Hsueh Chih Chen

Segregating the comprehension and elaboration processing of verbal jokes: An fMRI study

The comprehension-elaboration theory of humor claims that the elicitation of humor can be segregated into two stages, comprehension and elaboration. Comprehension includes detection and resolution of incongruity, and elaboration involves inducement of the experience of amusement. Previous imaging research has sought to identify the neural substrates of humor processing by comparing funny and unfunny conditions. However, such studies have not been able to segregate the comprehension and elaboration stages. The present study was designed to differentiate the respective brain areas corresponding to comprehension and elaboration with an additional condition, garden path sentences. The results suggest that the bilateral inferior frontal gyri and left superior frontal gyrus may be associated with humor comprehension, whereas the cortical region in left ventromedial prefrontal cortex and the subcortical regions in bilateral amygdalae and bilateral parahippocampal gyri may be responsible for the feeling of amusement during the elaboration process.

How does emotion influence different creative performances? The mediating role of cognitive flexibility

Cognitive flexibility is proposed to be one of the factors underlying how positive emotions can improve creativity. However, previous works have seldom set up or empirically measured an independent index to demonstrate its mediating effect, nor have they investigated its mediating role on different types of creative performances, which involve distinct processes. In this study, 120 participants were randomly assigned to positive, neutral or negative affect conditions. Their levels of cognitive flexibility were then measured by a switch task. Finally, their creative performances were calibrated by either an open-ended divergent thinking test or a closed-ended insight problem-solving task. The results showed that positive emotional states could reduce switch costs and enhance both types of creative performances. However, cognitive flexibility exhibited a full mediating effect only on the relationship between positive emotion and insight problem solving, but not between positive emotion and divergent thinking. Divergent thinking was instead more associated with arousal level. These results suggest that emotions might influence different creative performances through distinct mechanisms.

Supporting Orthographic Learning at the Beginning Stage of Learning to Read Chinese as a Second Language.

Learning to read a second language (L2) is especially challenging when a target L2 requires learning new graphic forms. Learning Chinese, which consists of thousands of characters composed of hundreds of basic writing units, presents such a challenge of orthographic learning for adult English speakers at the beginning stages of learning. In this study, we use an in vivo classroom design to extend previous research on how to support orthographic learning. First, we test the hypothesis that learning characters is enhanced by a grouped sequence of characters that share sub-character graphic components. Second, we examine the effects of four encoding methods that have been investigated in laboratory studies—handwriting, visual chunking, passive reading, and stroke-reporting. The results demonstrate that the grouped approach facilitated character production compared with the distributed approach and that visual-chunking outperformed the other three encoding methods under the grouped sequence. We propose that learning via visual chunking with characters grouped by the same chunks enhances the Chinese orthographic representations of beginning L2 learners.

Multicultural Families and Creative Children

The link between multicultural experience and creativity is consistently supported by many empirical studies. However, most of these results are limited to adult participants with foreign living experience. The present study extended previous studies and investigated the positive relationship between multicultural experience and creativity in Taiwan young adolescents living in binational families. With more than 700 young adolescents, the results showed that young adolescents from binational families had parents with lower socioeconomic status than monocultural families. However, young adolescents from binational families performed better on creativity tests (fluency, flexibility, and originality) than those from monocultural families. In addition, when variables of family background and young adolescents’ personalities were controlled for, the effect of binational families on creativity remained. The implications for research on multicultural families and young adolescents’ creative performance are discussed.

Improving Creativity Performance Assessment: A Rater Effect Examination with Many Facet Rasch Model.

Product assessment is widely applied in creative studies, typically as an important dependent measure. Within this context, this study had 2 purposes. First, the focus of this research was on methods for investigating possible rater effects, an issue that has not received a great deal of attention in past creativity studies. Second, the substantive question of whether restrictions on materials used and differences in instructions provided would influence outcomes on measures of creativity was considered. The many-facet Rasch model was used to investigate possible sources of rater bias, including the leniency/severity effect, central tendency effect, halo effect and randomness effect. No indications were found that these potential sources of bias strongly influenced the ratings. The result indicated that the examinees could be reliably differentiated in terms of their performance. Analysis of rater-criterion interactions depicted rater behavior more clearly and, it is suggested, can be of use as a tool for rater training in future studies. In terms of the substantive questions posed, 2 × 2 experimental instructions were manipulated and it was found that different instructions did not affect creative performance. The implications of these findings are discussed.

Investigating the synergy of critical thinking and creative thinking in the course of integrated activity in Taiwan

The relationship lying between critical thinking and creative thinking is opposite or complementary, results of previous relevant researches have not yet concluded. However, most of researches put the effort to compare the respective effect of the thinking methods, either the teaching of creative thinking or that of critical thinking. Less of them showed the interest to investigate the combined effect of these two thinking skills teaching, especially its synergy. Therefore, present study aimed to discuss the synergy of critical thinking and creative thinking, and investigated the joined effect of these two methods of thinking in the courses of ‘Integrated Activity courses’. Not only the separate influence but also the synergy would be our interests. Moreover, the outcome would also be compared with the learning result of single creative thinking skill teaching. Participants were 147 male students and 118 female students of ninth grade from 8 intact classes in a public middle school in Taiwan, the number of total participants were 265. Experimental design was ‘nonequivalent control group pretest/post-test quasi-experimental design’. Participants were assigned into three groups, three intact classes for creative thinking teaching group (EG1), three intact classes for ‘critical thinking and creative thinking combined teaching group (EG2)’ and two intact classes for regular teaching method group (watching video, control group). All participants took the assessment ‘The New Creative-Thinking Testing’ and ‘The Critical-Thinking Testing, Level 1’ after receiving the courses as post-test. Data were analysed statistically by one-way ANCOVA. The results showed that: Regards to the performance in Integrated Activity courses, no significant difference was found among students in EG1 and those in EG2. However, the students in both experimental groups got higher scores than those in control group did. As for the ability of critical thinking, students in EG2 got higher score than those in EG1 and CG did, but no difference was found among the students in EG1 and those in CG. In respect of originality, students in EG2 got higher score than those in EG1 did, the influence of critical thinking was significant. Theoretical and possible applications of the results were also discussed. Present study not only manifests the correlation between creative thinking and critical thinking, but also provides the empirical data for synergy in actual pedagogical situations.

Discriminating the Difference between Remote and Close Association with Relation to White-Matter Structural Connectivity

Remote association is a core ability that influences creative output. In contrast to close association, remote association is commonly agreed to be connected with more original and unique concepts. However, although existing studies have discovered that creativity is closely related to the white-matter structure of the brain, there are no studies that examine the relevance between the connectivity efficiencies and creativity of the brain regions from the perspective of networks. Consequently, this study constructed a brain white matter network structure that consisted of cerebral tissues and nerve fibers and used graph theory to analyze the connection efficiencies among the network nodes, further illuminating the differences between remote and close association in relation to the connectivity of the brain network. Researchers analyzed correlations between the scores of 35 healthy adults with regard to remote and close associations and the connectivity efficiencies of the white-matter network of the brain. Controlling for gender, age, and verbal intelligence, the remote association positively correlated with the global efficiency and negatively correlated with the levels of small-world. A close association negatively correlated with the global efficiency. Notably, the node efficiency in the middle temporal gyrus (MTG) positively correlated with remote association and negatively correlated with close association. To summarize, remote and close associations work differently as patterns in the brain network. Remote association requires efficient and convenient mutual connections between different brain regions, while close association emphasizes the limited connections that exist in a local region. These results are consistent with previous results, which indicate that creativity is based on the efficient integration and connection between different regions of the brain and that temporal lobes are the key regions for discriminating remote and close associations.

The effects of classroom goal structures on the creativity of junior high school students

Previous studies have indicated that situational factors can influence students’ creativity. However, no studies have specifically examined the relationship between classroom goal structures and student creativity during real classroom activities. For this study, we recruited 232 seventh-grade students from Taipei City and randomly divided them into the following three classroom goal structure groups at the start of the semester: an enhanced group with a mastery classroom goal structure, an enhanced group with a multiple (mastery and performance) classroom goal structure and a control group. Before receiving the experimental manipulation, the students’ level of creativity showed no significant differences. After six weeks, the students in the enhanced groups with mastery classroom goal structure and multiple classroom goal structure exhibited superior fluency, flexibility and creativity compared to those in the control group. However, the creativity of the students in the enhanced groups with mastery classroom goal structure and multiple classroom goal structure showed no significant difference. This indicates that the mastery classroom goal structure itself can sufficiently enhance students’ creativity. The results of this study support the existence of a causal relationship between classroom goal structures and student creativity. When teachers develop an appropriate learning climate in classrooms with an emphasis on mastery goals, students’ creativity and creative expression can be stimulated. We also discuss the theoretical and extendable implications of this study based on the results.

The impact of gelotophobia, gelotophilia and katagelasticism on creativity

Abstract A number of studies have found that humor has a positive short-term effect in terms of enhancing creativity, but few have examined its long-term effects, and few have considered different personality traits when exploring this connection. The present study seeks to address this gap by examining the relationship between creativity and dispositions towards ridicule and being laughed at. We conceptualized humor-induced mirth as a positive emotion within the framework of broaden-and-build theory (Fredrickson 1998), with the potential to foster an individuals disposition towards creative behavior. We hypothesized that this potential would depend on different dispositions towards ridicule and being laughed at. Path analysis was then used to explore the impact of gelotophobia, gelotophilia and katagelasticism on creative performance, with creative disposition as a mediating variable. Gelotophobia, the fear of being laughed at, was found to correlate negatively with creative disposition, and may also exert an indirect negative influence on creative performance through its association with creative disposition. Gelotophilia, the joy of being laughed at, on the other hand, appears to have a partially mediated influence on creativity, exhibiting both a direct and an indirect positive relation through its positive association with creative disposition. No significant relation was observed between katagelasticism (the joy of laughing at others) and creativity.

Neural Correlates of Hostile Jokes: Cognitive and Motivational Processes in Humor Appreciation

Hostile jokes (HJs) provide aggressive catharsis and a feeling of superiority. Behavioral research has found that HJs are perceived as funnier than non-hostile jokes (NJs). The purpose of the present study was to identify the neural correlates of the interaction between type and humor by comparing HJs, NJs, and their corresponding hostile sentences (HSs) and non-hostile sentences (NSs). HJs primarily showed activation in the dorsomedial prefrontal cortex (dmPFC) and midbrain compared with the corresponding hostile baseline. Conversely, NJs primarily revealed activation in the ventromedial PFC (vmPFC), amygdala, midbrain, ventral anterior cingulate cortex, and nucleus accumbens (NAcc) compared with the corresponding non-hostile baseline. These results support the critical role of the medial PFC (mPFC) for the neural correlates of social cognition and socio-emotional processing in response to different types of jokes. Moreover, the processing of HJs showed increased activation in the dmPFC, which suggested cognitive operations of social motivation, whereas the processing of NJs displayed increased activation in the vmPFC, which suggested social-affective engagement. HJs versus NJs primarily showed increased activation in the dmPFC and midbrain, whereas NJs versus HJs primarily displayed greater activation in the amygdala and midbrain. The psychophysiological interaction (PPI) analysis demonstrated functional coupling of the dmPFC–dlPFC and midbrain–dmPFC for HJs and functional coupling of the vmPFC–midbrain and amygdala–midbrain–NAcc for NJs. Surprisingly, HJs were not perceived as funnier than NJs. Future studies could further investigate the neural correlates of potentially important traits of high-hostility tendencies in humor appreciation based on the psychoanalytic and superiority theories of humor.