Overcoming mental fixation by switching the internal spotlight

The current transition to industry 4.0 increasingly requires employees to think flexibly and to combine concepts of different domains. At the same time, there is a strong need for basic research, to which this project is dedicated to. The project is directed by Prof. Dietrich Albert and Prof. Tobias Ley and implemented by Dr. Paul Seitlinger. It comprises three studies that contribute to basic and applied-oriented research questions in the field of creative cognition (e.g., Benedek & Neubauer, 2013). The focus is on investigating the interplay of search processes in human memory and executive processing (e.g., Unsworth & Engle, 2007) to examine a central characteristic of creative achievements, namely overcoming mental fixation to combine previously dissociated thoughts (e.g., Mednick, 1962). We utilize stochastic models of memory search (e.g., Albert, 1968; McGill, 1963; Polyn, Norman & Kahana, 2009) for the mathematical analysis of response protocols and estimating parameters representing psychological constructs involved in creative thought. We focus on parameters that represent psychological constructs of creative cognition. In particular, we are interested in parameters to represent a) temporal dynamics of retrieval from memory (e.g., Wixted & Rohrer, 1994) as well as b) executive processes (e.g., Unsworth & Engle, 2007) helping to activate/inhibit creative/uncreative thoughts. Beyond that, we apply the stochastic Context Maintenance and Retrieval (CMR) model (Polyn et al., 2009), to describe the role of context to overcome mental fixation. The CMR model assumes that search of memory is driven by internal context representations acting like a spotlight illuminating context-related memory items. We assume that high executive processing capacity corresponds to an individuals flexibility in shifting the internal spotlight to continuously find new ideas and to overcome the inner state of mental fixation. Moreover, we relate laboratory results (study 1) to everyday creative activities (studies 2 and 3). We will investigate the question of how the internal interplay of search and executive processes unfolds in searching the World Wide Web in the course of a creative Web-based search task lasting several weeks. Referring to Žižek (2012) and Pentland (2014), semantic technologies (e.g., Googles filter bubble) create individual echo-rooms: the recommendation of personalized search results makes it difficult to find actually new and personally enriching information. Therefore, a mechanism will be developed and evaluated that induces changes of internal context representations. Hence, we test the assumption that creative thinking in terms of flexible, internal spotlight shifts helps escaping the echo-room and overcoming mental fixation. The project will deepen the understanding of creative processes and will develop mechanisms to support creative achievements.

The current transition to industry 4.0 increasingly requires employees to think flexibly and to combine concepts of different domains. In many professional areas, this process is initiated by a creative search for information on the web. There is still a strong need for basic research in this field, to which this project was dedicated. The project comprised three studies that contribute to basic and applied-oriented research questions in the field of creative cognition with a focus on web-based information search. Emphasis was placed on exploring the interplay of search processes in human memory and executive processing in order to examine a central feature of creative achievement. Namely, the overcoming of mental fixation to combine previously unrelated thoughts. To model such constructs, we first examined stochastic models of memory search that represent psychological constructs of creative cognition. In particular, we used the stochastic Context Maintenance and Retrieval (CMR) model to describe the role of context in overcoming mental fixation. The CMR model assumes that an internal context representation determines the memory search that raises awareness of certain contextual memory content similar to a "searchlight." We were able to show that a high executive processing capacity corresponds with a high flexibility of the internal "searchlight". Moreover, we related laboratory results (study 1) to everyday creative activities such as online information search (studies 2 and 3). We investigated the question of how the internal interplay of search and executive processes unfolds in searching the World Wide Web in the course of a creative web-based search task lasting several weeks. Referring to Žižek (2012) and Pentland (2014), semantic technologies (e.g., mechanisms for personalized presentation of web content) create virtual echo-rooms: the recommendation of personalized search results makes it difficult to find actually new and personally enriching information. Therefore, a mechanism was developed and evaluated that induces changes of internal context representations. Consequently, we were able to show that creative thinking in the sense of a flexible "searchlight" helps to break the echo space and thus the mental fixation.