How Knowledge Structure and Form Shape Scientific Divergent Thinking: Evidence from Semantic Network Analysis and the Scientific Divergent Application Task.

Wenjin Zhang, Yoed N Kenett, Mujie Ma, Peiduo Liu, Wenjing Yang

Abstract read

In one paragraph

Article in Journal of Intelligence, 2026. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Not yet cited in PubMed.

0numbers the graph read from it

0cells of the map it votes in

0citing papers in PubMed

–field-weighted citation impact

1 · What the graph read from it

What it found

Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.

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.

2 · The registry

The trial behind it

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Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.

3 · Its place in the literature

Who cites it

0 citing papers in PubMed.

No citing paper in PubMed yet.

4 · The record

Corrections and comments

PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.

5 · Who and what money

Authors and funding

5 authors.

Wenjin ZhangKey Laboratory of Cognition and Personality, Southwest University (SWU), Ministry of Education, Chongqing 400715, China.

Yoed N KenettFaculty of Data and Decision Sciences, Technion-Israel Institute of Technology, Haifa 3200003, Israel.ORCID 0000-0003-3872-7689

Mujie MaKey Laboratory of Cognition and Personality, Southwest University (SWU), Ministry of Education, Chongqing 400715, China.

Peiduo LiuKey Laboratory of Cognition and Personality, Southwest University (SWU), Ministry of Education, Chongqing 400715, China.

Wenjing YangKey Laboratory of Cognition and Personality, Southwest University (SWU), Ministry of Education, Chongqing 400715, China.

Funding

National Natural Science Foundation of China 32271112

6 · The paper itself

Abstract

Scientific creativity depends not only on what learners know but also on how knowledge is organized, yet evidence in scientific domains remains limited. Across two experiments, we examined whether knowledge structures predict scientific divergent thinking and whether knowledge form shapes creativity through its effects on these structures. Undergraduate students completed the Scientific Divergent Application Task (SDAT), which requires generating novel applications based on learned scientific principles. In Pilot Experiment (

Indexed as

knowledge formsknowledge structurescientific creativityscientific divergent thinkingsemantic memory networks

Identifiers

PMID42505929

DOI10.3390/jintelligence14070118

PMCPMC13413292

What OpenQuestion holds

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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.