Cognitive components of semantic memory search and implications for creative ideation

Poster Session E - Monday, April 15, 2024, 2:30 – 4:30 pm EDT, Sheraton Hall ABC

Lucie Vigreux¹, Victor Altmayer¹, Marcela Ovando-Tellez¹, Emmnuelle Volle¹; ¹Sorbonne University, FrontLab at Paris Brain Institute (ICM), INSERM, CNRS, Paris, France

Creative ideas likely result from searching and combining semantic memory knowledge, yet the mechanisms underlying memory search remain unclear. Using an associative fluency task based on polysemous words (PolyFT), Ovando-Tellez et al. (2023) distinguished two search components related to Clustering (exploiting a given meaning) and Switching (changing for another meaning) that correlated with creative abilities. To extend and replicate these findings, 92 French-native participants underwent a computerised version of the PolyFT, using the original three cue-words, and 46 additional polysemous cue-words. Responses were classified according to the different possible meanings of each cue-word and inter-response time was recorded. In addition, participants completed a set of established creativity tasks, executive tests, and a relatedness judgement task to build individual semantic networks. Using a Principal Component Analysis, we were able to distinguish two search components related to Clustering and Switching, replicating the initial study. Similar components were found on both the original and extended set of words. As in the original study, we found significant correlations of these two search components with creativity and executive tests and revealed novel relationships between Clustering and Switching and the properties of semantic networks. Overall, our results replicate and extend prior findings, identifying cognitive components of memory search related to creativity. Additionally, these findings reinforce the validity of PolyFT in investigating semantic memory search processes and demonstrate the task's feasibility in diverse settings.

Topic Area: THINKING: Reasoning