title: An ERP study of passive creative conceptual expansion using a modified alternate uses task.
abstract: A novel ERP paradigm was employed to investigate conceptual expansion, a central component of creative thinking. Participants were presented with word pairs, consisting of everyday objects and uses for these objects, which had to be judged based on the two defining criteria of creative products: unusualness and appropriateness. Three subject-determined trial types resulted from this judgement: high unusual and low appropriate (nonsensical uses), low unusual and high appropriate (common uses), and high unusual and high appropriate (creative uses). Word pairs of the creative uses type are held to passively induce conceptual expansion. The N400 component was not specifically modulated by conceptual expansion but was, instead, generally responsive as a function of unusualness or novelty of the stimuli (nonsense=creative>common). Explorative analyses in a later time window (500-900 ms) revealed that ERP activity in this phase indexes appropriateness (nonsense>creative=common). In the discussion of these findings with reference to the literature on semantic cognition, both components are proposed as indexing processes relevant to conceptual expansion as they are selectively involved in the encoding and integration of a newly established semantic connection between two previously unrelated concepts.
authors.affiliation: Department for Clinical Psychology and Psychotherapy, Justus-Liebig University Giessen, Giessen 35394, Germany. Soeren.Kroeger@psychol.uni-giessen.de
authors.forename: Sören
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Kröger
authors.forename: Barbara
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Rutter
authors.forename: Holger
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Hill
authors.forename: Sabine
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Windmann
authors.forename: Christiane
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Hermann
authors.forename: Anna
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Abraham
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D001921:Brain / Q000502:physiology*; D001931:Brain Mapping / Q000379:methods*; D003405:Creativity; D004569:Electroencephalography; D005071:Evoked Potentials / Q000502:physiology*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008279:Magnetic Resonance Imaging / Q000379:methods*; D008297:Male; D013850:Thinking / Q000502:physiology; D055815:Young Adult
keywords: Alternate uses task; Conceptual expansion; Creativity; Divergent thinking; ERP; N400; Semantic cognition