Browsing by Author "Seli, Paul"
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Item Open Access Breaking Bad: Creativity and Organic Chemistry(2023-04-10) Blue, Michael ConnorIs there such a thing as a “creative person”? The literature on creativity has focused on this question for several decades now, but a clear answer has yet to be provided. On the one hand, some researchers have argued for domain generality within the broad umbrella of “creative activities,” which posits that creative people do indeed exist: that people’s creative talents (or lack thereof) are consistent across all domains of creativity (e.g., painting, problem-solving, music composition, poetry writing). On the other hand, some researchers have maintained that there is no such thing as a creative person, but that people’s creative abilities are instead limited to a particular domain of creative activities (e.g., an individual may be a very creative visual artist, but this talent does not transfer to other domains, such as music composition). While there has been a longstanding debate about the nature of domain-general vs. domain-specific creative talents, whether creativity is domain-general vs. specific remains unclear. To contribute to this ongoing debate, here, I designed a domain-specific measure of creativity for organic chemistry (the Divergent Skeletal Formula Task [DSFT]) and investigated the possible relationships among the DSFT and two widely used domain-general measures of creativity. Results demonstrated no significant relationship between the DSFT and the domain-general measures of creativity, thereby providing further support for a domain-specific view of creativity.Item Open Access Intellectual humility and perceptions of political opponents.(Journal of personality, 2020-06-02) Stanley, Matthew L; Sinclair, Alyssa H; Seli, PaulOBJECTIVE:Intellectual humility (IH) refers to the recognition that personal beliefs might be wrong. We investigate possible interpersonal implications of IH for how people perceive the intellectual capabilities and moral character of their sociopolitical opponents and for their willingness to associate with those opponents. METHOD:In four initial studies (N = 1,926, Mage = 38, 880 females, 1,035 males), we measured IH, intellectual and moral derogation of opponents, and willingness to befriend opponents. In two additional studies (N = 568, Mage = 40, 252 females, 314 males), we presented participants with a specific opponent on certain sociopolitical issues and several social media posts from that opponent in which he expressed his views on the issue. We then measured IH, intellectual, and moral derogation of the opponent, participants' willingness to befriend the opponent, participants' willingness to "friend" the opponent on social media, and participants' willingness to "follow" the opponent on social media. RESULTS:Low-IH relative to high-IH participants were more likely to derogate the intellectual capabilities and moral character of their opponents, less willing to befriend their opponents, and less willing to "friend" and "follow" an opponent on social media. CONCLUSIONS:IH may have important interpersonal implications for person perception, and for understanding social extremism and polarization.Item Open Access Mind-Wandering as a Natural Kind: A Family-Resemblances View.(Trends in cognitive sciences, 2018-06) Seli, Paul; Kane, Michael J; Smallwood, Jonathan; Schacter, Daniel L; Maillet, David; Schooler, Jonathan W; Smilek, DanielAs empirical research on mind-wandering accelerates, we draw attention to an emerging trend in how mind-wandering is conceptualized. Previously articulated definitions of mind-wandering differ from each other in important ways, yet they also maintain overlapping characteristics. This conceptual structure suggests that mind-wandering is best considered from a family-resemblances perspective, which entails treating it as a graded, heterogeneous construct and clearly measuring and describing the specific aspect(s) of mind-wandering that researchers are investigating. We believe that adopting this family-resemblances approach will increase conceptual and methodological connections among related phenomena in the mind-wandering family and encourage a more nuanced and precise understanding of the many varieties of mind-wandering.Item Open Access The awakening of the attention: Evidence for a link between the monitoring of mind wandering and prospective goals.(Journal of experimental psychology. General, 2018-03) Seli, Paul; Smilek, Daniel; Ralph, Brandon CW; Schacter, Daniel LAcross 2 independent samples, we examined the relation between individual differences in rates of self-caught mind wandering and individual differences in temporal monitoring of an unrelated response goal. Rates of self-caught mind wandering were assessed during a commonly used sustained-attention task, and temporal goal monitoring was indexed during a well-established prospective-memory task. The results from both samples showed a positive relation between rates of self-caught mind wandering during the sustained-attention task and rates of checking a clock to monitor the amount of time remaining before a response was required in the prospective-memory task. This relation held even when controlling for overall propensity to mind-wander (indexed by intermittent thought probes) and levels of motivation (indexed by subjective reports). These results suggest the possibility that there is a common monitoring system that monitors the contents of consciousness and the progress of ongoing goals and tasks. (PsycINFO Database RecordItem Open Access Volitional media multitasking: awareness of performance costs and modulation of media multitasking as a function of task demand.(Psychological research, 2018-07-17) Ralph, Brandon CW; Seli, Paul; Wilson, Kristin E; Smilek, DanielIn two experiments, we sought to determine whether (a) people are aware of the frequently observed performance costs associated with engaging in media multitasking (Experiment 1), and (b) if so, whether they modulate the extent to which they engage in multitasking as a function of task demand (Experiment 2). In Experiment 1, participants completed a high-demand task (2-back) both independently and while a video was simultaneously presented. To determine whether people were sensitive to the impact that the concurrent video had on primary-task performance, subjective estimates of performance were collected following both trial types (No-Video vs. Video trials), as were explicit beliefs about the influence of the video on performance. In Experiment 2, we modified our paradigm by allowing participants to turn the video on and off at their discretion, and had them complete either a high-demand task (2-back) or a low-demand task (0-back). Findings from Experiment 1 indicated that people are sensitive to the magnitude of the decrement that media multitasking has on primary-task performance. In addition, findings from Experiment 2 indicated that people modulate the extent to which they engage in media multitasking in accordance with the demands of their primary task. In particular, participants completing the high-demand task were more likely to turn off the optional video stream compared to those completing the low-demand task. The results suggest that people media multitask in a strategic manner by balancing considerations of task performance with other potential concerns.