Mental and perceptual feedback in the development of creative flow

Sketching is considered by artists and designers to be a vital tool in the creative process. However, research shows that externalisation during the creative process (i.e., sketching) is not necessary to create effectively. This study examines whether sketching may play a more important role in the subjective experience of creativity by facilitating the deeply focused, optimal state of consciousness termed ‘flow’ (being ‘in the zone’). The study additionally explored whether sketching affects flow by easing cognitive load or by providing a clearer sense of self-feedback. Participants carried out the creative mental synthesis task (combining sets of simple shapes into creative drawings), experimentally simulating the visual creative process. Ideas were generated either mentally before committing to a final drawing, or with external perceptual support through sketching, and cognitive load was varied by using either three- or five-shape sets. The sketching condition resulted in greater experience of flow and lower perceived task difficulty. However, cognitive load did not affect flow and there was no interaction between load and sketching conditions. These findings are the first to empirically demonstrate that sketching increases flow experience, and that this is not dependent on an associated reduction in overall working memory load

Atomic scale analysis of N dopants in InAs

The band gap of most III-V semiconductors is strongly reduced with the introduction of only a few percent of N, even if the III-N alloy has a much bigger band gap. N impurities in InAs introduce an impurity state around 1 eV above the conduction-band minimum, much deeper in the band than in other III-V materials. Topographic scanning tunneling spectroscopy measurements (STS) and areal spectroscopy measurements performed on N atoms up to two layers below the (110) surface of InAs show a reduction of the resonance energy of the N atom with increasing depth. This is attributed to tip induced band bending, pulling the N states up at positive bias and acting most strongly on surface N atoms. STS measurements obtained on undoped InAs and N-doped InAs show a band-gap reduction of &lt;0.1 eV. Spacial imaging of features corresponding to N dopants up to two layers below the surface are also compared to density functional theory simulations and show excellent correspondence. Spectroscopy maps of N atoms up to two layers below the surface provide a high-resolution spatial and spectroscopic view of the N atoms. Here the characteristic shape of the N atoms in different layers below the surface is observed as an enhancement of the dI/dV signal compared to the InAs background. At energies above the enhancement a reduction of the dI/dV is observed, which has the same shape and size as the enhancement. This shows that the redistribution of density of states caused by the N impurities is mainly energetic in nature.</p

Ordering in GaAs co-doped with Bi and N

Introducing only a few atomic percent of Bi or N in GaAs has a large effect on the band gap of the material. Specifically Bi doped GaAs shows potential for local band gap engineering in optoelectronic applications. The incorporation of Bi and N into GaAs is difficult due to strain effects. In this work we study the ordering of these dopants at the atomic scale in order to get a better understanding of the behavior of these dopants in the host lattice. Cross-sectional scanning tunneling microscopy is used to find the exact position of Bi and N dopants in the GaAs matrix, allowing us to study both their nearest neighbor pair occurrences and pair correlation functions. An attractive interaction between Bi dopants at short ranges (1-2 nm) is found and a similar effect is observed between N dopants. We find a repulsive interaction with a similar length scale between Bi and N dopants. A similar repulsion is found in the Bi-N nearest neighbor pairs. Density functional theory is used to calculate the different nearest neighbor pair energies and test these results to the experimental pair occurrences. It is concluded from the experimental and theoretical results that the growth conditions and N inclusion greatly affects the Bi distribution in GaAs.</p

Visuospatial working memory in intuitive geometry, and in academic achievement in geometry

A study was conducted on the involvement of visuospatial working memory (VSWM) in intuitive geometry and in school performance in geometry at secondary school. A total of 166 pupils were administered: (1) six VSWM tasks, comprising simple storage and complex span tasks; and (2) the intuitive geometry task devised by Dehaene, Izard, Pica, and Spelke (2006), which distinguishes between core, presumably innate, and culturally-mediated principles of geometry; and (3) a task measuring academic achievement in geometry. Path analysis models showed that some VSWM components support culturally-mediated principles of geometry, whereas no VSWM component is related to the core principles of geometry. A complex VSWM task requiring the manipulation of visual information as well as core and culturally-mediated principles of geometry directly predicted academic achievement in geometry. Our results are discussed in terms of the role of VSWM in learning geometry

The relationship among geometry, working memory, and intelligence in children.

Although geometry is one of the main areas of mathematical learning, the cognitive processes underlying geometry-related academic achievement have not been studied in detail. This study explored the relationship among working memory (WM), intelligence (g factor), and geometry in 176 typically developing children attending school in their fourth and fifth grades. Structural equation modeling showed that approximately 40% of the variance in academic achievement and in intuitive geometry (which is assumed to be independent of a person's cultural background) was explained by WM and the g factor. After taking intelligence and WM into account, intuitive geometry was no longer significantly related to academic achievement in geometry. We also found intuitive geometry to be closely related to fluid intelligence (as measured by Raven's colored progressive matrices) and reasoning ability, whereas academic achievement in geometry depended largely on WM. These results were confirmed by a series of regressions in which we estimated the contributions of WM, intelligence, and intuitive geometry to the unique and shared variance explaining academic achievement in geometry. Theoretical and educational implications of the relationship among WM, intelligence, and academic achievement in geometry are discussed