Figure 1 - uploaded by Kurt Gray
Content may be subject to copyright.
Thought plot comparing two participants from Study 1. The responses of S 147 (blue) on divergent thinking tasks were rated as more creative than those of S 71 (green).
Source publication
When the human mind is free to roam, its subjective experience is characterized by a continuously evolving stream of thought. Although there is a technique that captures people’s streams of free thought—free association—its utility for scientific research is undermined by two open questions: 1) How can streams of thought be quantified? and 2) Do su...
Contexts in source publication
Context 1
... a thought plot, each thought is sequentially listed in equal intervals along the x-axis, with its instantaneous forward flow depicted on the y-axis. These graphs illustrate an individual's stream of thought, as can be seen in Figure 1, which compares two thought plots drawn from Study 1. ...
Context 2
... < .001. Figure 1 contrasts the thought plots of participants with high and low creativity ratings. Forward flow did not significantly correlate with convergent thinking, r(215) = -.00, ...
Context 3
... < .001, even when controlling for cognitive capacity in the studies that measured it (Studies 1, 2, and 3), β = .20, t(958) = 6.49, p < .001. ...
Context 4
... a thought plot, each thought is sequentially listed in equal intervals along the x-axis, with its instantaneous forward flow depicted on the y-axis. These graphs illustrate an individual's stream of thought, as can be seen in Figure 1, which compares two thought plots drawn from Study 1. ...
Context 5
... < .001. Figure 1 contrasts the thought plots of participants with high and low creativity ratings. Forward flow did not significantly correlate with convergent thinking, r(215) = -.00, ...
Citations
... This work explores possible convergence in the creative outputs of large-scale LLMs. We test this by soliciting creative outputs from LLMs and humans using standardized creativity tests-the Alternative Uses Task [23], Forward Flow [22], and the Divergent Association Task [38]-and measuring the population-level variability of responses. While caution should be used in extrapolating human-centric psychological tests to non-human entities (see §3), these tests are useful in our setting because of their standardized output format. ...
... While effective, the AUT evaluation process is onerous, so researchers have developed more lightweight divergent thinking tests in recent years. One popular test, Forward Flow [22] (FF), measures the divergence of a user's chain of thought from a fixed starting point. Another, the Divergent Association Test (DAT) [38], asks subjects to list 10 unrelated words. ...
... Forward Flow [22] measures how much a person's thoughts diverge from a given starting point. It provides a starting word and asks people to write down the next word that follows in their mind from the previous word for up to 20 words. ...
Numerous powerful large language models (LLMs) are now available for use as writing support tools, idea generators, and beyond. Although these LLMs are marketed as helpful creative assistants, several works have shown that using an LLM as a creative partner results in a narrower set of creative outputs. However, these studies only consider the effects of interacting with a single LLM, begging the question of whether such narrowed creativity stems from using a particular LLM -- which arguably has a limited range of outputs -- or from using LLMs in general as creative assistants. To study this question, we elicit creative responses from humans and a broad set of LLMs using standardized creativity tests and compare the population-level diversity of responses. We find that LLM responses are much more similar to other LLM responses than human responses are to each other, even after controlling for response structure and other key variables. This finding of significant homogeneity in creative outputs across the LLMs we evaluate adds a new dimension to the ongoing conversation about creativity and LLMs. If today's LLMs behave similarly, using them as a creative partners -- regardless of the model used -- may drive all users towards a limited set of "creative" outputs.
... In the present study, age-related differences in associative thinking (operationalized through semantic relatedness) were directly compared to the stability of creative cognition in older adulthood. Through a free association task, participants provide chained associative responses that are semantically related to the previous response -these types of associations allow for a more spontaneous, free flowing train of thought that is not semantically constrained to the cue word and therefore differs from a more controlled semantic retrieval task (Gray et al., 2019). To investigate other possible underlying mechanisms, other facets of cognition, including crystallized and fluid intelligence, as well as language production ability, were related to associative thinking and creativity. ...
... Kenett et al., 2017;Kumar et al., 2020). Path length in semantic memory can also be extended to evaluate individual differences in creativity -highly creative individuals having greater variability in their semantic associations which facilitates creative processing by connecting weakly related words to form new ideas Gray et al., 2019;Mednick, 1962;Merseal et al., 2023). ...
... One way to quantitatively and empirically measure associative thought is with forward flow (Gray et al., 2019). Forward flow uses distributional semantic models (e.g. ...
Successful problem-solving and enhanced creative ability may improve physical health, cognitive well-being, and overall independence of older adults. In general, older adults who are more creative, may be better able to cope with cognitive decline and navigate everyday tasks. While previous research on creative performance in older adulthood showed age-related stability, open questions remain regarding the specific underlying cognitive basis for this invariability across the lifespan. Mediation analyses showed that intelligence measures served as underlying cognitive mechanisms for the stability of creative thinking in older age. The broader implications of these findings provide insight into the complex relationships supporting age-related preservation in creativity.
... To explore these processes further, idea generation and idea selection were assessed using forward flow (FF) and decision error score, respectively. FF assessed the quality of poetry (Jacobs & Kinder, 2022) and reflected the creative dynamics of idea generation (Gray et al., 2019). The decision error score evaluated the quality of idea selection (Brucks & Levav, 2022). ...
... To further observe the dynamic process of poetry composition, we used forward flow (FF) and decision error score (DES) to assess the generation and selection stage during poetry composition. FF could allow researchers to quantify the degree of change within a stream of creative thought via free association or goaldirected association Gray et al., 2019). As mentioned above, participants were asked to generate a series of verbs for each poetry composition task to construct the candidate poem lines. ...
Poetry is one of the most imaginative and creative expressions of language, but how we imagine and generate poetic scenes and events is not yet empirically studied. The present study investigated the role of episodic simulation – the ability to flexibly recombine details to construct new scenes and events – on a poetry composition task. In Experiment 1 and Experiment 2, episodic specificity induction (ESI) and imagination specificity induction were used to manipulate episodic retrieval and episodic simulation, respectively. Computational linguistic measures identified poems’ objective creativity (semantic distance scores), and three subjective ratings assessed originality, appropriateness, and vividness in both experiments. Compared to control inductions, both ESI and imagination specificity induction significantly enhanced the poems’ creativity measured by semantic distance. The analysis of metrics for creative processes revealed that ESI positively impacts both creative idea generation (higher forward flow values) and selection (lower decision error scores), while imagination specificity induction enhanced the performance of the idea generation stage, though it had no discernible effect on selection. Results in both experiments indicated that episodic simulation improved ideas by increasing semantic distance but impaired their appropriateness and vividness during poetry composition. These findings offer novel insights into the role of episodic simulation in complex creative activities like poetry composition.
... Forward flow (FF) is a recently introduced measure that assesses how much the semantic content of people's thought changes over time (K. Gray et al., 2019;Kenett et al., 2020). FF should not be confused with the more well-known concept of flow (Cziksentmihalyi, 2008), which refers to a certain state of mind. ...
... pace/network during their spontaneous associative thinking. The present study used in FF the same words as the cues that were used as probes in AUT (but due to counterbalancing, each participant saw each cue only either in FF or AUT task). Because the semantic distance in FF is positively related to creativity and originality of divergent thinking K. Gray et al., 2019), this procedure allowed us to test whether the dimensions of schizotypy differently interact with associative thinking in producing creative or original responses in divergent thinking task (AUT). Based on the literature review presented above, one could hypothesize that at least the relationship between positive schizotypy (Unusual Exp ...
... Spontaneous flow of associations was measured with the FF method (K. Gray et al., 2019) and it was expected that especially Unusual Experiences would be related to a flow of associations that travels to distant concepts in semantic memory, which would facilitate originality of divergent thinking. In addition, it was expected that scarce semantic cues (SSC) with only a small set of close associates would lead to more distant associations in FF than rich semantic cues (RSC) with a larger set of close associates. ...
Schizotypy may be associated with heightened creativity, but the exact relationship between schizotypal traits and creative divergent thinking remains unclear. Unlike previous research, which predominantly focused on students, this study (n = 213) explored the relationship between schizotypy and divergent thinking in the Alternate Uses Task across a wider age range (from 18 to 78 years, M = 42.8). Schizotypy was measured using the shortened O-LIFE scale. To examine moderating factors, inhibitory control was assessed with a Go/NoGo task, and the spontaneous flow of associative thinking was measured with a Forward Flow task. Impulsive Nonconformity was particularly associated with enhanced creativity and originality in divergent thinking, while negative schizotypy had a detrimental effect. Impulsive Nonconformity was especially influential in fostering creativity when combined with reduced inhibitory control or distant associations, aligning with theories that propose creative ideation stems from combining distantly related ideas, because reduced inhibition and distant associations may broaden access to a wider range of information. Conversely, negative schizotypy diminished originality, possibly due to reduced motivation and fluency, coupled with decreased inhibition. These results underscore the complexity of the interaction between inhibition, associative thinking, and creativity, indicating that cognitive resources and processing strategies play critical roles.
... These issues can be exacerbated by a teacher's inexperience with teaching methods, lack of knowledge, or ignorance of the needs of their students. The absence of resources and guidance for effective class planning typically causes new teachers to struggle, which lowers their capacity (Gray, 2019). Amerstorfer (2021) asserts that a variety of factors related to unique learner characteristics, the teacher, the method of instruction, peers, and other components of the learning environment influence students' involvement in their academic work. ...
Novice teachers face significant challenges, particularly in classroom and time management and adapting to diverse student needs, which can impact their effectiveness and job satisfaction. This study examined the factors influencing the performance of 400 novice teachers in Cagayan de Oro City’s Southwest I and II Districts during the 2023-2024 school year. Using a questionnaire and analyzing data through descriptive statistics, Pearson Correlation, and one-way ANOVA, the study found that many teachers entered the profession later, with a majority aged 41 or older, predominantly female, holding Teacher II positions, and having prior experience in private schools. Results highlight that strong classroom management and the ability to adapt to student diversity are key to a novice teacher’s success. Effective classroom management contributes to a positive learning environment, enhancing student engagement and achievement, while adapting to diverse needs fosters inclusivity and reduces disparities, helping teachers manage stress and avoid burnout. Recommendations urge school leaders to create supportive environments emphasizing time management, professional development, and community engagement, employing the School Management Plan to foster teacher growth. This holistic approach aims to empower novice teachers, ultimately improving their effectiveness and contributing to better student outcomes.
... Previous research has suggested that people generally solve CRA tasks in a bottom-up associative manner 41 , building associations based on the last candidate 42 . This approach is akin to chain-free association, a process in which the semantic distance between the cue and the associated concept continuously increases 43 . ...
This study investigated whether transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS) targeting the inferior frontal gyrus (IFG) can alter the thinking process and neural basis of creativity. Participants’ performance on the compound remote associates (CRA) task was analyzed considering the semantic features of each trial after receiving different tDCS protocols (left cathodal and right anodal, L + R−; right cathodal and left anodal, L−R+; and Sham). Moreover, we constructed and compared 80 prediction models of CRA performance for each group based on task-related functional connectivity. Results showed that L + R− stimulation improved performance in semantically bundled CRA trials, while L−R+ stimulation enhanced performance in trials with greater semantic distance. Furthermore, alpha-band task connectivity models for the L + R− group showed inferior performance and greater left frontal lateralization than other two groups. These findings suggest that tDCS targeting the bilateral IFG alters cognitive processes during creative ideation rather than enhancing or impairing an established thinking process.
... In a recent review, Beaty and Kenett (2023) highlight the role of associative thought as a core mechanism of creative thinking, and illustrate how computational methods have paved the way to study associative thought in creativity. Specifically, a new measure called "Forward Flow" (FF; Gray et al., 2019) has been recently in use to quantify the conceptual distance between associated concepts. This measure is primarily used when participants are given a concept word and are asked to provide an association with that concept, an association with the first association, and so forth, such that a chain of free associations in created Gray et al., 2019). ...
... Specifically, a new measure called "Forward Flow" (FF; Gray et al., 2019) has been recently in use to quantify the conceptual distance between associated concepts. This measure is primarily used when participants are given a concept word and are asked to provide an association with that concept, an association with the first association, and so forth, such that a chain of free associations in created Gray et al., 2019). This method empirically quantifies one's ability to search one's memory and relates such memory search to individual differences in creativity (Merseal et al., 2023), with higher FF scores indexing broader associative thought (see also Olson et al., 2021). ...
... To quantify the semantic distance in associative thought, we leveraged the recently developed "Forward Flow" metric (FF; Gray et al., 2019), which uses latent semantic analysis to evaluate the semantic evolution of thoughts over time, and adapted it to scene-based associative thinking. This task provides a quantitative way to empirically measure how one searches through one's memory. ...
Spontaneous associative processes (e.g., mind wandering, spontaneous memory recollection) are prevalent in everyday life, yet their influence on perceptual scene memory is under debate. Given that scene perception involves extraction of contextual associations, we hypothesized that associative thought would enhance scene memory by promoting encoding of contextual associations. In an online experiment (N = 75), participants viewed scenes, and following each scene either generated chained-free associations (associative processing), or, as control, listed words that begin with a specific letter (phonological processing). Scene memory was tested after an intermediate creativity task, which is also shown to rely on associative processes. Results revealed that associative thought, regardless of its conceptual (semantic) distances between responses, enhanced scene-gist memory, but hampered memory of scene details, implying that associative thought facilitates contextual encoding. In a follow-up experiment (N = 74), we found that the effect of associative thought on scene-gist memory was mediated by scene labeling. When participants were asked to explicitly label the scene before completing an associative processing or a phonological processing task, scene-gist memory was prioritized at the expense of scene details, eliminating the memory differences between tasks. These findings imply that labeling past perceived scenes, whether explicitly or implicitly during associative thought, facilitates scene-gist memory. Lastly, in both experiments, creativity was not correlated with scene memory but was positively correlated with the semantic distances between scene-based associations, extending past findings that link creativity with the breadth of associative processes. Together, these findings highlight the likely effect of post-perceptual associative processes on higher-order cognitive functions, such as memory consolidation and creative thought.
... In psychology, generating creative ideas has previously been theorized to require a person to remodel traditional conceptual associations in favor of those associations that are not typically made (65). Moreover, that remodeling process has been considered through the language of network science, raising the possibility that a network approach could offer a fruitful avenue by which to capture the curious practice of the dancer (66)(67)(68). ...
... A recent methodological advance especially relevant to identifying the dancer signature is that of forward flow in information search. Forward flow characterizes the momentous "leaps" in thought that are predictive of creativity (66). Forward flow is calculated by the average distance between the current "thought" and all previous thoughts. ...
... Forward flow is calculated by the average distance between the current "thought" and all previous thoughts. Prior work suggests that this metric may be useful in analyzing naturalistic text data; its application to social media posts can predict the scope of a poster's creative achievements (66). Here, we use forward flow to capture the creativity that is characteristic of the dancer type of curiosity as it connects seemingly disparate concepts. ...
Intrinsically motivated information seeking is an expression of curiosity believed to be central to human nature. However, most curiosity research relies on small, Western convenience samples. Here, we analyze a naturalistic population of 482,760 readers using Wikipedia’s mobile app in 14 languages from 50 countries or territories. By measuring the structure of knowledge networks constructed by readers weaving a thread through articles in Wikipedia, we replicate two styles of curiosity previously identified in laboratory studies: the nomadic “busybody” and the targeted “hunter.” Further, we find evidence for another style—the “dancer”—which was previously predicted by a historico-philosophical examination of texts over two millennia and is characterized by creative modes of knowledge production. We identify associations, globally, between the structure of knowledge networks and population-level indicators of spatial navigation, education, mood, well-being, and inequality. These results advance our understanding of Wikipedia’s global readership and demonstrate how cultural and geographical properties of the digital environment relate to different styles of curiosity.
... For valence, we find topics related to "abrupt actions" (topic 120), "negation/inaction" (topic 31) and "physical actions" (topic 47) to occur with the greatest prevalence in the most negatively valenced dreams as compared to the most positively valenced dreams (Fig. 1C). Action-related topics in negative dreams may relate to common features of negative dreams such as runningaway, fighting, or the very act of waking-up from a negative dream, whilst the "negation/inaction" topic may relate to the dreamer being unable to perform a desired action (as in sleep paralysis). ...
... In other NLP work, narratives composed of highly dissimilar words, with more negative cosine similarities to each other, are generally interpreted as being incoherent (29,30). Incoherence is associated with disorganized thought, as is found in schizophrenia, but also creativity and narrative progression (29,31,32). Similarly to in previous work, we also interpret dream networks composed predominantly of edges that connect unrelated topics, with more negative cosine weights, as incoherent. ...
Dreams offer a unique window into the cognitive and affective dynamics of the sleeping and the waking mind. Recent quantitative linguistic approaches have shown promise in obtaining corpus-level measures of dream sentiment and topic occurrence. However, it is currently unclear how the affective content of individual dreams relates to their semantic content and structure. Here, we combine word embedding, topic modeling, and network analysis to investigate this relationship. By applying Discourse Atom Topic Modeling (DATM) to the DreamBank corpus of >18K dream reports, we represent the latent themes arising within dreams as a sparse dictionary of topics and identify the affective associations of those topics. We show that variation in dream affect (valence and arousal) is associated with changes in topical content. By representing each dream report as a network of topics, we demonstrate that the affective content of dreams is also coupled to semantic structure. Specifically, positively valenced dreams exhibit more coherent, structured, and linear narratives, whilst negatively valenced dreams have more narrative loops and dominant topics. Additionally, topic networks of high arousal dreams are structurally dominated by few high arousal topics and incoherent topical connections, whereas low arousal dreams contain more loops. These findings suggest that affective processes are associated with both the content and structure of dreams. Our approach showcases the potential of integrating natural language processing and network analysis with psychology to elucidate the interplay of affect, cognition and narrative in dreams. This methodology has broad applications for the study of narrated experience and psychiatric symptomatology.
... For valence, we find topics related to "abrupt actions" (topic 120), "negation/inaction" (topic 31) and "physical actions" (topic 47) to occur with the greatest prevalence in the most negatively valenced dreams as compared to the most positively valenced dreams (Fig. 1C). Action-related topics in negative dreams may relate to common features of negative dreams such as runningaway, fighting, or the very act of waking-up from a negative dream, whilst the "negation/inaction" topic may relate to the dreamer being unable to perform a desired action (as in sleep paralysis). ...
... In other NLP work, narratives composed of highly dissimilar words, with more negative cosine similarities to each other, are generally interpreted as being incoherent (29,30). Incoherence is associated with disorganized thought, as is found in schizophrenia, but also creativity and narrative progression (29,31,32). Similarly to in previous work, we also interpret dream networks composed predominantly of edges that connect unrelated topics, with more negative cosine weights, as incoherent. ...
Dreams offer a unique window into the cognitive and affective dynamics of the sleeping and the waking mind. Recent quantitative linguistic approaches have shown promise in obtaining corpus-level measures of dream sentiment and topic occurrence. However, it is currently unclear how the affective content of individual dreams relates to their semantic content and structure. Here, we combine word embedding, topic modeling, and network analysis to investigate this relationship. By applying Discourse Atom Topic Modeling (DATM) to the DreamBank corpus of >18K dream reports, we represent the latent themes arising within dreams as a sparse dictionary of topics and identify the affective associations of those topics. We show that variation in dream affect (valence and arousal) is associated with changes in topical content. By representing each dream report as a network of topics, we demonstrate that the affective content of dreams is also coupled to semantic structure. Specifically, positively valenced dreams exhibit more coherent, structured, and linear narratives, whilst negatively valenced dreams have more narrative loops and dominant topics. Additionally, topic networks of high arousal dreams are structurally dominated by few high arousal topics and incoherent topical connections, whereas low arousal dreams contain more loops. These findings suggest that affective processes are associated with both the content and structure of dreams. Our approach showcases the potential of integrating natural language processing and network analysis with psychology to elucidate the interplay of affect, cognition and narrative in dreams. This methodology has broad applications for the study of narrated experience and psychiatric symptomatology.