Competition And Emotion Impact On Effect Of Prototype Elicitation During Insight Problem Solving

The cognitive mechanism of insight remains largely unknown and there are different theories to explain it. On the basis of previous studies and views, the heuristic theory of prototypal matters in insight problem solving proposed that "prototype activation and elicitation" might be one of the central ways to attain insight during creative thinking, which can be regarded as creative problem solving under experimental conditions. Meanwhile, accumulating evidence suggests that insight can be substantially influenced by task-irrelevant emotion stimuli and interpersonal competitive situation, and a close link might exist between them. However, previous relevant studies had revealed inconsistent results of the impact of competition and emotion on creative thinking. Based on the "prototype elicitation" theory, the present study was designed to explore the dynamic effects of competition and emotion on the mechanism of insight problem solving.This study was divided into two experiments. Both experiments1and2adopted a four-stage experimental paradigm by using traditional Chinese logogriphs and standardized emotional images taken from Chinese Affective Picture System (CAPS). First, we created different competitive levels of experimental situation; second, the participants were asked to learn the prototypal logogriph; third, participants’ emotion of different valences were induced;and fourth, participants were required to complete the target logogriph test.In experiment1. the4(high, medium, low competitive level vs.without competition)×3(positive, neutral vs. negative emotion) experimental designs were adopted. The results showed that:1) the prototype elicitation effect of successful logogriph problem solving was affected significantly by the competitive levels. Specifically, low intensity competitive level was most favorable to the prototype elicitation, moderate and high intensity was next, and under the condition of no competition was the worst.2) the prototype elicitation effect of successful logogriph problem solving was also effected significantly by the induced emotions. Specifically, negative and neutral emotion inspired better prototype elicitation effect than positive emotion.3) the interaction effects of with/without competition and emotion valence were significant on the prototype elicitation effect of successful logogriph problem solving. The prototype elicitation effect of negative emotion was best without competition, the neutral emotion was next, and the positive emotion was the worst; but with competition, the prototype elicitation effect of neutral emotion was best, the negative emotion was next, and the positive emotion was the worst.In experiment2, using Event-Related Potentials (ERPs), the experiment investigated the independent and joint effects of emotional and competitive information on insight problem solving especially their neural mechanisms. Subjects situated in either competitive or non-competitive condition learnt heuristic logogriphs first and then viewed task-irrelevant positive or negative emotional pictures, which were followed by test logogriphs to solve. We recorded and analyzed high-density ERPs elicited by logogriphs guessed. The findings reflect that task-irrelevant momentary emotion and pre-existing competitive context interacted dynamically to modulate insight problem solving at different stages and in different ways in the brain. Collectively, both behavioral and ERP findings showed a more evident insight boost following negative emotional pictures in competitive context. Results demonstrated that negative emotion and competitive situation might promote insight by a defocused mode of attention and broader attentional focus (as indicated by N1and P2), enhanced semantic integration and breaking mental set to a greater extent (as indicated by N450), and increased forming of novel associations activated by motivational arousal originating from competition (as indicated by P800-1600and P1600-2500). Moreover, the N450, P800-1600and P1600-2500reflect the time point at which competition context and emotion stimuli interact in the ERP. We suggest these findings reflect the dynamic interactions between emotional valence and competitive arousal effects on creativity.