Liu Chunlei, Lin Yuhong, Ye Chaoqun, Yang Jiaqin, He Wenguang
School of Psychology, Qufu Normal University, Qufu 273165, China.
Key Laboratory of Modern Teaching Technology (Ministry of Education), Shaanxi Normal University, Xi'an 710062, China.
J Intell. 2023 Apr 19;11(4):74. doi: 10.3390/jintelligence11040074.
The role of metacontrol in creativity is theoretically assumed, but experimental evidence is still lacking. In this study, we investigated how metacontrol affects creativity from the perspective of individual differences. Sixty participants completed the metacontrol task, which was used to divide participants into a high-metacontrol group (HMC) versus a low (LMC) group. Then, these participants performed the alternate uses task (AUT; divergent thinking) and the remote associates test (RAT; convergent thinking), while their EEG results were recorded continuously. Regarding their behavior, the HMC group showed superior creative performance in the AUT and RAT, compared with the LMC group. For the electrophysiology, the HMC group showed larger stimulus-locked P1 and P3 amplitudes than the LMC group. Furthermore, the HMC group exhibited smaller alpha desynchronization (ERD) than the LMC group at the initial stages of the AUT task, followed by a flexible switching between alpha synchronization and desynchronization (ERS-ERD) during the process of selective retention in the AUT. In addition, the HMC group evoked smaller alpha ERD during the initial retrieval and the backtracking process in the RAT, associated with cognitive control adaptability. The aforementioned results indicate that metacontrol reliably contributes to the idea generation process, and HMC individuals could flexibly adjust their cognitive control strategies according to the demand for creative idea generation.
元控制在创造力中的作用在理论上已得到假设，但仍缺乏实验证据。在本研究中，我们从个体差异的角度调查了元控制如何影响创造力。60名参与者完成了元控制任务，该任务用于将参与者分为高元控制组（HMC）和低元控制组（LMC）。然后，这些参与者进行了替代用途任务（AUT；发散性思维）和远距离联想测验（RAT；聚合性思维），同时持续记录他们的脑电图结果。在行为方面，与LMC组相比，HMC组在AUT和RAT中表现出更优的创造性表现。在电生理学方面，HMC组比LMC组表现出更大的刺激锁定P1和P3波幅。此外，在AUT任务的初始阶段，HMC组比LMC组表现出更小的α去同步化（ERD），随后在AUT的选择性保留过程中，α同步化和去同步化（ERS-ERD）之间灵活切换。此外，在RAT的初始检索和回溯过程中，HMC组诱发的α ERD较小，这与认知控制适应性有关。上述结果表明，元控制确实有助于创意生成过程，并且HMC个体可以根据创意生成的需求灵活调整其认知控制策略。
