SWITCHING ON CREATIVITY

“Cases of savant syndrome have inspired an electrical brain stimulation technique for boosting creative insight”

By: Allan W. Snyder, Sophie Ellwood and Richard P. Chi

Published: Scientific American Mind; November – December 2012

To access the article, copy paste the following for a free copy:
http://www.readcube.com/articles/10.1038/scientificamericanmind1112-58

Level of Difficulty: ****

BEFORE YOU READ

·         Do you believe we have hither to untapped latent abilities?

·         Do you believe these can and should be brought to light?

·         What would the advantages of such an endeavor be?

·         Can you imagine any disadvantages?

QUESTIONS

1.       The writer states “Recent studies suggest otherwise”. What exactly do recent studies suggest?

2.       What does “this approach” refer to in the phrase “the inspiration for this approach”?

3.       People with savant syndrome seem to owe their extraordinary abilities in one specific area to………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………….

4.       The purpose of the examples of the ultrasound technician and the portrait painter is to show that ……………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………….

5.       Despite their advantages, mind sets have numerous disadvantages such as ………………………..

6.       Read the example of the short reading passage. What does it prove?

7.       What does “this goal” refer to in the phrase “A clue to achieving this goal”?

8.       What innate advantage does Stephen Wiltshire have over other artists?

9.       What is the implication of such a mindset?

10.   What development led to the emergence of acquired savant skills in Mr. Z and Orlando Serrell?

11.   What is the implication of these two cases?

12.   What is the purpose of using transcranial magnetic stimulation?

13.   Read the experiment concerning transcranial direct current stimulation to the end. The purpose of the experiment was to………………………………………………………………………………….

14.   Was the hypothesis of the scientists proved or disproved? Support your answer with information from the text.

15.   What makes the 9 dots problem so very difficult to solve?

16.   Did the study involving the 9 dots problem confirm the result of the previous experiment or not? Support your answer with information from the text.

17.   What conclusion can we draw from the last paragraph but one?

WRITING TASK

Write an essay discussing the implications of the research described in the text.

SWITCHING ON CREATIVITY KEY AND TEACHER’S NOTES

This text is so fascinating that I dare anyone to be able to put it down once they start reading. All students need to subscribe to a magazine I feel and if you agree, you might suggest this one. It is a mine of information and texts with enormous potential for our purposes. The questions are just as tough as they should be at this level and there is a free writing activity too.

1.       These light bulb moments can be orchestrated; the next sentence is an explanation of this main idea.

2.       Weakening these biases and boosting openness to new ideas by temporarily diminishing the neural activity in specific brain areas.

3.       Right hemisphere dominance

4.       The brain actively interprets what we think of as our raw experience in light of past knowledge.

5.       Leaving us susceptible to errors including illusions, false memories and memories making us less receptive perhaps even resistant to new ideas.

6.       That humans are conceptual not literal thinkers

7.       Accessing perceptual details usually hidden from conscious awareness, potentially unlocking  the genius within us all

8.       He has privileged access to more raw, less processed information about the world

9.       It allows the person to work bottom up from the parts to the whole.

10.   Impairment in the left anterior temporal lobe.

11.   These skills are latent in us all but beyond conscious access

12.    Reducing the influence of prior knowledge

13.   Recipients to access a different cognitive style

14.   Proved; 60% of those in the group that received stimulation according to our parameters solved the problem.

15.   The problem activates seemingly relevant prior knowledge that obstructs the solution. This is the minimum you need; the rest is explanation.

16.   It confirmed it; 14 out of 33 individuals solved the problem as a result of receiving stimulation at the anterior temporal lobes according to our protocol

17.   Many questions remain unanswered of course