The Impact of Bodily States on Divergent Thinking: Evidence for a Control-Depletion Account

Frontiers in Psychology

Yifei Zhang¹  Yanyun Zhou²  Hao Zhang²  Bernhard Hommel³ 

[1] Emily Carr University of Art and Design, Vancouver, BC, Canada;Key Laboratory of Cognition and Personality, Ministry of Education, School of Psychology, Southwest University, Chongqing, China;Leiden Institute for Brain and Cognition, Department of Psychology, Leiden University, Leiden, Netherlands;

关键词: body and mind;    embodied cognition;    creativity;    divergent thinking;    bodily states;    roaming;   

DOI  :  10.3389/fpsyg.2017.01546

来源: DOAJ

【 摘 要 】

Given previous evidence that bodily states can impact basic cognitive processes, we asked whether such impact can also be demonstrated for creative cognition. In particular, we had participants perform a design improvement task and a consequences imagination task while standing up, walking in a predetermined pattern, or walking freely. Results show better divergent-thinking performance with unconstrained than with constrained walking, and better performance for walking than for standing. A second experiment assessed performance in an alternative uses task and a figural combination task while participants were lying, sitting, or standing. Results showed better performance when standing up than when lying or sitting. Taken altogether, these observations provide evidence for an approach in terms of cognitive-control depletion: the more a bodily activity exhausts control resources, the better divergent thinking can unfold, presumably because reduced top-down control brings more ideas into play.

【 授权许可】

Unknown