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Unconscious thought theory (UTT) suggests that creativity benefits more from unconscious thought than conscious thought. However, previous studies have only focused on creative problem solving. This study aims to explore the effect of unconscious thought and conscious thought in creative science problem finding (CSPF). The ability of CSPF was measured by fluency, flexibility and originality. Participants accomplished the CSPF task after 3 min of distraction, during which unconscious thought was supposed to take place, or after 3 min of conscious thought. Results showed that unconscious thought had no advantage over conscious thought on CSPF. For the CSPF task with open instructions, conscious thought was comparable to unconscious thought in fluency, flexibility and originality. What’s more, for the CSPF task with closed instructions, unconscious thought was even overtaken by conscious thought in fluency, flexibility and originality. These findings extend the unconscious thought theory and provide practical guidance on how to propose a creative science problem.

Attention priority of reward history, also called value-driven attentional capture (VDAC), is different from that of saliency or contingency. The magnitude of VDAC was found to be correlated with working memory capacity, but how cognitive control interacts with the attentional allocation of reward association is not clear. Here, we examined whether the distraction by learned color-reward association would change under different working memory load conditions. Participants were first trained with color-reward associations by searching a green/red circle with low/high reward. Then, during the test session, participants needed to search a unique shape while a green/red shape was either presented as a distractor or not shown at all. To manipulate the working memory load in the test, a digital memory task was integrated with the visual search task in half of the trials (memory load condition), but not in the other half (no-load condition). Consistent results were found in two experiments that the magnitude of attentional capture caused by low-value distractors was larger under memory load condition than under no-load condition, while there was no enough evidence supporting the influence of memory load on attentional capture by high-value distractors. These results suggested that working memory load, which occupied part of cognitive resources, reduced the priority of target information and might also modulate the strength of reward association holding in working memory. These findings extend the knowledge regarding the influence of working memory load on attentional capture of reward and suggest that reward-induced distraction is dynamic and could be modulated by cognitive control.

We investigated the interactive effect of facial appearance and reputation based on past behavior on trust belief and trust behavior in a one-shot standard Trust Game with Chinese participants. The faces and behavioral statements of partners were sequentially displayed to the participants. The participants had to evaluate the partners' perceived trustworthiness and decide how much money they would invest, as well as how much money they would expect the counterpart to return. The results showed that the Chinese participants' economic decisions were influenced by partner facial appearance. We also found an interactive effect of facial appearance and behavioral statements, and a significant interaction of sequence and behavioral statements. Behavioral statements alone had an effect on perceived trustworthiness only when they were shown first, but they had no effect when the faces were displayed first. Behavioral statements had an effect only through their interaction with the faces. However, faces can affect perceived trustworthiness alone, regardless of sequence. Finally, we proposed a model for illustrating the relationships among facial appearance, behavioral statements, perceived trustworthiness, investment amount, and the amount of expected return.

Objectives Developing efficient tools for assessing general cognitive functions in older adults is essential. Previous studies found that inhibition of return (IOR) occurred later in the older adults than in the younger. However, little is known about the relationship between the onset time of IOR (IOR-OT) and cognitive functions in the aging population. The present study examined this issue and investigated the potential of using IOR-OT as an index of cognitive functioning in older adults. Methods In two studies, the IOR-OT of healthy younger and older adults was measured by a modified Posner peripheral cueing task, and cognitive functions of the older adults were evaluated with the Addenbrooke's Cognitive Examination Revised (ACE-R). Results Both studies showed a significant correlation (r = ~.5) between IOR-OT and cognitive functions as assessed by ACE-R in older individuals: later IOR-OT was accompanied by a lower ACE-R score. Discussion To our knowledge, the present studies are the first to discover a relatively strong correlation between IOR-OT and cognitive functions in older adults. These findings provide new evidence supporting the inhibition deficit theory of aging and lay the foundation of using IOR-OT as an objective measure of cognitive functions in the aging population.