ArticleThinking & reasoning2023
Semantic Memory and Creativity: The Costs and Benefits of Semantic Memory Structure in Generating Original Ideas.
Article in Thinking & reasoning, 2023. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 14 papers.
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The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
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Who cites it
14 citing papers in PubMed.
- Are Creative People More Susceptible to False Memory? Evidence for Age- and Task-Related Differences.Creativity research journal · 2026Article
- Review
- Semantic Memory Structure and Self-Evaluation of Creativity: Evidence Across Tasks and Dimensions.Journal of Intelligence · 2026Article
- Investigating age-related differences in semantic control mechanisms involved in creative cognition.Memory & cognition · 2026Article
- Cognitive and neural mechanisms of mental imagery supporting creative cognition.Communications biology · 2025Article
- Semantic memory and creative evaluation.BMC psychology · 2025Article
- Creativity supports learning through associative thinking.NPJ science of learning · 2025Article
- Default mode network electrophysiological dynamics and causal role in creative thinking.Brain : a journal of neurology · 2024Article
- Cognitive modelling of concepts in the mental lexicon with multilayer networks: Insights, advancements, and future challenges.Psychonomic bulletin & review · 2024Review
- The role of alpha oscillations in free- and goal-directed semantic associations.Human brain mapping · 2024Article
- Changes in semantic memory structure support successful problem-solving and analogical transfer.Communications psychology · 2024Article
- Measuring semantic memory using associative and dissociative retrieval tasks.Royal Society open science · 2024Article
- Cultivating creativity: predictive brains and the enlightened room problem.Philosophical transactions of the Royal Society of London. Series B, Biological sciences · 2024Article
- The Role of Semantic Associations as a Metacognitive Cue in Creative Idea Generation.Journal of Intelligence · 2023Article
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
4 authors.
Funding
Abstract
Despite its theoretical importance, little is known about how semantic memory structure facilitates and constrains creative idea production. We examine whether the semantic richness of a concept has both benefits and costs to creative idea production. Specifically, we tested whether cue set-size-an index of semantic richness reflecting the average number of elements associated with a given concept-impacts the quantity (fluency) and quality (originality) of responses generated during the alternate uses task (AUT). Across four studies, we show that low-association, sparse, AUT cues benefit originality at the cost of fluency compared to high-association, rich, AUT cues. Furthermore, we found an interaction with individual differences in fluid intelligence in the low-association AUT cues, suggesting that constraints of sparse semantic knowledge can be overcome with top-down intervention. The findings indicate that semantic richness differentially impacts the quality and quantity of generated ideas, and that cognitive control processes can facilitate idea production when conceptual knowledge is limited.
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Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.