Search

Transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS) over the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (DLPFC) has been shown to enhance divergent and convergent creative thinking. Yet, how stimulation impacts creative performance over time, and what cognitive mechanisms underlie any such enhancement, remain largely unanswered questions. In the present research, we aimed to (1) verify the impact of DLPFC tDCS on both convergent and divergent thinking, and further investigated (2) the temporal dynamics of divergent thinking, focusing on the serial order effect (i.e., the tendency for ideas to become more original and less frequent over time), and (3) any role that cognitive inhibition may play in mediating any effect of stimulation on creative thinking (considering the DLPFC's involvement in driving inhibitory processes that are also relevant for creative thinking). In a within-subjects design, twenty-six participants received three types of cross-hemispheric tDCS stimulation over the DLPFC (left cathodal and right anodal, L-R+; left anodal and right cathodal, L+R-; and sham). Before stimulation, they completed a pre-flanker task measuring cognitive inhibition; during stimulation, they completed the Alternate Uses Task (AUT), Remote Associates Test (RAT), and post-flanker task. Results showed that, compared with the sham stimulation, originality of responses in the AUT was significantly enhanced in the L+R- condition, while no tDCS effect was observed for the RAT. Additionally, compared with the other stimulation conditions, we found a diminished serial order effect in the L+R- condition characterized by an accelerated production of more original ideas. Critically, the L+R- condition was accompanied by better performance on the flanker task. Our findings thus verify that L+R- tDCS over the DLPFC accelerates idea originality also providing tentative clues that inhibition may act as a cognitive mechanism underlying enhancements in divergent thinking resulting from frontal lobe neuromodulation.

Although there are numerous chemistry-related careers within the STEM fields, chemistry-related careers are not well regarded. High school is a critical time for developing students' career choices. Previous studies suggest that anxiety and identity may be predictors of career choice. Therefore, the purpose of this study was to investigate the influence of high school students' chemistry anxiety (learning anxiety and test anxiety) and chemistry identity (competence/performance beliefs, interest, external recognition, and holistic impression on identity) on chemistry career choices. Guided by the possibility of different hindrances to chemistry career choice for males and females, the study further detected gender-specific patterns of relations between variables. The results of multigroup structural equation modeling firstly showed that different constructs of chemistry identity were positive and significant predictors of chemistry career choice but varied by gender. Specifically, competence/ performance beliefs and holistic impression on identity were significantly associated with females' chemistry career choices. In contrast, interest, external recognition, and holistic impression on identity motivated males' chemistry career choices. Secondly, the effects of chemistry learning anxiety and test anxiety on chemistry career choice were completely mediated by chemistry identity, whereas the pathways and strength of mediation differed between females and males.

Though previous research has established a strong link between resilience and cognitive creativity, few studies have extended this association to social creativity. The underlying mechanisms of the influence of resilience on social creativity remain unknown. Therefore, the current study introduced sense of humor and positive mood to explore the influence of resilience on social creativity. We established a chain mediation model with data from 186 Chinese college students. The results showed that resilience was associated with social creativity. The sense of humor and positive mood were serial mediators in this relationship. The results have demonstrated that student participants with higher levels of resilience are more likely to use humor in their study, which may help them get a more positive mood than their counterparts with lower levels of resilience. Then, positive mood is conducive to students' performance of social creativity.

Background: Since the outbreak of COVID-19, online courses have been extensively used from K-12 to higher education. Online learning engagement, an important factor in online learning success, is currently at a low level in high school. Meanwhile, the research on the factors that influence high school students' online learning engagement is still limited. Objectives: Based on the theories of regulatory focus and value control, this study developed a multi-mediation model to investigate whether self-efficacy and academic emotions can mediate the relationship between regulatory focus and online learning engagement. Methods: A total of 926 high school student (52.16% female, mean age = 16.47 years) were recruited to participate in this study and completed self-report measures of regulatory focus, online learning engagement, online learning self-efficacy and academic emotions. And we used SPSS macro PROCESS developed by Hayes to examine the mediating role of online learning self-efficacy and academic emotions. Results and Conclusions: The results indicated that promotion focus had a stable positive effect on online learning engagement of high school students, whereas prevention focus had a significant negative effect on the same. Self-efficacy and positive emotions had a significant positive mediating effect between promotion focus and online learning engagement. Moreover, positive emotions had a significant positive mediating effect between the prevention focus and online learning engagement, while negative emotions had a significant negative mediating effect between them.

Previous studies have illustrated a robust relationship between academic self-efficacy and academic performance. However, the underlying psychological mechanism of this relationship is still unclear. This study employed a moderated mediation model to examine whether academic buoyancy (ability to deal with academic challenges and setbacks in school daily life) mediated the relationship between academic self-efficacy and academic performance and whether social support moderated the mediation process. A total of 860 (M = 16.39, SD = 0.73) high school students in China completed questionnaires on academic self-efficacy, academic buoyancy, and social support. Academic performance was measured by standardized tests. The results indicated that academic buoyancy partially mediated the association between academic self-efficacy and academic performance. Social support moderated the first half of the path of the mediation model. The findings of the present study provide educational guidelines and suggestions for improving academic performance among high school students.

With the urgent goal of increasing student retention within science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) fields, STEM identity is highlighted as a powerful source of student persistence. Since chemistry is an important part of the STEM discipline, a growing body of research has focused on chemistry identity. However, we currently know very little about how to improve students' chemistry identity. Therefore, the present study aimed to explore the mechanisms of metacognition, learning burnout, and learning flow in identity in the context of chemistry, further providing suggestions for the advancement of students' chemistry identity. Based on previous studies, the current study hypothesized that chemistry learning burnout and flow would play a chain mediating role in the relationship between metacognition and chemistry identity. A sample of 594 tenth-grade students completed questionnaires for the assessment of the four main variables in this study. The results showed that (1) metacognition, chemistry learning burnout, and chemistry learning flow significantly predicted students' chemistry identity after the effect of gender was controlled; (2) both chemistry learning burnout and chemistry learning flow played separate mediating roles in the relationship between metacognition and chemistry identity; and (3) the chain mediating effect of metacognition [right arrow] chemistry learning burnout [right arrow] chemistry learning flow [right arrow] chemistry identity was significant. These findings imply that embedded metacognitive prompts, decreased learning burnout, and increased flow experience are vastly helpful in developing learners' chemistry identity. Finally, we further highlight the educational implications of the findings of this study and propose lines of future research.

An emerging body of research has focused on students' creativity in group contexts, with the assumption that students could be inspired by peers' ideas. Although students' openness and attention to peers' ideas are claimed to play important roles in their creativity in group settings, there is little empirical research that tests this assumption. This study examined the moderating effect of attention to peers' ideas in the relation between openness and creativity in electronic brainstorming. Participants were 91 undergraduate students who took about 10 min to complete a creative idea generation task during electronic brainstorming. Regression analyses found that students who were characterized by high openness were more creative, but only when they showed more attention to peers' ideas. This suggests that electronic brainstorming can be useful for enhancing the creativity of some students.

This study tested the interaction effect of the instructor's eye gaze (direct gaze vs. averted gaze) and facial expression (happy face vs. neutral face) on students' attention and learning performance in slide-based video lectures. University students (N = 120) participated in the experiment in a laboratory setting. The results of ANOVAs showed that students in the conditions that included the instructor's direct gaze paid greater attention to the instructor's face and paid less attention to the video lecture slides. However, direct gaze predicted better learning when the instructor had a happy facial expression. Our results suggest that the effects of an instructor's eye gaze are modulated by her facial expression in this educational context. The findings have practical implications for designing slide-based video lectures: an instructor is encouraged to look straight towards the camera with a happy expression.

Background: Science identity is widely regarded as a key predictor of students' persistence in STEM fields, while the brain drain in STEM fields is an urgent issue for countries to address. Based on previous studies, it is logical to suggest that epistemological beliefs about science and reflective thinking contribute to the development of science identity. However, few empirical studies have focused on the relationship between these three variables. Therefore, using structural equation modeling, the present study constructed a model to explore the relationship between epistemological beliefs, reflective thinking, three science identity shaping constructs (interest, competence/performance beliefs, external recognition), and the holistic impression on science identity (a single indicator). Results: The results indicated that the epistemological beliefs were positively correlated with interest and reflective thinking, as well as the direct effects of reflective thinking on interest or competence/performance beliefs were significant. In terms of indirect effect, interest plays a mediating role in the relationship between epistemological beliefs and holistic impression on science identity, while the mediation effect of competence/performance beliefs was not significant. Epistemological beliefs contributed to the holistic impression on science identity via reflective thinking, competence/performance beliefs, and interest or external recognition. Conclusion: The results of this study reveal that epistemological beliefs and reflective thinking have a direct effect on science identity. In addition, epistemological beliefs have an indirect effect on scientific identity through reflective thinking. These provide insights for educators to figure out how to develop students' science identity by enhancing their epistemological beliefs and reflective thinking. Practical educational implications are also further discussed in the present study.

Based on social cognitive theory and ecological systems theory, this study constructed a conditional process model to explore the relationship between academic self-efficacy and test anxiety as well as underlying psychological mechanisms through academic buoyancy and peer support. A sample of Chinese high school students (N = 560) completed questionnaires assessing academic self-efficacy, academic buoyancy, peer support, and test anxiety. Structural equation modeling (SEM) revealed an indirect effect of academic self-efficacy on test anxiety through academic buoyancy. Moreover, the results of the conditional process analysis demonstrated that this indirect effect was moderated by peer support. The findings suggested that both personal positive psychological characteristics (e.g., academic buoyancy) and school environmental factors (e.g., peer support) are protective factors for test anxiety in high school students. Limitations and implications for future research are discussed.

With the rising aging population in China, increasing attention has been paid to the spatial layouts of medical and residential care facilities; however, the accessibility and aging suitability of these facilities have received less attention. Taking Guangdong province as an example, this study used the improved two-step floating catchment area method to measure the accessibility of medical and residential care facilities and summarized their spatial pattern characteristics from four dimensions (1 km, four regions, cities, and counties). A correlation was established between the elderly population density data and their degrees using the autocorrelation analysis method and the Gini coefficient to analyze the aging suitability and equality of medical and residential care facilities. Finally, the Spearman correlation coefficient was used to analyze the factors influencing the accessibility and equality from three aspects, namely: the natural environment, society, and economy. The following results were obtained: 1) Compared with the Gaussian two-step floating catchment area method, the improved two-step floating catchment area method was more accurate in reflecting the accessibility of medical and residential care facilities; this showed that the accessibility of downtown areas was relatively lower and that of the suburbs was relatively higher, and the distribution of accessibility values was more reasonable. The results of the improved two-step floating catchment area method revealed an obvious spatial imbalance in the accessibility of medical and residential care facilities for the elderly and the accessibility of medical facilities for the residential care facilities in Guangdong Province. The accessibility of medical and residential care facilities for the elderly in the Pearl River Delta region is relatively good, whereas that in the eastern and western coastal economic zones is relatively poor. However, the Pearl River Delta region has the worst accessibility to medical care facilities for residential care facilities among the four regions and efforts are still needed to realize a combination of medical and residential care. 2) The medical and residential care facilities in the Guangzhou-Foshan metropolitan area and the northern part of Meizhou city were not suitable for the elderly. There was a substantial inequality in the accessibility of medical and residential care facilities for the elderly in Guangdong Province. The accessibility of medical facilities for the residential care facilities in Guangdong province is more equal, but there is still a large inequality; 15 cities in Guangdong province have Gini coefficients greater than 0.5. 3) Road network density, population density, per capita GDP, and local financial expenditure were significantly correlated with the accessibility of medical and residential care facilities. The average altitude, eco-environmental status index, area, road network density, population density, per capita GDP and public financial expenditure were significantly correlated with the equality of medical and residential care facilities for the elderly in Guangdong Province. The results of this study can provide a reference for optimizing the allocation and layout of medical and residential care facilities in Guangdong Province.

Background: While empirical research on creativity has grown steadily over the past 35 years, teachers' beliefs about creativity and their implicit beliefs about teaching for creativity remains understudied, as well as cross-cultural examination of teacher beliefs in this area. Aims: This study explored the measurement invariance of beliefs about "teaching" for creativity (creative self-efficacy, fixed creative mindset, growth creative mindset, desirability of creativity for teaching success and value of creativity for student academic and workplace success). Sample: American and Chinese educators at two universities were surveyed to rate the degree to which they agreed with statements about beliefs about teaching for creativity (N = 376). Methods: Measurement invariance analysis was used Multiple-Groups Confirmatory Factor Analysis with the "lavaan" package in the R Statistical Programing Environment. Results: Partial measurement invariance was obtained such that a model with factor loadings constrained equal across samples for four of the five constructs (creative self-efficacy, fixed creative mindset, growth creative mindset, desirability of creativity for teaching success), did not worsen model fitness. Additionally, when factor loadings for items on the value of creativity for student academic and workplace success latent variable were allowed to vary across samples, we found evidence of structural invariance. That is, the covariances among the five latent variables were found to be invariant across samples. Conclusions: The major result of this study is that the theoretical structure and relations among five important creative self-constructs is invariant across American and Chinese educational constructs. However, there may be cultural differences in the value of creativity for student academic and workplace success, as perceived by teachers. Future research can focus on calibrating teacher beliefs about teaching for creativity with classroom observation, in American and Chinese educational contexts.

Intrinsic motivation is seen as the principal source of vitality in educational settings. This study examined whether intrinsic motivation promoted online group creativity and tested a cognitive mechanism that might explain this effect. University students (N = 72; 61 women) who volunteered to participate were asked to fulfill a creative task with a peer using online software. The peer was actually a fake participant who was programed to send prepared answers in sequence. Ratings of creativity (fluency, flexibility and originality) and eye movement data (focus on own vs. peer's ideas on the screen) were used to compare students who were induced to have high intrinsic motivation and those induced to have low intrinsic motivation. Results showed that compared to participants with low intrinsic motivation, those with high intrinsic motivation showed higher fluency and flexibility on the creative task and spent a larger percentage of time looking at their own ideas on the screen. The two groups did not differ in how much they looked at the peer's ideas. In addition, students' percentage dwell time on their own ideas mediated the beneficial effect of intrinsic motivation on idea fluency. These results suggest that although intrinsic motivation could enhance the fluency of creative ideas in an online group, it does not necessarily promote interaction among group members. Given the importance of interaction in online group setting, findings of this study suggest that in addition to enhancing intrinsic motivation, other measures should be taken to promote the interaction behavior in online groups.

Two studies investigated the effects of cognitive and school environmental factors on adolescents' creative performance. The first study tested the effects of expected evaluation and cognitive style on creativity among 89 high school students. The second study tested the effects of evaluation type and cognitive style on creativity among 92 high school students. Study 1 found main effects of expected evaluation and cognitive style on creativity. The interaction between expected evaluation and cognitive style was statistically significant. Under an experimental condition of expected evaluation, field-dependent adolescents performed more creatively (i.e., higher originality) than those without expected evaluation. Study 2 uncovered main effects of expected evaluation type and cognitive style on creativity but no interactions between expected evaluation type and cognitive style. Adolescents performed better on the dimension of flexibility in a controlling evaluation condition, compared with adolescents in informational evaluation condition, and field-independent adolescents showed more fluency and originality than field-dependent adolescents. Together, this research provides a better understanding of the effects of expected evaluation and cognitive style on adolescents' creative performance. Implications for further research are discussed.

Although encouraging student creativity is a commonly recognised goal of STEM education, there is a lack of research in this area. In this study, the effects of epistemic beliefs on STEM creativity and the mediation of intellectual risk-taking were investigated. The subjects were 461 primary students in Hong Kong. The findings revealed that (i) intellectual risk-taking was a significant and positive predictor of STEM creativity; (ii) the certainty and justification dimensions of epistemic beliefs had direct, negative and significant impacts on STEM creativity; and (iii) the complexity dimension of epistemic beliefs had both direct and indirect significantly positive impacts on STEM creativity, and the indirect impacts were mediated by intellectual risk-taking. This study revealed the complicated relationships between different orientations in epistemic beliefs and STEM creativity, which include both constraining and facilitating effects, and both direct and indirect impacts. We argue that although reducing naïve and relativistic epistemic beliefs is essential for the development of creativity in STEM education, the effects of cultivating mature epistemic beliefs may not be sufficient. Further direct and explicit approaches are required to more effectively enhance students' STEM creativity.

The present study aimed to explore the neural-related mechanism of the creative evaluation process in individual with different levels of creativity. The time course of evaluation process for creative objects was monitored by event-related potentials (EPRs). Forty-five participants were divided into the high-creativity performance (HCP) group and the low-creativity performance (LCP) group and then completed a creative object evaluation task. The behavioral results revealed that the HCP group showed higher accuracy rates on the creative object evaluation task than the LCP group did. The ERPs analysis demonstrated that in the early stage of creative object processing, ordinary objects elicited a more negative anterior N2 at 190-340 ms than the creative objects did in the LCP group. In the late stage of creative object processing, creative objects elicited a more positive ERPs deflection in the HCP group than in the LCP group at 350-500 ms and at 500-1000 ms. Taken together, these results indicate that different creativity performance individuals may express different attention patterns or top-down processing strategy in the early stage of creative object evaluation processing; and high-creativity performance individuals can better utilize both cognitive and non-cognitive evaluation processing in the late stage, to process the creative object effectively.

Metaphors are a common way to express creative language, yet the cognitive basis of figurative language production remains poorly understood. Previous studies found that higher creative individuals can better comprehend novel metaphors, potentially due to a more flexible semantic memory network structure conducive to remote conceptual combination. The present study extends this domain to creative metaphor production and examined whether the ability to produce creative metaphors is related to variation in the structure of semantic memory. Participants completed a creative metaphor production task and two verbal fluency tasks. They were divided into two equal groups based on their creative metaphor production score. The semantic networks of these two groups were estimated and analyzed based on their verbal fluency responses using a computational network science approach. Results revealed that the semantic networks of high-metaphor producing individuals were more flexible, clustered, and less rigid than that of the low-metaphor producing individuals. Importantly, these results replicated across both semantic categories. The findings provide the first evidence that a flexible, clustered, and less rigid semantic memory structure relates to people's ability to produce figurative language, extending the growing literature on the role of semantic networks in creativity to the domain of metaphor production.

Dynamic, momentary affective states have significant effects on creativity; however, how negative affect modulates the neurocognitive processes involved in creativity is still unclear. This study investigated the neural mechanisms of creative thinking under varying avoidance-motivation intensity. Sixty participants (17 men and 43 women; age range = 18-25 years; mean = 21.22 years, SD = 1.35) randomly assigned to three groups (high-avoidance-motivation, low-avoidance-motivation, and unmotivated bias state) completed creative tasks in two conditions -- creative idea generation and creative idea evaluation. In the former condition, the low-avoidance-motivation group exhibited greater fluency of divergent thinking than the high-avoidance-motivation group. Functional near-infrared spectroscopy revealed an interaction effect between creative demand and avoidance-motivation intensity in the bilateral inferior frontal gyrus and right middle frontal gyrus in creative idea generation. In the latter condition, there were no significant differences between the three avoidance motivation groups in behavior and brain activation results. Furthermore, the association of the prefrontal cortex and temporal region in these tasks indicated that these regions may be part of the core mechanism underlying the modulatory effects of avoidance-motivation intensity on ongoing neurocognitive processing during creative thinking.