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A Growth-Curve Analysis of the Effects of Future-Thought Priming on Insight and Analytical Problem-Solving

Research based on construal level theory (CLT) suggests that thinking about the distant future can prime people to solve problems by insight (i.e., an “aha” moment) while thinking about the near future can prime them to solve problems analytically. In this study, we used a novel method to elucidate...

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Autores principales: Truelove-Hill, Monica, Erickson, Brian A., Anderson, Julia, Kossoyan, Mary, Kounios, John
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: Frontiers Media S.A. 2018
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6077212/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/30104992
http://dx.doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2018.01311
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author Truelove-Hill, Monica
Erickson, Brian A.
Anderson, Julia
Kossoyan, Mary
Kounios, John
author_facet Truelove-Hill, Monica
Erickson, Brian A.
Anderson, Julia
Kossoyan, Mary
Kounios, John
author_sort Truelove-Hill, Monica
collection PubMed
description Research based on construal level theory (CLT) suggests that thinking about the distant future can prime people to solve problems by insight (i.e., an “aha” moment) while thinking about the near future can prime them to solve problems analytically. In this study, we used a novel method to elucidate the time-course of temporal priming effects on creative problem solving. Specifically, we used growth-curve analysis (GCA) to examine the time-course of priming while participants solved a series of brief verbal problems. Participants were tested in two counterbalanced sessions in a within-subject experimental design; one session featured near-future priming and the other featured far-future priming. Our results suggest high-level construal may temporarily enhance analytical thinking; far-future priming caused transient facilitation of analytical solving while near-future priming induced weaker, transient facilitation of insightful solving. However, this effect is short-lived; priming produced no significant differences in the total number of insights and analytical solutions. Given the fleeting nature of these effects, future studies should consider implementing methodology that allows for aspects of the time-course of priming effects to be examined. A method such as GCA may reveal mild effects that would be otherwise missed using other types of analyses.
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spelling pubmed-60772122018-08-13 A Growth-Curve Analysis of the Effects of Future-Thought Priming on Insight and Analytical Problem-Solving Truelove-Hill, Monica Erickson, Brian A. Anderson, Julia Kossoyan, Mary Kounios, John Front Psychol Psychology Research based on construal level theory (CLT) suggests that thinking about the distant future can prime people to solve problems by insight (i.e., an “aha” moment) while thinking about the near future can prime them to solve problems analytically. In this study, we used a novel method to elucidate the time-course of temporal priming effects on creative problem solving. Specifically, we used growth-curve analysis (GCA) to examine the time-course of priming while participants solved a series of brief verbal problems. Participants were tested in two counterbalanced sessions in a within-subject experimental design; one session featured near-future priming and the other featured far-future priming. Our results suggest high-level construal may temporarily enhance analytical thinking; far-future priming caused transient facilitation of analytical solving while near-future priming induced weaker, transient facilitation of insightful solving. However, this effect is short-lived; priming produced no significant differences in the total number of insights and analytical solutions. Given the fleeting nature of these effects, future studies should consider implementing methodology that allows for aspects of the time-course of priming effects to be examined. A method such as GCA may reveal mild effects that would be otherwise missed using other types of analyses. Frontiers Media S.A. 2018-07-30 /pmc/articles/PMC6077212/ /pubmed/30104992 http://dx.doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2018.01311 Text en Copyright © 2018 Truelove-Hill, Erickson, Anderson, Kossoyan and Kounios. http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) and the copyright owner(s) are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
spellingShingle Psychology
Truelove-Hill, Monica
Erickson, Brian A.
Anderson, Julia
Kossoyan, Mary
Kounios, John
A Growth-Curve Analysis of the Effects of Future-Thought Priming on Insight and Analytical Problem-Solving
title A Growth-Curve Analysis of the Effects of Future-Thought Priming on Insight and Analytical Problem-Solving
title_full A Growth-Curve Analysis of the Effects of Future-Thought Priming on Insight and Analytical Problem-Solving
title_fullStr A Growth-Curve Analysis of the Effects of Future-Thought Priming on Insight and Analytical Problem-Solving
title_full_unstemmed A Growth-Curve Analysis of the Effects of Future-Thought Priming on Insight and Analytical Problem-Solving
title_short A Growth-Curve Analysis of the Effects of Future-Thought Priming on Insight and Analytical Problem-Solving
title_sort growth-curve analysis of the effects of future-thought priming on insight and analytical problem-solving
topic Psychology
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6077212/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/30104992
http://dx.doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2018.01311
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