The Generation Of Novel Imagination In Concept Modification

The characters of emergence are those the various sub-concepts do not possess with the combination of the concept. The character of emergence is an important break through for the creativity research. Studies have shown that the concept of combination is an important form of the emergence of characteristics. In the process of concept combination, the researchers generally regard the words in the former as modifier (modifier), while regard the words in the latter as the head nouns (head noun). Ward (2002) did a research in the appearance of emergent properties from the perspectives of linguistic modifier revelance and typicality. It concluded that unrelated and atypical modifier is more conducive to the appearance of the emergent properties, however, the abnormal and unusual combination produces the largest amount of emergent properties. Nicola Molinaro (2012) investigated the time course of the word pairs of nouns and adjectives combination using the ERP method.. The result showed that only the anomalous adjectives elicited the typical N400; low-typical adjectives that apparently contrasted with the inherent prototypical features associated with the noun elicited a longer-lasting late positive effect (LPC,550-750ms); high-typical adjectives that expressed redundant information elicited a similar but shorter late positive effect (LPC 550-650ms). They holds that the LPC is associated with the meta-linguistic analysis and there is a significant inverse correlation between the stimuli’s naturality and the amplitude of the LPC. However, the role played by the modification of the image of the modifier and the consistency and its neural mechanisms have not been discussed in these studies. With behavioral and fMRI methods this paper investigates the difference of novelty degree of the menal representations of individual’s imaginary task when combine the modifiers of different consistency and figurativeness with common animate nouns. The image of two levels of abstraction and concreteness; consistency also has two levels of consistency and inconsistency.The first experiment examines the novelty degree of the mental representation when combining the modifiers with common animate nouns from the abstract and concrete, consistency and inconsistency of modifer.The results show that, as for the reaction time, the congruence shows significant mian effect, and the reaction time of uncongruence is obviously longer than the congruence. The main effect of figurativeness degree is insignigicant, and the reaction time of abstract is a little longer than concrete. The interaction effect of congruence and figurativeness is not remarkable, which indicates that under the uncongruence condition, there are more cognitive operations of individual’s generation of mental representation. While as for novelty, the main effect of congruence and figurativeness are both significant, incongruence showing significantly higher main effect than congruence, and the concrete is much higher than the abstract, which shows the interaction effect of congruence and figurativeness is remarkable. The results shows that the incongruence and concrete condition is more benefical to the formation of novel mental images.The second experiment examines the degree of novelty and the relative brain regions with common animate nouns through the fMRI experiment from the abstract and concrete, consistency and inconsistency of modifer. Behavior results show that it is almost consistent with the behavior experimental results. FMRI data showesbrain activation regiones of the main effect of the figurativeness include:the superior frontal gyrus(BA10) and the bilateral inferior frontal gyrus (BA47). Under the congruence condition, the abstract condition involves in more parts of the right temporo-parietal junction (BA39) and the right middle frontal gyrus (BA46/9/8) than the concrete, while under the incongruence condition, the abstract condition involves in more parts of the left inferior frontal gyrus (BA47),superior temporal gyrus (BA38) and lingual gyrus (BA18/17) than the concrete. Brain activation regiones of the main effect of the congruence include:the middle frontal gyrus (BA6),the superior frontal gyrus (BA6) and the inferior parietal lobule (BA40). However, under the concrete condition, the incongruence condition involves in more parts of the right inferior parietal lobule (BA40) compared with the congruence, under the abstract condition, the incongruence condition involves in more parts of the left precuneus (BA19/7) and posterior cingulate(BA29) compared with the congruence. The interaction effect involves in more parts of the left cuneus (BA18) and the left Posterior Cingulate(BA30).In short, our research finds that:(1) Congruence and figurativeness have a significant role in generation of novel imagination in concept modification, and in the concrete incongruence circumstance the degree of novelty produced by individuals reaches the highest; (2) FMRI data shows that individuals produce novel mental imagery involved in a wide range of brain regions, particularly the frontal cortex is closely related of the generation of novel ideas divergent thinking.