Chance favors the prepared mind, said Louis Pasteur. Sometimes, significant breakthroughs occur when we creatively integrate new information, leading to a creative insight or an Aha! moment, while at other times when we fail to use a clue, we remain stuck in our habitual thinking patterns. In this study, we hypothesized that the brain's transient…

The objective of this study was to measure the contribution of the left frontopolar cortex (FPC) to analogical reasoning. Our measure of analogical reasoning derives from performance on the radiation problem, a creative problem-solving task first used in Gestalt psychology (Duncker, 1945). Success on this task is as low as 10 % without the…

Growth mindset, the belief that one's abilities can improve through cognitive effort, is an important psychological construct with broad implications for enabling children to reach their highest potential. However, surprisingly little is known about malleability of growth mindset in response to cognitive interventions in children and its…

There is broad consensus on the assumption that adults solve single-digit multiplication problems almost exclusively by fact retrieval from memory. In contrast, there has been a long-standing debate on the cognitive processes involved in solving single-digit addition problems. This debate has evolved around two theoretical accounts. Proponents of…

An important line of research related to the resolution of word problems is the study of the cognitive processes involved when subjects translate problems into the language of algebra. One of the most common errors in problem-solving is the reversal error (RE), which occurs when students reverse the relationship between two variables when…

Art therapy can be particularly successful in addressing the specific needs of individuals struggling with anorexia nervosa (AN) through the use of the creative process. This article provides an understanding of the effect of malnourishment on the brain for individuals with AN and discusses how their unique needs can be met through the application…

The geometric habits of mind are a process that enables the adoption of ways of thinking about the problems encountered and that works for filling the gap between the results and the thoughts behind these results. It is also important that which cerebral hemisphere activates the geometric habits of mind, so geometric habits of mind and hemispheric…

Analogical reasoning is a core facet of higher cognition in humans. Creating analogies as we navigate the environment helps us learn. Analogies involve reframing novel encounters using knowledge of familiar, relationally similar contexts stored in memory. When an analogy links a novel encounter with a familiar context, it can aid in problem…

Attention-based learning tasks of modern classrooms require processing of information in working memory. Not much is known about the cognitive processes operating during these tasks. To gain an understanding of the processes that support cognitive functions like learning, we have monitored the activity of the brain waves emanating from the frontal…

Evidence from a range of fields shows that representation-connection (RC) is the key step towards the solution of a real-world insight problem. However, no study has focused on the inter-individual variability in RC, and little is known about whether structural and resting-state functional signals can account for inter-individual differences in…

The role of executive function training in supporting child development has been increasingly studied. Executive function is largely related to the prefrontal cortex. The anterior portion of the prefrontal cortex, which is area 10 on the Brodmann map, is essential for the emergence of higher-order executive functions. Accumulating evidence…

Transcranial random noise stimulation (tRNS) increases performance in some perceptual tasks. However, little is known about its effect on creativity. Although dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (DLPFC) has been postulated as an important cortical area related to creativity, the relative role of left and right DLPFC is still unclear. We aimed to…

The present study aims at answering the question of whether there is any relationship between brain hemisphericity and non-routine problem solving skills of prospective teachers. One hundred twenty-three prospective teachers participated in the study. The Brain Hemisphericity Test and Non-routine Problem Solving Test were used to evaluate…

While past research has demonstrated a link between the subjective "Aha" experience of insight and verbal insight problem solution activation in the right hemisphere (RH), no one has yet linked insight to long term semantic priming. We propose that through a shared process of semantic integration both of these concepts are linked and…

The authors set out to determine the brain dominance characteristics of students enrolled in business statistics courses in a historically Black university in a major southeastern Texas city. Thereafter, the authors investigated the relationship between a student's brain hemispheric preference and academic performance in college courses, which…