Creativity is the highest cognitive goal of education and the driving force behind human civilization's progress. The selection, diagnosis, cultivation, and discovery of creative talent have become urgent issues. Through big data corpus analysis, our research team first establishes a large-scale Chinese associative database, based on which we develop a multi-level "Chinese Remote Association Test" (CRAT) with the characteristic of Mandarin Chinese in terms of "components," "characters," and "vocabulary," covering young children to adults. Furthermore, cognitive neuroscience techniques are used to dissect the key processes of creative thinking. For instance, using eye-tracking technology, it is discovered that the CRAT answering process requires both representational transformation and divergent thinking. Functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) is employed to uncover the brain regions involved in remote associations and representational transformations, as well as the relationship between remote associations and the brain's default mode network.

 

Moreover, we propose a "Multicultural Interaction Model Promoting Creativity," predicting and confirming that new immigrant children show higher creativity performance. Additionally, attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) students exhibit advantages in divergent thinking. Finally, the "Creativity-Matching Teaching Model" is suggested, advocating for the deployment of different strategies and techniques based on the subject's attributes. Digital escape room games emphasizing representational transformations are designed to enhance natural science creativity. Story and image-associated creative teaching is created to boost subject memory and creativity. Divergent thinking-oriented creative curriculum is incorporated into humanities and social sciences to enhance learning performance and creativity.

 

Our research team aims to achieve four objectives: innovative assessment tools development through big data, analysis of the cognitive neural mechanisms underlying creativity, creation of suitable creativity enhancement courses, and discovery of group creative advantages. Together, these efforts aim to achieve the goal of selecting, diagnosing, cultivating, and discovering future talents that are irreplaceable by AI in the rapidly changing era.