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In the interview with Gregory J. Feist, one of most prolific creativity researchers, we discuss his career, main areas of research interest, chosen research methods and share his thoughts about the future of research on creativity and effectiveness in scientific work.

Motivated reasoning occurs when we reason differently about evidence that supports our prior beliefs than when it contradicts those beliefs. Adult participants (N = 377) from Amazon’s Mechanical Tu...

A thorough understanding of the relationship between quality and quantity of creative productions is critically important for creativity researchers and practitioners. The current study examines th...

We theoretically study circular dichroism of chiral molecules embedded inside a helicity-preserving Fabry-P\'erot cavity. We find an increase of the intrinsic chiroptical response of the molecules by 2 orders of magnitude and report the first clear signature of chiral cavity polaritons upon entering the regime of strong light-matter coupling. We study a cavity design based on two dielectric photonic crystal mirrors acting, in a narrow frequency range, as efficient polarization cross-converters in transmission for one polarization and almost perfect reflectors for the other polarization. We show that a Pasteur medium hosted inside such a cavity can couple efficiently to both the outside of the cavity and to the helicity-preserving mode, inheriting an enhanced chiral character. We expect such a device to be useful in the future to design ultrasensitive chiral sensors for optics and stereochemistry.

The general conclusion from recent research on the Big Two dimensions of human personality — Plasticity (extraversion and openness) and Stability (neuroticism, agreeableness, and conscientiousness) — show that Plasticity has a more robust and stronger association with creativity than Stability. More specifically, people who are high in plasticity and low in stability may be most likely to exhibit creative thought and behavior. Moreover, current research in neuroscience, genetics and neurochemistry of behavior each suggest biological mechanisms for how these personality qualities lower thresholds for creative thought and behavior.

Model structure uncertainty is seldom calculated because of the difficulty and time required to perform such analyses. Here we explore how a coastal model using the Monod versus Droop formulations and a 6 km × 6 km versus 2 km × 2 km computational grid size predict primary production and hypoxic area in the Gulf of Mexico. Results from these models were compared to each other and to observations, and sensitivity analyses were performed. The different models fit the observations almost equally well. The 6k-model calculated higher rates of production and settling, and especially a larger hypoxic area, in comparison to the 2k-model. The Monod-based model calculated higher production, especially close to the river delta regions, but smaller summer hypoxic area, than the model using the Droop formulation. The Monod-based model was almost twice as sensitive to changes in nutrient loads in comparison to the Droop model, which can have management implications.

Nutrient inputs to the Louisiana continental shelf (LCS) from lateral ocean boundaries can be significant, but the effect of these nutrients on LCS primary production has not been examined. Herein, we apply a three-dimensional physical-biogeochemical model to calculate nitrogen and phosphorus mass balances on the LCS and quantify the contributions of riverine and offshore nutrient inputs to primary production. A model sensitivity analysis to different offshore nutrient concentrations indicated that modeled primary production was most sensitive to boundary nitrogen concentrations, whereas changing boundary phosphorus concentrations had little effect. The primary production response also varied spatially and temporally, with its greatest response being to changing boundary nitrogen concentrations in areas furthest from the river plume, and during the late summer for all regions of the shelf when Mississippi River discharge approaches its annual minimum. These results indicate that even for river-dominated shelves like the LCS, uncertain boundary condition nutrient concentrations are likely to contribute significantly to uncertainty in modeled primary production. The modeling study highlights the need for further observational studies to understand the sources and variability of nutrients at LCS offshore boundaries and the impacts to LCS primary production.

The use of high temperatures (>873 K) for desulfurization of syngas has the potential to significantly increase the efficiency of gasification processes. Rare earth oxides are effective adsorbents at high temperatures but expensive. In this work, lanthanum oxide at low weight loadings (2.5–7.5 wt %) is supported on γ-Al2O3 to more efficiently use lanthanum oxide for hot gas desulfurization. The adsorbents are characterized with CO2 adsorption and tested in a fixed-bed reactor for H2S capture at 873 K over multiple cycles. The interaction between lanthanum oxide and the support varied with loading, and regeneration with humidified argon is better than with dilute oxygen. Although the capacity per gram of lanthanum is higher for supported lanthanum oxide, these adsorbents are not selective for the adsorption of H2S in the presence of CO2, CO, and CH4 likely as a result of site competition with CO2 and H2O.

Rapid body mass loss (RBML) before competition was found to decrease hemoglobin mass (Hbmass ) in elite boxers. This study aimed to investigate the underlying mechanisms of this observation. Fourteen well-trained combat athletes who reduced body mass before competitions (weight loss group, WLG) and 14 combat athletes who did not practice RBML (control group, CON) were tested during an ordinary training period (t-1), 1-2 days before an official competition (after 5-7 days RBML in WLG, t-2), and after a post-competition period (t-3). In WLG, body mass (-5.5%, range: 2.9-6.8 kg) and Hbmass (-4.1%) were significantly (P

Applying science to the current art of producing engineering and research knowledge has proven difficult, in large part because of its seeming complexity. We posit that the microscopic processes underlying research are not so complex, but instead are iterative and interacting cycles of divergent (generation of ideas) and convergent (testing and selecting of ideas) thinking processes. This reductionist framework coherently organizes a wide range of previously disparate microscopic mechanisms which inhibit these processes. We give examples of such inhibitory mechanisms and discuss how deeper scientific understanding of these mechanisms might lead to dis-inhibitory interventions for individuals, networks and institutional levels.

Creativity is sexy, but are all creative behaviors equally sexy? We attempted to clarify the role of creativity in mate selection among an ethnically diverse sample of 815 undergraduates. First we assessed the sexual attractiveness of different forms of creativity: ornamental/aesthetic, applied/technological, and everyday/domestic creativity. Both males and females preferred ornamental/aesthetic forms of creativity in a prospective sexual partner than applied/technological and everyday/domestic forms of creativity. Secondly, we assessed the simultaneous prediction of general cognitive ability, personality, divergent thinking, self-perceptions of creativity, and creative achievement on preferences for different forms of creativity in a prospective sexual partner. The results were generally consistent with assortative mating. The most robust predictors of a preference for applied/technological forms of creativity in a potential sexual partner were intellectual interests and creative achievement in applied/technological domains. In contrast, the most robust predictor of a preference for ornamental/aesthetic forms of creativity was openness to experience. The results suggest that openness to experience and its associated aesthetic, perceptual, and affective aspects are the primary characteristics influencing the sexual attractiveness of a creative display. Further, the results demonstrate the importance of also taking into account individual differences in personality, interests, and creative achievement when considering the sexual attractiveness of different manifestations of creativity.

The Louisiana continental shelf in the northern Gulf of Mexico experiences bottom water hypoxia in the summer. In this study, we applied a biogeochemical model that simulates dissolved oxygen concentrations on the shelf in response to varying riverine nutrient and organic carbon loads, boundary fluxes, and sediment fluxes. Five-year model simulations demonstrated that midsummer hypoxic areas were most sensitive to riverine nutrient loads and sediment oxygen demand from settled organic carbon. Hypoxic area predictions were also sensitive to nutrient and organic carbon fluxes from lateral boundaries. The predicted hypoxic area decreased with decreases in nutrient loads, but the extent of change was influenced by the method used to estimate model boundary concentrations. We demonstrated that modeling efforts to predict changes in hypoxic area on the continental shelf in relationship to changes in nutrients should include representative boundary nutrient and organic carbon concentrations and functions for estimating sediment oxygen demand that are linked to settled organic carbon derived from water-column primary production. On the basis of our model analyses using the most representative boundary concentrations, nutrient loads would need to be reduced by 69% to achieve the Gulf of Mexico Nutrient Task Force Action Plan target hypoxic area of 5000 km(2).

One important task for psychologists of science is to examine the psychological factors (such as personality or cognition) that underlie who becomes interested in science and what kind of attitudes people develop toward science. Those were the primary questions addressed by the present study in a sample of 655 college undergraduates. We predicted that the personality dimensions of openness to experience, conscientiousness, and introversion as well as the cognitive style need for cognition would each predict level of interest in science. Results confirmed these predictions, although the effect sizes tended to be small. Further analyses revealed that need for cognition explained variance in interest in science over and above variance explained by personality.

Scientific behavior, interest, talent, and achievement can be and have been investigated from each of the fundamental subdisciplines in psychology. Simply put, there is a psychology behind science. I review and summarize the major empirical findings from different subdisciplines—namely, cognitive, developmental, personality, social, and clinical. For the last 10 years, the discipline of the psychology of science has shown some real promise in becoming a new psychological subdiscipline in its own right. I review some of the evidence for such a claim.

Hf-Sc-O thin films were deposited at 500{degree sign}C on p-type Si(100)/SiO2 substrates by metal organic chemical vapour deposition. Hf(OtBu)2(mmp)2 and Sc(3mod)3 were used as precursors. The mixture of the precursors in a same solution leads to a rather low Sc incorporation. From XRD and ATR, it is found that the addition of a few percent of Sc (1 to 2 %) leads to the stabilization of the cubic phase. From plane-views TEM, the films are nanocrystallised, with an average grain size of 10 nm. The C(V) measurements on MOS structures show that the relative permittivity is maximum at ~ 1 to 2 % at. Sc in the films (epsilon ~ 25).

In this study we evaluated several precursors such as tetrakis(dimethylamino) titanium (TDMAT), tetrakis (diethylamino) titanium (TDEAT), tetrakis(ethylmethylamino) titanium (TEMAT) along with novel PrimeTiTM, StarTiTM and TyALDTM for TiO2 ALD application with both water and ozone as the oxidizer. Each precursor is evaluated with respect to some of the important characteristics like growth rate of TiO2 per ALD cycle, range and upper limit of process temperature window, volatility and stability of precursor, chemistry with desired oxidizer etc., that are critical for the selection of the precursor. All amino-compounds had a narrow process window. Precursor decomposition was observed for TDMAT, TDEAT and TEMAT at temperature higher than 225 oC limiting the deposition process at 225 {degree sign}C. On the other hand, TiO2 ALD using PrimeTiTM and StarTiTM is observed up to 325 and 400 {degree sign}C respectively. Finally, photoelectron spectroscopy analysis of some the films will be discussed.

In the present article, I review and summarize two subdisciplines of the psychology of science, namely development and personality. In the first section concerning developmental psychology of science, I review three major developmental topics: 1) the literature on the developmental and familial influences behind scientific interest and scientific talent (e.g., birth-order and theory acceptance, immigrant status and scientific talent); 2) gender and scientific interest and talent; and lastly, 3) age and scientific interest and productivity. In the second section concerning personality psychology of science, I organize the review around four major topics: 1) which traits make scientific interest in general more likely; 2) which traits make interest in specific domains of science more likely (especially social and physical science); 3) which traits make different theoretical orientations more likely; and finally, 4) which traits make scientific achievement and creativity more likely. From the empirical evidence reviewed, it is quite clear that developmental and personality factors impact directly and indirectly scientific thought, interest, and achievement.

As the British statesman Edmund Burke once wrote, “Those who do not know history are destined to repeat it.” (Not to be confused with George Santana's comment: “Those who do not learn from history are doomed to repeat it.”). The fact is that the history of the psychology of science has been a struggle for existence. If we wish to move away from struggle and toward a comfortable existence, then we need to learn lessons from the other disciplines that successfully have made the transition from fledgling field to fully established scientific discipline. The history, philosophy, and sociology of science are just such established disciplines.

As I have argued elsewhere ( Feist, 2006a ; Feist & Gorman, 1998 ), the psychology of science is a discipline that incorporates all the major subdisciplines in psychology, in particular the neuroscientific, developmental, cognitive, personality, and social perspectives. The empirical investigations that psychologists have contributed to the study of scientific thought, interest, and achievement have substantially altered and added to our understanding of the nature of science. Moreover, psychologists of science bring unique methodological and theoretical tools to the studies of science. Only psychologists, for instance, can bring a true experimental design to the study of scientific thought and behavior. The contributions by Simonton, Gorman, Brewer and Schommer-Aikins, Runyan, and myself in this current special issue exemplify some of uniqueness and diversity that psychology has to offer the studies of science.

This paper reports the results of two studies on the development of scientific talent among the scientific elite: finalists in the Westinghouse Science Competition and members of the National Academy of Sciences (NAS). Sampling four cohorts of finalists, we examined whether these gifted teenagers actually do go on to be the best scientists of the next generation by coding education and career outcomes. Finalists were quite successful and stayed mostly within science and medicine for their career choice. A rather high—although marginally unequal—portion of male (91%) and female (74%) finalists earned a doctoral degree. Women were also more likely to change to non-scientific professions than men. Among the most compelling findings from the NAS study were: age that scientific talent was recognized by self and others was an important predictor of early publication, which in turn was an important predictor of lifetime productivity. Growth curve analyses suggested a cubic model best fit productivity data over time. Moreover, in both samples there was an association between scientific achievement and recent immigrant status. Various theoretical models are discussed as possible explanations for the developmental, gender, and immigrant-status findings on scientific talent.

The addition of manganese, iron, and cobalt to NOx storage and reduction (NSR) catalysts containing 1% w/w platinum and 15% w/w barium (1Pt/15Ba) on γ-Al2O3 has been studied. Under fuel lean conditions, the addition of Mn or Fe slightly improved the NOx storage, while the addition of Co more than doubled the NOx storage. In addition, a noble metal free 5Co/15Ba catalyst was found to store NOx as efficiently as a 1Pt/15Ba NSR catalyst. This increase in efficiency is associated with the strong oxidizing effect of Co, providing nitric oxide oxidation sites and contact area for NO2 spillover to the Ba NOx storage sites. By utilizing Co as an oxidizing metal instead of Pt, the storage capacity of NSR catalysts can be improved without the need for an expensive noble metal oxidizing catalyst.