Cargando…
How can I use it? The role of functional fixedness in the survival-processing paradigm
After imagining being stranded in the grasslands of a foreign land without any basic survival material and rating objects with respect to their relevance in this situation, participants show superior memory performance for these objects compared to a control scenario. A possible mechanism responsibl...
Autores principales: | , , , |
---|---|
Formato: | Online Artículo Texto |
Lenguaje: | English |
Publicado: |
Springer US
2020
|
Materias: | |
Acceso en línea: | https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7870631/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/32935282 http://dx.doi.org/10.3758/s13423-020-01802-y |
_version_ | 1783648844498599936 |
---|---|
author | Kroneisen, Meike Kriechbaumer, Michael Kamp, Siri-Maria Erdfelder, Edgar |
author_facet | Kroneisen, Meike Kriechbaumer, Michael Kamp, Siri-Maria Erdfelder, Edgar |
author_sort | Kroneisen, Meike |
collection | PubMed |
description | After imagining being stranded in the grasslands of a foreign land without any basic survival material and rating objects with respect to their relevance in this situation, participants show superior memory performance for these objects compared to a control scenario. A possible mechanism responsible for this memory advantage is the richness and distinctiveness with which information is encoded in the survival-scenario condition. When confronted with the unusual task of thinking about how an object can be used in a life-threatening context, participants will most likely consider both common and uncommon (i.e., novel) functions of this object. These ideas about potential functions may later serve as powerful retrieval cues that boost memory performance. We argue that objects differ in their potential to be used as novel, creative survival tools. Some objects may be low in functional fixedness, meaning that it is possible to use them in many different ways. Other objects, in contrast, may be high in functional fixedness, meaning that the possibilities to use them in non-standard ways is limited. We tested experimentally whether functional fixedness of objects moderates the strength of the survival-processing advantage compared to a moving control scenario. As predicted, we observed an interaction of the functional fixedness level with scenario type: The survival-processing memory advantage was more pronounced for objects low in functional fixedness compared to those high in functional fixedness. These results are in line with the richness-of-encoding explanation of the survival-processing advantage. |
format | Online Article Text |
id | pubmed-7870631 |
institution | National Center for Biotechnology Information |
language | English |
publishDate | 2020 |
publisher | Springer US |
record_format | MEDLINE/PubMed |
spelling | pubmed-78706312021-02-16 How can I use it? The role of functional fixedness in the survival-processing paradigm Kroneisen, Meike Kriechbaumer, Michael Kamp, Siri-Maria Erdfelder, Edgar Psychon Bull Rev Brief Report After imagining being stranded in the grasslands of a foreign land without any basic survival material and rating objects with respect to their relevance in this situation, participants show superior memory performance for these objects compared to a control scenario. A possible mechanism responsible for this memory advantage is the richness and distinctiveness with which information is encoded in the survival-scenario condition. When confronted with the unusual task of thinking about how an object can be used in a life-threatening context, participants will most likely consider both common and uncommon (i.e., novel) functions of this object. These ideas about potential functions may later serve as powerful retrieval cues that boost memory performance. We argue that objects differ in their potential to be used as novel, creative survival tools. Some objects may be low in functional fixedness, meaning that it is possible to use them in many different ways. Other objects, in contrast, may be high in functional fixedness, meaning that the possibilities to use them in non-standard ways is limited. We tested experimentally whether functional fixedness of objects moderates the strength of the survival-processing advantage compared to a moving control scenario. As predicted, we observed an interaction of the functional fixedness level with scenario type: The survival-processing memory advantage was more pronounced for objects low in functional fixedness compared to those high in functional fixedness. These results are in line with the richness-of-encoding explanation of the survival-processing advantage. Springer US 2020-09-15 2021 /pmc/articles/PMC7870631/ /pubmed/32935282 http://dx.doi.org/10.3758/s13423-020-01802-y Text en © The Author(s) 2020 Open Access This article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License, which permits use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons licence, and indicate if changes were made. The images or other third party material in this article are included in the article's Creative Commons licence, unless indicated otherwise in a credit line to the material. If material is not included in the article's Creative Commons licence and your intended use is not permitted by statutory regulation or exceeds the permitted use, you will need to obtain permission directly from the copyright holder. To view a copy of this licence, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/. |
spellingShingle | Brief Report Kroneisen, Meike Kriechbaumer, Michael Kamp, Siri-Maria Erdfelder, Edgar How can I use it? The role of functional fixedness in the survival-processing paradigm |
title | How can I use it? The role of functional fixedness in the survival-processing paradigm |
title_full | How can I use it? The role of functional fixedness in the survival-processing paradigm |
title_fullStr | How can I use it? The role of functional fixedness in the survival-processing paradigm |
title_full_unstemmed | How can I use it? The role of functional fixedness in the survival-processing paradigm |
title_short | How can I use it? The role of functional fixedness in the survival-processing paradigm |
title_sort | how can i use it? the role of functional fixedness in the survival-processing paradigm |
topic | Brief Report |
url | https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7870631/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/32935282 http://dx.doi.org/10.3758/s13423-020-01802-y |
work_keys_str_mv | AT kroneisenmeike howcaniuseittheroleoffunctionalfixednessinthesurvivalprocessingparadigm AT kriechbaumermichael howcaniuseittheroleoffunctionalfixednessinthesurvivalprocessingparadigm AT kampsirimaria howcaniuseittheroleoffunctionalfixednessinthesurvivalprocessingparadigm AT erdfelderedgar howcaniuseittheroleoffunctionalfixednessinthesurvivalprocessingparadigm |