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Four experiments tested the forgetting fixation hypothesis of incubation effects, comparing continuous vs. alternating generation of exemplars from three different types of categories. In two experiments, participants who listed as many members as possible from two different categories produced more responses, and more novel responses, when they alternated back and forth between the two categories, as compared to continuous uninterrupted listing from each of the two categories. This incubation effect was not found in Experiment 1, when participants were given taxonomic categories ("birds" and "clothing") for the generation task, but was found in Experiment 2 with sense impression categories ("cold things" and "heavy things"), and in Experiment 3 with "ad hoc" categories ("equipment you take camping" and "fattening foods"). A similar incubation effect was observed in Experiment 4 when a non-verbal task was given between category generation tasks, but only for flexibly defined categories. The results suggest that forgetting from one alternating listing period to the next in the form of altering category cue representations was consistent with the observed incubation effects. These "alternating incubation" effects have implications for understanding cognitive processes that underlie creative cognition.

Does spreading activation from incidentally encountered hints cause incubation effects? We used Remote Associates Test (RAT) problems to examine effects of incidental clues on impasse resolution. When solution words were seen incidentally 3-sec before initially unsolved problems were retested, more problems were resolved (Experiment 1). When strong semantic associates of solutions were used as incidental clues, however, it did not improve resolution (Experiments 2 and 4). The semantic associates we used as incidental clues primed our RAT solution words in a lexical decision task, but they did not facilitate impasse resolution unless participants were explicitly instructed to use the associates as hints to the retested problems (Experiment 4). The results do not support the theory that spreading activation is a sufficient cause of incubation effects, and suggest that serendipitously encountered clues (i.e., words that are semantically related to RAT solutions) have no automatic benefit on impasse resolution in RAT problem solving.

Research on retrieval-induced forgetting has shown that retrieval can cause the forgetting of related or competing items in memory (Anderson, Bjork, & Bjork, 1994). In the present research, we examined whether an analogous phenomenon occurs in the context of creative problem solving. Using the Remote Associates Test (RAT; Mednick, 1962), we found that attempting to generate a novel common associate to 3 cue words caused the forgetting of other strong associates related to those cue words. This problem-solving-induced forgetting effect occurred even when participants failed to generate a viable solution, increased in magnitude when participants spent additional time problem solving, and was positively correlated with problem-solving success on a separate set of RAT problems. These results implicate a role for forgetting in overcoming fixation in creative problem solving. (Contains 1 table and 2 figures.)

Fixation (blocks to memories or ideas) can be alleviated not only by encouraging productive work towards a solution, but, as the present experiments show, by reducing counterproductive work. Two experiments examined relief from fixation in a word-fragment completion task. Blockers, orthographically similar negative primes (e.g., ANALOGY), blocked solutions to word fragments (e.g., A_L_ _GY) in both experiments. After priming, but before the fragment completion test, participants repeatedly suppressed half of the blockers using the Think/No-Think paradigm, which results in memory inhibition. Inhibiting blockers did not alleviate fixation in Experiment 1 when conscious recollection of negative primes was not encouraged on the fragment completion test. In Experiment 2, however, when participants were encouraged to remember negative primes at fragment completion, relief from fixation was observed. Repeated suppression may nullify fixation effects, and promote creative thinking, particularly when fixation is caused by conscious recollection of counterproductive information. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Three experiments examined the prediction that context cues which are similar to study contexts can facilitate episodic recall, even if those cues are never seen before the recall test. Environmental context cueing effects have typically produced such small effect sizes that influences of moderating factors, such as the similarity between encoding and retrieval contexts, would be difficult to observe experimentally. Videos of environmental contexts, however, can be used to produce powerful context-dependent memory effects, particularly when only one memory target is associated with each video context, intentional item-context encoding is encouraged, and free recall tests are used. Experiment 1 showed that a not previously viewed video of the study context provided an effective recall cue, although it was not as effective as the originally viewed video context. Experiments 2 and 3 showed that videos of environments that were conceptually similar to encoding contexts (e.g., both were videos of ball field games) also cued recall, but not as well if the encoding contexts were given specific labels (e.g., “home run”) incompatible with test contexts (e.g., a soccer scene). A fourth experiment that used incidental item-context encoding showed that video context reinstatement has a robust effect on paired associate memory, indicating that the video context reinstatement effect does not depend on interactive item-context encoding or free recall testing. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]