The role of top-down control in divergent creativity remains heavily debated. An outstanding question about the state dynamics of creativity concerns acute shifts between heightened and lowered creative states. Particularly, do transitions between creative states incur a "switch cost" as observed in other domains of cognition? Prior…

Although scholars have identified many variables that contribute to creative problem-solving, less attention has been given to variables that might lead to failure in creative problem-solving. One set of variables that might lead to poor performance in creative problem-solving efforts may be found in various decision biases. In this study, the…

Adolescence is a developmental period characterized by a complex maturation process of various cognitive abilities. Cognitive control, which includes response inhibition and working memory, is one of them. A typical study on response inhibition to visual stimuli presents distractors and targets on the same display (e.g., the computer screen).…

As colleges and universities consider the purpose, curriculum, delivery, and design of undergraduate degrees in the twenty-first century, part of that discussion must involve pedagogical implications of courses that are both content rich and time-condensed. A review of the literature on construction courses under these constraints indicates that…

A combined experimental, individual-differences, and thought-sampling study tested the predictions of executive attention (e.g., Engle & Kane, 2004) and coordinative binding (e.g., Oberauer, Suss, Wilhelm, & Sander, 2007) theories of working memory capacity (WMC). We assessed 288 subjects' WMC and their performance and mind-wandering rates…

The Tower of London (TOL) task has been widely used in both clinical and research realms. In the current study, 104 healthy participants attempted all possible moderate- to high-difficulty TOL problems in order to determine: (1) optimal measures of problem solving performance, (2) problem characteristics, other than the minimum moves necessary to…

Perceived time in complex cognitive functions was studied using college students' estimates of time spent taking a test in relation to examination performance. Significant correlations were found between true scores and students' estimated time. Differences in the perception of time were shown to be consistent with theories of attentional…

This is the final report on a three year project designed to investigate the development of problem-solving strategies in elementary school children. In this project the personality of the child as it is reflected in problem solving style is examined. The hybothesis that reflective children are more competent problem solvers than impulsive…

A review of 45 published studies yielded 518 pairs of response times (RTs) consisting of a mean RT for persons with mental retardation and the corresponding mean RT for persons without mental retardation. RTs of individuals with mental retardation increased linearly as a function of RTs for persons without mental retardation in corresponding…