Browsing by keyword "*Thinking"

Now showing items 1-3 of 3

    • Hemispheric connectivity and the visual-spatial divergent-thinking component of creativity
      Moore, Dana W.; Bhadelia, Rafeeque A.; Billings, Rebecca L.; Fulwiler, Carl E.; Heilman, Kenneth M.; Rood, Kenneth M. J.; Gansler, David A. (2009-04-10)
      BACKGROUND/HYPOTHESIS: Divergent thinking is an important measurable component of creativity. This study tested the postulate that divergent thinking depends on large distributed inter- and intra-hemispheric networks. Although preliminary evidence supports increased brain connectivity during divergent thinking, the neural correlates of this characteristic have not been entirely specified. It was predicted that visuospatial divergent thinking would correlate with right hemisphere white matter volume (WMV) and with the size of the corpus callosum (CC). METHODS: Volumetric magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) analyses and the Torrance Tests of Creative Thinking (TTCT) were completed among 21 normal right-handed adult males. RESULTS: TTCT scores correlated negatively with the size of the CC and were not correlated with right or, incidentally, left WMV. CONCLUSIONS: Although these results were not predicted, perhaps, as suggested by Bogen and Bogen (1988), decreased callosal connectivity enhances hemispheric specialization, which benefits the incubation of ideas that are critical for the divergent-thinking component of creativity, and it is the momentary inhibition of this hemispheric independence that accounts for the illumination that is part of the innovative stage of creativity. Alternatively, decreased CC size may reflect more selective developmental pruning, thereby facilitating efficient functional connectivity.

    • Milestones of critical thinking: a developmental model for medicine and nursing
      Papp, Klara K.; Huang, Grace C.; Lauzon Clabo, Laurie M.; Delva, Dianne; Fischer, Melissa A.; Konopasek, Lyuba; Schwartzstein, Richard M.; Gusic, Maryellen (2014-05-01)
      Critical thinking is essential to a health professional's competence to assess, diagnose, and care for patients. Defined as the ability to apply higher-order cognitive skills (conceptualization, analysis, evaluation) and the disposition to be deliberate about thinking (being open-minded or intellectually honest) that lead to action that is logical and appropriate, critical thinking represents a "meta-competency" that transcends other knowledge, skills, abilities, and behaviors required in health care professions. Despite its importance, the developmental stages of critical thinking have not been delineated for nurses and physicians. As part of a task force of educators who considered different developmental stage theories, the authors have iteratively refined and proposed milestones in critical thinking. The attributes associated with unreflective, beginning, practicing, advanced, accomplished, and challenged critical thinkers are conceived as independent of an individual's level of training. Depending on circumstances and environmental factors, even the most experienced clinician may demonstrate attributes associated with a challenged thinker. The authors use the illustrative case of a patient with abdominal pain to demonstrate how critical thinking may manifest in learners at different stages of development, analyzing how the learner at each stage applies information obtained in the patient interaction to arrive at a differential diagnosis and plan for evaluation. The authors share important considerations and provide this work as a foundation for the development of effective approaches to teaching and promoting critical thinking and to establishing expectations for learners in this essential meta-competency.

    • Willingness of subjects with thought disorder to participate in research
      Candilis, Philip J.; Geppert, Cynthia M. A.; Fletcher, Kenneth E.; Lidz, Charles W.; Appelbaum, Paul S. (2005-10-29)
      Greater attention is being focused on the willingness and motivations of potential subjects who are recruited for research protocols. Given the importance of subjects' abilities to choose freely and reason through their decisions about entering psychiatric research, empirical researchers have been developing assessment and education tools that address the potential vulnerabilities of research subjects. In this study subjects' responses and reasons for or against participation were elicited as part of an assessment of their research decision making. Fifty-two persons diagnosed with a thought disorder were asked to consider a hypothetical research study using the MacArthur Competence Assessment Tool for Clinical Research (MacCAT-CR). Their responses were documented, coded for content, and correlated with demographic characteristics and scores on scales rating psychosis, cognition, and health-related quality of life. Subjects expressed common considerations that have been identified by other psychiatric investigators, as well as by those studying nonpsychiatric protocols. In general, reasons were both appropriate to the study being considered and appropriately linked to common considerations that flowed logically from the study. However, elements of the therapeutic misconception were evident as well. Willingness to participate was correlated with higher MacCAT-CR scores on certain scales, better education, and lower levels of psychosis and cognitive impairment. These findings highlight both the strengths and weaknesses of the decision making of research subjects with thought disorder. Research protections and assessments may consequently be appropriately targeted to specific vulnerabilities. Because of differences in severity of illness, cognition, and reasoning among subjects who decline to participate in research, greater attention to this population appears warranted.