The Neural Basis Of Zeigarnik Effect In Heuristic Prototype Ability

When scientists encounter an invention problem and have not found the sally port, they might come across a heuristic prototype that seems superficially irrelevant to the problem and find the new idea from the prototype for solving the problem. Why high prototype heuristic ability participants are easier to activate unsolved problems and match the prototypes and problems? Besides, whether there are differences on the maintenances of unsolved problem in other creativity traits (Ambiguity of tolerance)? There are the problems need to solve in the present study.Based on Zhang’s hypothesis, the first study, a (high prototype heuristic ability vs. low prototype heuristic ability) experimental design was adopted to explore the relationship between heuristic prototype ability and Zeigarnik effect. Dependent variable is the recall rate of unsolved problems.The results showed that:1) the recall rate of unsolved problems was affected evidently by prototype heuristic ability (t (34)=-3.01, p<0.01), and it was higher with the high prototype heuristic ability; Besides, the condition with heuristic prototypes compared with the condition without heuristic prototypes was highly correlated with the tendency of creativity, it means that this paradigm really measures a kind of creativity ability.The second study, a2(high prototype heuristic ability vs. low prototype heuristic ability) and2(high ambiguity of tolerance vs. low ambiguity of tolerance) experimental design was adopted to also explore the relationship between heuristic prototype ability, ambiguity of tolerance and Zeigarnik effect. Dependent variables are the recall rate of unsolved problems (the recall number of unsolved scientific problems/the total number of unsolved scientific problems), the recall tendency of unsolved problems (the recall number of unsolved problems/the recall number of total problems) and the recall tendency of scientific problems (the recall number of scientific problems/the recall number of total problems).The results showed that three dependent variables were all affected evidently by prototype heuristic ability, and it was higher with the high prototype heuristic ability. It means that high prototype heuristic individuals paid more attention to scientific and unsolved problems. Ambiguity of tolerance showed the same condition with prototype heuristic ability. It means that high ambiguity of tolerance individuals were more likely to focus on unsolved scientific problems.Creators keep on seeking "unsolved scientific problems" and show stronger "Zeigarnik effect". This effect caused better encoding of unsolved problems then made problems activated easier. Moreover, high ambiguity tolerance individuals are more interested in unsolved scientific problems. It showed that ambiguity of tolerance is an important personality of heuristic prototype ability.