A beautiful mind
Edward Dutton, Jan te Nijenhuis & Eka Roivainen
Intelligence, September–October 2014, Pages 192–202
Abstract:
Finland has been noted to perform consistently very well in the international PISA assessments for many years, but it also has a relatively low per capita number of Nobel Prize winners. We draw upon a large body of proxy data and direct evidence, including the first ever use of RTs to calculate the Finnish IQ and the first ever use of the WAIS IV and PISA scores in the same capacity. Based on these data, we hypothesize that Finns perform so consistently well in PISA because they have a higher IQ overall than other European countries and exhibit a specialized slow life history strategy characterized by high Agreeableness and Conscientiousness, and low Psychoticism and Extraversion. Most of these traits predict educational success but all would suppress genius and creativity amongst this population. We connect the present distribution of phenotypic traits amongst the Finnish population with evolutionary change starting in the Pleistocene, accelerating in the Holocene, and continuing into the present day. We argue that this profile explains why Finns are relatively poorly represented in terms of science Nobel laureates.
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Practice Does Not Make Perfect: No Causal Effect of Music Practice on Music Ability
Miriam Mosing et al.
Psychological Science, forthcoming
Abstract:
The relative importance of nature and nurture for various forms of expertise has been intensely debated. Music proficiency is viewed as a general model for expertise, and associations between deliberate practice and music proficiency have been interpreted as supporting the prevailing idea that long-term deliberate practice inevitably results in increased music ability. Here, we examined the associations (rs = .18–.36) between music practice and music ability (rhythm, melody, and pitch discrimination) in 10,500 Swedish twins. We found that music practice was substantially heritable (40%−70%). Associations between music practice and music ability were predominantly genetic, and, contrary to the causal hypothesis, nonshared environmental influences did not contribute. There was no difference in ability within monozygotic twin pairs differing in their amount of practice, so that when genetic predisposition was controlled for, more practice was no longer associated with better music skills. These findings suggest that music practice may not causally influence music ability and that genetic variation among individuals affects both ability and inclination to practice.
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Art as an indicator of male fitness: Does prenatal testosterone influence artistic ability?
Danae Crocchiola
Evolutionary Psychology, Summer 2014, Pages 521-533
Abstract:
In his groundbreaking research, Geoffrey Miller (1999) suggests that artistic and creative displays are male-predominant behaviors and can be considered to be the result of an evolutionary advantage. The outcomes of several surveys conducted on jazz and rock musicians, contemporary painters, English writers (Miller, 1999), and scientists (Kanazawa, 2000) seem to be consistent with the Millerian hypothesis, showing a predominance of men carrying out these activities, with an output peak corresponding to the most fertile male period and a progressive decline in late maturity. One way to evaluate the sex-related hypothesis of artistic and cultural displays, considered as sexual indicators of male fitness, is to focus on sexually dimorphic traits. One of them, within our species, is the 2nd to 4th digit length (2D:4D), which is a marker for prenatal testosterone levels. This study combines the Millerian theories on sexual dimorphism in cultural displays with the digit ratio, using it as an indicator of androgen exposure in utero. If androgenic levels are positively correlated with artistic exhibition, both female and male artists should show low 2D:4D ratios. In this experiment we tested the association between 2D:4D and artistic ability by comparing the digit ratios of 50 artists (25 men and 25 women) to the digit ratios of 50 non-artists (25 men and 25 women). Both male and female artists had significantly lower 2D:4D ratios (indicating high testosterone) than male and female controls. These results support the hypothesis that art may represent a sexually selected, typically masculine behavior that advertises the carrier’s good genes within a courtship context.
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Novel Television-Based Cognitive Training Improves Working Memory and Executive Function
Evelyn Shatil et al.
PLoS ONE, July 2014
Abstract:
The main study objective was to investigate the effect of interactive television-based cognitive training on cognitive performance of 119 healthy older adults, aged 60–87 years. Participants were randomly allocated to a cognitive training group or to an active control group in a single-blind controlled two-group design. Before and after training interactive television cognitive performance was assessed on well validated tests of fluid, higher-order ability, and system usability was evaluated. The participants in the cognitive training group completed a television-based cognitive training programme, while the participants in the active control group completed a TV-based programme of personally benefiting activities. Significant improvements were observed in well validated working memory and executive function tasks in the cognitive training but not in the control group. None of the groups showed statistically significant improvement in life satisfaction score. Participants' reports of “adequate” to “high” system usability testify to the successful development and implementation of the interactive television-based system and compliant cognitive training contents. The study demonstrates that cognitive training delivered by means of an interactive television system can generate genuine cognitive benefits in users and these are measurable using well-validated cognitive tests. Thus, older adults who cannot use or afford a computer can easily use digital interactive television to benefit from advanced software applications designed to train cognition.
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Florian Schmiedek, Martin Lövdén & Ulman Lindenberger
Developmental Psychology, forthcoming
Abstract:
In the COGITO study (Schmiedek, Lövdén, & Lindenberger, 2010), 101 younger adults practiced 12 tests of perceptual speed, working memory, and episodic memory for over 100 daily 1-hr sessions. The intervention resulted in positive transfer to broad cognitive abilities, including reasoning and episodic memory. Here, we examine whether these ability-based transfer effects are maintained over time. Two years after the end of the training, 80 participants returned for follow-up assessments of the comprehensive battery of transfer tasks. We found reliable positive long-term transfer effects for reasoning and episodic memory, controlling for retest effects by including participants from the original control group. This shows, for the first time, that intensive cognitive training interventions can have long-term broad transfer at the level of cognitive abilities.
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Rodica Ioana Damian & Dean Keith Simonton
Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, forthcoming
Abstract:
Symptoms associated with mental illness have been hypothesized to relate to creative achievement because they act as diversifying experiences. However, this theory has only been tested on predominantly majority-culture samples. Do tendencies toward mental illness still predict eminent creativity when they coexist with other diversifying experiences, such as early parental death, minority-status, or poverty? These alternative diversifying experiences can be collectively referred to as examples of developmental adversity. This conjecture was tested on a significant sample of 291 eminent African Americans who, by the nature of their status as long-term minorities, would experience more developmental adversity. Replicating majority-culture patterns, African American artists showed higher mental illness rates than African American scientists. Yet the absolute percentages were significantly lower for the African Americans, regardless of profession. Furthermore, mental illness predicted higher eminence levels only for the African American artists, an effect that diminished when controlling for developmental adversity. Because the latter predicted eminence for both artists and scientists, the “madness-to-genius” link probably represents just 1 of several routes by which diversifying experiences can influence eminence. The same developmental ends can be attained by different means. This inference warrants further research using other eminent creators emerging from minority culture populations.
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Anne Bolwerk et al.
PLoS ONE, July 2014
Abstract:
Visual art represents a powerful resource for mental and physical well-being. However, little is known about the underlying effects at a neural level. A critical question is whether visual art production and cognitive art evaluation may have different effects on the functional interplay of the brain's default mode network (DMN). We used fMRI to investigate the DMN of a non-clinical sample of 28 post-retirement adults (63.71 years ±3.52 SD) before (T0) and after (T1) weekly participation in two different 10-week-long art interventions. Participants were randomly assigned to groups stratified by gender and age. In the visual art production group 14 participants actively produced art in an art class. In the cognitive art evaluation group 14 participants cognitively evaluated artwork at a museum. The DMN of both groups was identified by using a seed voxel correlation analysis (SCA) in the posterior cingulated cortex (PCC/preCUN). An analysis of covariance (ANCOVA) was employed to relate fMRI data to psychological resilience which was measured with the brief German counterpart of the Resilience Scale (RS-11). We observed that the visual art production group showed greater spatial improvement in functional connectivity of PCC/preCUN to the frontal and parietal cortices from T0 to T1 than the cognitive art evaluation group. Moreover, the functional connectivity in the visual art production group was related to psychological resilience (i.e., stress resistance) at T1. Our findings are the first to demonstrate the neural effects of visual art production on psychological resilience in adulthood.
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Does insight problem solving predict real-world creativity?
Roger Beaty, Emily Nusbaum & Paul Silvia
Psychology of Aesthetics, Creativity, and the Arts, August 2014, Pages 287-292
Abstract:
Insight problems are commonly used to assess creative problem solving. Such problems are often employed by proponents of the associative view of creativity — the notion that creative ideas result from unconscious processes. Surprisingly little is known, however, about how well performance on insight problems predicts real-world creativity. In two studies, we explored the contribution of several classic insight problems in creative achievement (Study 1; n = 133) and everyday creative behavior (Study 2; n = 173). We also assessed the role of personality and fluid intelligence, two well-established predictors of real-world creativity, to determine their relative influence beyond the effect of insight. Both studies found no evidence for a relationship between insight problem solving and creative behavior and achievement. Openness to experience and fluid intelligence, however, showed notable effects on both behavior and achievement. The present work thus raises the question of whether insight problem solving relates to real-world creativity.
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Raymond Butts, Melissa Kolar & Roger Newman-Norlund
Frontiers in Human Neuroscience, June 2014
Abstract:
Individuals suffering from motor impairments often require physical therapy (PT) to help improve their level of function. Previous investigations suggest that both intermittent theta burst stimulation (iTBS) and bihemispheric transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS) may increase the speed and extent of motor learning/relearning. The purpose of the current study was to explore the feasibility and effectiveness of a novel, non-invasive brain stimulation approach that combined an iTBS primer, and bihemispheric stimulation coupled with motor training. We hypothesized that individuals exposed to this novel treatment would make greater functional improvements than individuals undergoing sham stimulation when tested immediately following, 24-h, and 7-days post-training. A total of 26 right-handed, healthy young adults were randomly assigned to either a treatment (n = 15) or control group (n = 12). iTBS (20 trains of 10 pulse triplets each delivered at 80% active motor threshold (AMT) / 50 Hz over 191.84 s) and bihemispheric tDCS (1.0 ma for 20 min) were used as a primer to, and in conjunction with, 20 min of motor training, respectively. Our primary outcome measure was performance on the Jebsen-Taylor Hand Function (JTHF) test. Participants tolerated the combined iTBS/bihemispheric stimulation treatment without complaint. While performance gains in the sham and stimulation group were not significant immediately after training, they were nearly significant 24-h post training (p = 0.055), and were significant at 7-days post training (p < 0.05). These results suggest that the combined iTBS/bihemispheric stimulation protocol is both feasible and effective. Future research should examine the mechanistic explanation of this approach as well as the potential of using this approach in clinical populations.
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Marina Drus, Aaron Kozbelt & Robert Hughes
Creativity Research Journal, Summer 2014, Pages 251-262
Abstract:
To what extent do more creative people process emotional information differently than less creative people? This study examined the role of emotion processing in creativity and its implications for the creativity–psychopathology association. A total of 117 participants performed a memory recognition task for negative, positive, and neutral words; they also completed measures of emotion processing, creative achievement, and divergent thinking. Self-reported high creative achievement levels and better performance on divergent thinking tasks were associated with greater perceptual sensitivity for positive words and a more liberal response bias for negative words. Furthermore, mediational analyses revealed a relationship between creativity, emotional repair, and response bias for negative stimuli, whereby a low ability to repair negative emotions served as a mediator between creativity and response bias, with response bias predicting creativity. The significance of these findings is discussed in the context of psychopathology and its possible connection to creativity.
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How Quickly They Forget: The Relationship Between Forgetting and Working Memory Performance
Donna Bayliss & Christopher Jarrold
Journal of Experimental Psychology: Learning, Memory, and Cognition, forthcoming
Abstract:
This study examined the contribution of individual differences in rate of forgetting to variation in working memory performance in children. One hundred and twelve children (mean age 9 years 4 months) completed 2 tasks designed to measure forgetting, as well as measures of working memory, processing efficiency, and short-term storage ability. Individual differences in forgetting rate accounted for unique variance in working memory performance over and above variance explained by measures of processing efficiency and storage ability. In addition, the nature of the variation in forgetting was more consistent with a nonexecutive forgetting parameter than an executive ability associated with resistance to interference. These findings indicate that individual differences in the rate at which information is lost from memory is an important constraint on children’s working memory performance, which has implications for current models of working memory that do not incorporate such a factor.
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Martin Lotze et al.
Frontiers in Human Neuroscience, July 2014
Abstract:
Neural characteristics of verbal creativity as assessed by word generation tasks have been recently identified, but differences in resting-state functional connectivity (rFC) between experts and non-experts in creative writing have not been reported yet. Previous electroencephalography (EEG) coherence measures during rest demonstrated a decreased cooperation between brain areas in association with creative thinking ability. Here, we used resting-state functional magnetic resonance imaging to compare 20 experts in creative writing and 23 age-matched non-experts with respect to rFC strengths within a brain network previously found to be associated with creative writing. Decreased rFC for experts was found between areas 44 of both hemispheres. Increased rFC for experts was observed between right hemispheric caudate and intraparietal sulcus. Correlation analysis of verbal creativity indices (VCIs) with rFC values in the expert group revealed predominantly negative associations, particularly of rFC between left area 44 and left temporal pole. Overall, our data support previous findings of reduced connectivity between interhemispheric areas and increased right-hemispheric connectivity during rest in highly verbally creative individuals.