Perceptual contributions to problem solving: Chunk decomposition of Chinese characters

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	Perceptual contributions to problem solving: Chunk decomposition of Chinese characters
	Luo, Jing; Niki, Kazuhisa ; Knoblich, Guenther ; J. Luo
摘要	Chunk decomposition is the decomposing of familiar patterns into their component elements so that they can be regrouped in another meaningful manner. Such a regrouping is sometimes critically required in problem solving because during initial encoding the problem elements become automatically grouped into familiar chunks and this may prohibit finding a novel or efficient solution to problems [G. Knoblich, S. Ohlsson, H. Haider, D. Rhenius, Constraint relaxation and chunk decomposition in insight problem solving, J. Exp. Psychol. Learn. Mem. Cogn. 25 (1999) 1534-1556]. In order to elucidate the brain mechanisms underlying the process of chunk decomposition, we developed a task that uses Chinese character as materials. Chinese characters are ideal examples of perceptual chunks. They are composed of radicals, which in turn, are composed of strokes. Because radicals are meaningful chunks themselves but strokes are not meaningful in isolation, it is much easier to separate a character by its radicals than to separate a character by its strokes. By comparing the stroke-level decomposition and the radical-level decomposition, we observed activities in occipital, frontal, and parietal lobes. Most importantly, during the moment of chunk decomposition, we found the early visual cortex showed a tendency of negative activation whereas the higher visual cortex showed a tendency of positive activation. This suggests that in order to successfully decompose a chunk, the higher visual areas must at least partly be 'disconnected' from the input provided by early visual processing in order to allow simple features to be rearranged into a different perceptual chunk. We conclude that early perceptual processes can crucially affect thinking and problem solving.; Chunk decomposition is the decomposing of familiar patterns into their component elements so that they can be regrouped in another meaningful manner. Such a regrouping is sometimes critically required in problem solving because during initial encoding the problem elements become automatically grouped into familiar chunks and this may prohibit finding a novel or efficient solution to problems [G. Knoblich, S. Ohlsson, H. Haider, D. Rhenius, Constraint relaxation and chunk decomposition in insight problem solving, J. Exp. Psychol. Learn. Mem. Cogn. 25 (1999) 1534-1556]. In order to elucidate the brain mechanisms underlying the process of chunk decomposition, we developed a task that uses Chinese character as materials. Chinese characters are ideal examples of perceptual chunks. They are composed of radicals, which in turn, are composed of strokes. Because radicals are meaningful chunks themselves but strokes are not meaningful in isolation, it is much easier to separate a character by its radicals than to separate a character by its strokes. By comparing the stroke-level decomposition and the radical-level decomposition, we observed activities in occipital, frontal, and parietal lobes. Most importantly, during the moment of chunk decomposition, we found the early visual cortex showed a tendency of negative activation whereas the higher visual cortex showed a tendency of positive activation. This suggests that in order to successfully decompose a chunk, the higher visual areas must at least partly be 'disconnected' from the input provided by early visual processing in order to allow simple features to be rearranged into a different perceptual chunk. We conclude that early perceptual processes can crucially affect thinking and problem solving. (c) 2006 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
关键词	insight problem solving event-related fMRI creative thinking aha reaction
学科领域	认知神经科学
	2006-10-16
语种	英语
发表期刊	BRAIN RESEARCH BULLETIN
ISSN	0361-9230
卷号	70 期号:4-6 页码:430-443
期刊论文类型	Article
收录类别	SCI ; SSCI
WOS记录号	WOS:000241546500019
引用统计	被引频次：52[WOS] [WOS记录] [WOS相关记录]
文献类型	期刊论文
条目标识符	http://ir.psych.ac.cn/handle/311026/5615
专题	中国科学院心理研究所回溯数据库(1956-2010)
通讯作者	J. Luo
作者单位	1.Chinese Acad Sci, Inst Psychol, Key Lab Mental Hlth, Beijing 100101, Peoples R China 2.Capital Normal Univ, Learning & Cognit Lab, Beijing, Peoples R China 3.Rutgers State Univ, Dept Psychol, Piscataway, NJ 08855 USA
推荐引用方式 GB/T 7714	Luo, Jing,Niki, Kazuhisa,Knoblich, Guenther,et al. Perceptual contributions to problem solving: Chunk decomposition of Chinese characters[J]. BRAIN RESEARCH BULLETIN,2006,70(4-6):430-443.
APA	Luo, Jing,Niki, Kazuhisa,Knoblich, Guenther,&J. Luo.(2006).Perceptual contributions to problem solving: Chunk decomposition of Chinese characters.BRAIN RESEARCH BULLETIN,70(4-6),430-443.
MLA	Luo, Jing,et al."Perceptual contributions to problem solving: Chunk decomposition of Chinese characters".BRAIN RESEARCH BULLETIN 70.4-6(2006):430-443.

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