The Effect of Zhongyong Thinking on Remote Association Thinking: An EEG Study

Frontiers in Psychology

article

Zhijin Zhou¹  Lixia Hu¹  Cuicui Sun¹  Mingzhu Li²  Fang Guo¹  Qingbai Zhao¹ 

[1] School of Psychology, Central China Normal University;Special Education Research and Guidance Center

关键词: Confucianism;    zhongyong thinking;    integrated thinking;    eclectic thinking;    creative problem-solving;   

DOI  :  10.3389/fpsyg.2019.00207

学科分类：社会科学、人文和艺术（综合）

来源: Frontiers

【 摘 要 】

The Doctrine of the Mean (zhongyong) introduced by Confucianism is not only an aspect of faith, but also a way of thinking for Chinese individuals. Zhongyong includes two thinking forms: eclectic thinking (ET; i.e., “neither-A-nor-B”) and integrated thinking (IT; i.e., “both-A-and-B”). Given the inclination of Asian individuals toward situational cognition, this study used questions about situations familiar to Chinese undergraduates to activate either ET or IT. This was done to investigate the effects of the two divergent thinking forms of zhongyong on performance levels on the Remote Associates Test (RAT). Both behavioral and EEG results found that participants in the IT condition demonstrated higher RAT scores than those in the ET condition. The conclusion was that the RAT and priming tasks shared the same neural mechanism. This meant that the priming tasks of IT allowed participants to enter a state of creative preparation in advance, further affecting resolution of the RAT.

【 授权许可】

CC BY