The Changing Law Of Creative Thinking Of College Students And Its Neural Basis

Creativity is the source of social progress,and has always been the focus in the researches of psychology and pedagogy.For the undergraduates in the period of rapid development of creativity in life,their intellectual and non-intellectual factors related to creativity have reached a high level.Teaching for innovation is an important mission of education,especially for higher education.However,a large number of studies have chosen undergraduates as participants to explore the individual differences,neural basis of creativity and the development creativity,which lacked evidence of delayed the development of innovative education.This research,combined cross-sectional and accelerated longitudinal design,explored the development and changes of undergraduates' creative thinking and its neural basis.The aim was to boost the creative education in local universities and colleges,and to improve the value-added effect of higher education on undergraduates ' creative thinking.The first study used a cross-sectional design to examine the changing patterns and neural basis of undergraduates' divergent thinking and creative scientific problem-finding abilities in local colleges and universities.Sub-study 1 recruited 446 participants from Grade one to Grade four and compared their behavioral differences in divergent thinking(sub-study 1a),creative scientific problem-finding tasks(sub-study 1b),and the relationships between these behavioral differences and their scores on critical thinking and creative personality questionnaires.Sub-study 2 recruited 148 volunteers to complete sub-study 1b to participate in the research,and conducted a correlation analysis for their behavior data and data of their brain gray matter volumes(sub-study 2a),brain white matter structure(sub-study 2b),and brain function at resting state data(sub-study 2c).The second study used an accelerated longitudinal design to examine the changing patterns and neural basis of undergraduates' divergent thinking and creative scientific problem-finding abilities.Sub-study 3 recruited 178 subjects and compared their scores of divergent thinking(sub-study 3a)and creative scientific problem-finding tasks(sub-study 3b).33 volunteers from sub-study 3 were recruited to participate in the sub-study 4.Their T1 images(sub-study 4a),DTI data(sub-study 4b),and brain function data at rest state(sub-study 4c)were collected for correlation analysis.The results were as follows:The changing pattern of divergent thinking of undergraduates: Sub-studies 1a and 3a found that there were significant grade differences in divergent thinking of undergraduates.The performance in divergent thinking task of freshman students had changed significantly,and the total score and sub-dimensions scores were significantly reduced after one year of enrollment.However,for the undergraduates at Grade four,the results of the accelerated longitudinal design(sub-study 3a)were different from those of the cross-sectional design(sub-study 1a).It was found that the divergent thinking of the undergraduates at grade four was stronger than they were one at Grade three,which caused the changing curve of undergraduates' divergent thinking to show an overall trend of first decline and then a slight rebound rather than a continuous decline.Major,gender,critical thinking had a certain influence on the divergent thinking of undergraduates,but the model analysis showed that the grade factor was the main reason for the difference in the observed differences.Thus,it was suggested that changing pattern of divergent thinking of undergraduates could reflect the development of divergent thinking of undergraduates in local universities and colleges.The changing pattern of the creative scientific problem-finding abilities of undergraduates:Sub-study 1b found that even if the major category,gender,and intelligence were controlled,undergraduates' creative and scientific problem-finding ability declined as the grade level raised.The grade effect,especially the grade effect between freshman and senior,was the most significant.And senior students' creative and scientific problem-finding abilities was significantly weaker than that of freshman students.Sub-study 3b also got a similar grade effect.The differences between the undergraduates at grade one and those at the other three grades were the most significant,and the former was significantly better than the latter.However,which was different from 1b's results,the data based on the longitudinal design exhibited a rebound in the creative scientific problem-finding abilities of undergraduates at grade four.The neural basis of the changing pattern of creative thinking in undergraduates: The correlation analysis between the brain gray matter morphology and behavior data found that the volume of the right posterior central gyrus was significantly and positively correlated with the fluency and uniqueness score for both of divergent thinking tests and the creative scientific problem-finding tests.The correlation analysis between the brain function at rest state and behavior data found that the regional consistency of the right cerebellum(cluster 8)were significantly and positively correlated with fluency dimension's scores in the divergent thinking tests,with fluent and flexible dimensions' scores and the total scores in the creative scientific problem-finding tests.The results of this study showed that: 1)major category,gender,critical thinking,and creative personality were related to the differences in divergent thinking and problem-finding abilities of undergraduates at different grades in local universities and colleges,but the grade was the most important factor in explaining result.2)The development of divergent thinking in local colleges and universities presented a non-linear trend,which was manifested as a sharp decline after one year of enrollment,then a slow decline,and a certain degree of rebound after the reversal in the senior year.3)The development of the creative scientific problem-finding ability also showed a non-linear trend,which was similar to the divergent thinking.4)The alterations in the volume of the right posterior central gyrus,the regional consistency of the right cerebellum,and the microstructures of the left thalamic radiation fibers and the right inferior frontal occipital fibers may be the neural basis for the development and change of creative thinking of the undergraduates in local universities and colleges.The results suggested that individual creative thinking still had a certain degree of plasticity during the university period,and proper educational and teaching methods might help improve the development of undergraduates 'creative thinking.