shared regions: the CRA task mainly relied on the right parahippocampal gyrus, the superior frontal gyrus and the inferior frontal gyrus; the PH task primarily depended on the right middle occipital gyrus (MOG), the bilateral superior parietal lobule/precuneus, the left inferior parietal lobule, the left lingual gyrus and the left middle frontal gyrus; and the CCD task activated a broad cerebral network consisting of most dorsolateral and medial prefrontal regions, frontoparietal regions and the right MOG. These results provide the first neural evidence of the task dependence of creative insight. The implications of these findings for resolving conflict surrounding the different theories of creative cognition and for defining insight as a set of heterogeneous processes are discussed.