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(1) Background: Humor stands out as the most dynamic and innovative aspect of human intelligence. Drawing on the cognitive parallels between humor and creativity, this study explored the EEG alpha frequency band activity patterns during humor generation by comparing the process of generating humorous and creative ideas. (2) Methods: Thirty-six participants were randomly assigned to either the humor generation group or the creative generation group, and the dependent variable was the neural oscillation in both low-frequency and high-frequency alpha during the early, middle, and late stages of both humor and creative generation. (3) Results: In the early stages, both humor and creative generation exhibited significantly higher power in low-frequency alpha and high-frequency alpha in the temporal region compared to the middle and late stages. In the middle and late stages, the low-frequency alpha oscillation in the frontal region for humor generation was significantly higher than that for creative generation. (4) Conclusions: Humor and creative generation share similar neural activation patterns in the early stages, involving the activation and retrieval of long-term memory information based on contextual cues. The differences between the two primarily manifest in the middle and late stages, where the selection of humorous ideas requires inhibiting not only irrelevant or ordinary ideas, akin to creative generation but also novel yet non-humorous ideas. This study sheds light on the neurocognitive mechanisms of humor generation and provides insights into the cognitive parallels and distinctions between humor generation and creative generation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Humor is a lubricant of interpersonal relationships and is regarded as an important quality of individual creativity. Previous studies have mainly focused on passive humor appreciation and comprehension but ignored active humor generation, especially the cognitive process of humor generation. Based on the hypothesis that humor generation is similar to creative cognition, this study used humorous two-part allegorical sayings to explore whether humor generation involves the cognitive processes of the activation and inhibition of information. The experiment manipulated the duration (5/10 s) of the presentation of the first part of humorous two-part allegorical sayings, which are called "yinyu," and the type of subthreshold probe words (humorous probe words/usual probe words). The results showed that the interaction between the duration of the presentation of yinyu and the type of subthreshold probe words was significant; the correct number of humorous probe words reported was significantly lower than that of usual probe words when the yinyu was presented for 5 s, which reflected the widespread activation of information. The correct number of humorous probe words reported was significantly higher than that of usual probe words when the yinyu was presented for 10 s, which suggested the inhibition of non-humorous information. This study revealed the dynamic cognitive processes of humor generation and verified possible cognitive similarities between humor generation and creative cognition. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• This study investigates humor generation and creativity. • Eye-tracking assessed how subjects chose among four answer types. • A "Humor" group's focus shifted from novel to humorous answers. • A "Novel" group favored humorous answers, showing cognitive overlap. • Insights on cognitive links and differences between humor and creativity are provided. Humor generation represents the application of creative cognition in spontaneous, real-life contexts. This study sought to explore the cognitive processes involved in humor generation, with a special focus on the selection of humorous punchlines, by comparing humor and creativity. Employing a daily dialogue Question-Answer paradigm, participants were presented with four types of alternative answers for each dialogue: humorous, novel (non-humorous), routine, and irrelevant. Utilizing eye-tracking technology, the study tracked participants' eye movement trajectories during the selection of humorous punchlines, with a focus on fixation durations on the four answer types at different time intervals. Fifty participants were randomly assigned to either the group tasked with selecting humorous answers or the group tasked with selecting novel answers. The findings indicated that the humor group initially spent more time fixating on novel answers than humorous ones when selecting humorous punchlines; however, in the later stages, fixation duration on humorous answers surpassed that on novel answers. This dynamic underscores a competitive relationship between these two types of associations, shedding light on the cognitive distinctions between humor and creativity. Conversely, the novel group consistently exhibited a preference for humorous answers throughout the punchline selection process. The preference for humorous semantics in the novel group underscored cognitive similarities between humor and creativity. This study sheds light on the cognitive processes involved in selecting humorous punchlines and provides valuable insights into the cognitive parallels and distinctions between humor and creativity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The present study explores the effect of perceived teacher support on three forms of thinking related to creativity. Tests of convergent thinking (by means of the Remote Associates Test), insight thinking (explored through a brain‐teaser test), and divergent thinking (by means of a verbal creativity test) were given to 512 middle school students in China, along with assessments of their perceived teacher support and creative self‐efficacy. The results of this study indicate that perceived teacher support positively predicts convergent thinking and insight thinking, with creative self‐efficacy playing a partial mediating role between perceived teacher support and convergent thinking. However, no significant relationships were found between perceived teacher support and divergent thinking. The findings partly lend support to the expectancy–value model of achievement motivation that teacher's behavior influences student performance through self‐belief pathway. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]