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Related Experiment Video

Updated: Jul 5, 2025

Using Practice Testing, Public Speaking, and Source Monitoring to Examine the Influences of Learning Strategies and Stress on Episodic Memory

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Published on: June 14, 2019

Divergent thinking modulates interactions between episodic memory and schema knowledge: Controlled and spontaneous

Michelle M Ramey¹, Darya L Zabelina²

¹Department of Psychological Science, University of Arkansas, 203A Memorial Hall, Fayetteville, AR, 72701, USA. mmramey@uark.edu.

Memory & Cognition

|January 16, 2024

Summary

Creative thinking, or divergent thinking, is linked to how we use semantic knowledge and episodic memory. This study shows that better idea generation involves both controlled and spontaneous memory processes working together.

Keywords:

Creativity Divergent thinking Episodic memory Recognition Schema knowledge

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Published on: May 9, 2019

Area of Science:

Cognitive Psychology
Neuroscience

Background:

Divergent thinking, the ability to generate novel ideas, relies on semantic knowledge and episodic memory.
The interaction between semantic knowledge and episodic memory in supporting divergent thinking is not well understood.
It remains debated whether divergent thinking involves spontaneous or controlled retrieval processes.

Purpose of the Study:

To investigate how divergent thinking ability relates to the interaction between semantic knowledge and different episodic memory processes.
To determine if divergent thinking relies on spontaneous, controlled, or both types of memory retrieval.

Main Methods:

Participants completed the alternate uses task to assess divergent thinking.
A memory task involved locating objects in schema-congruent or incongruent scenes.
Episodic memory processes (recollection, familiarity, unconscious memory) were assessed via spatial accuracy and recognition memory judgments.

Main Results:

Higher divergent thinking ability correlated with greater benefit from recollection (controlled) and unconscious memory (spontaneous) for spatial accuracy.
Divergent thinking was associated with effectively combining semantic knowledge with recollection and unconscious memory to enhance spatial accuracy.
No significant effects were found concerning familiarity (a spontaneous process).

Conclusions:

Divergent thinking is associated with both controlled and spontaneous memory processes.
The ability to flexibly integrate semantic knowledge with episodic memory supports divergent thinking.
These findings shed light on the cognitive mechanisms underlying creative idea generation.