Study Of The Prototype Position Effect In Scientific Inventional Problem-solving

As a special form of creative thinking, insight is also an important creative thinking. Currently, psychologists have done a lot of research on insight problem. But for the cognitive mechanism, no consensus reached. It has being in dispute. Many inventions in science are produced by scientists through insight, so creative research in the field of scientific inventions may make a contribution to reveal the essence of insight.Based on previous research, the study uses scientific inventional problems as experimental materials and the prototype position effect in scientific inventional problem-solving has been deeply researched. The principle of prototype position will be disscussed, the mechanism of prototype elicitation will be further revealed. This enriches the research results of prototype elicitation theory and provides reference for the improvement of the ability of solving creative problem and the cultivation of creative thinking.The study includes three experiments. Experiment 1 uses single factor within-subject design and the independent variable is prototype position. We explore the influence of the prototype position on scientific inventional problem-solving. On the basis of verifying the existence of the prototype position effect, whether the prototype position effect also occurs in prototype activation stage is investigated. Experiment 2 uses 2(prototype position: present firstly and present lastly) ×2(logo: have logo and no logo) two factors within-subject design. We explore the cause of the prototype position effect and verify that whether the difference of the prototype representation leads to this because of the different prototype position. Based on Experiment 2, experiment 3 takes 2(prototype position: present firstly and present lastly)×2(logo different message: logo functional phrase and logo scientific method) two factors mixed design. The between-subject variable is logo different message, and the within-subject variable is the prototype position. We further discuss that subjects are more prominent to characterize which kind of information. The prominent representation of this kind of information is more able to explain the generation of the prototype position effect.The research conclusions:(1) Prototype position effect also appears in the prototype activation stage, and the prototype activation rate of presenting prototype lastly is higher than that of presenting prototype firstly. It is more likely to activate the prototype when presenting prototype lastly.(2) The generation of the prototype position effect is due to the different knowledge representation of the prototype. Under the condition of presenting prototype lastly, subjects will highlight the key information which is beneficial to solve the problem and then get the solution of the problem.(3) Under the condition of presenting prototype lastly, subjects will highlight the scientific method phrase which reveals scientific principle and get the solution of the problem.