The Effect Of Different Semantic Network Or Thinking Mode On Incubation Effect Of Creative Task

The present study aimed to explore the effect of activated diffusion or thinking mode during incubation period on creative task. In study 1, we mainly explore the effect of activated diffusion, we control the semantic network that the subjects activated in incubation period, and compared the effect on incubation period in convergent thinking task and divergent thinking task respectively. In study 2, we mainly explore the effect of cognitive resources, we control the thinking mode that the subjects employed in incubation period, and compared the effect on incubation period in convergent thinking task and divergent thinking task respectively.The main hypothesis of study 1 is that when the semantic network activated in the interpolated tasks is different from the semantic network activated in the target tasks, the incubation effect is better, and activated the more different semantic networks the better incubation effect will be found. There are two experiments in study, and the target task is the convergent thinking task and divergent thinking task respectively. The result in experiment 1 showed that on the novelty dimension of divergent thinking task, when the semantic network activated in the interpolated tasks is different from the semantic network activated in the target tasks, the incubation effect is better. The experiment 1 also found that when the subjects activated one different semantic network in incubation period, the incubation effect will be better than the subjects who activated three different semantic network in incubation period. The result in experiment 2 showed that the semantic network activated in interpolated tasks do not affect the incubation effect in convergent thinking task.The main hypothesis of study 2 is that when the thinking mode employed in the interpolated tasks is different from the thinking mode employed in the target tasks, the incubation effect is better. There are also two experiments in study, and the target task is the convergent thinking task and divergent thinking task respectively. The result in experiment 3 showed that on the fluency dimension of divergent thinking task, when the thinking mode employed in the interpolated tasks is different from the thinking mode employed in the target tasks, the incubation effect is better. The experiment 2 showed the same result that when the thinking mode employed in the interpolated tasks is different from the thinking mode employed in the target tasks, the incubation effect in convergent thinking task is better.The two studies indicated that an interpolated incubation activity of a dissimilar nature to the target task led to stronger benefits for incubation as compared to an interpolated activity which was similar to the target task. When the target task is divergent thinking, the different semantic network activated in interpolated tasks will benefit the incubation effect on the novelty dimension, and the different thinking mode employed in interpolated tasks will benefit the incubation effect on the fluency dimension. When the target task is convergent thinking, the semantic network activated in interpolated tasks do not affect the incubation effect, but the different thinking mode employed in interpolated tasks will benefit the incubation effect. The results supported a role for unconscious work during incubation periods in creative thinking tasks and did not support the hypotheses that incubation effects are due to fatigue recovery theory, intermittent conscious work or beneficial forgetting theory.