COMMENTARY REPORT ON DAILY ACTIVITIES 1

CIA I: Deconstructing my Week

Tanishqa

Department of Psychology

MPS231: Biological Foundations of Behavior

Dr. Shinto Thomas

February 5. 2023
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Deconstructing my Week

As a student, we all follow a routine that gives us a structure and helps us maintain

stability in our lives. It also provides a sense of accomplishment when tasks are completed as

part of a well-established routine. Every activity that we perform in our daily lives have a

psychological, biological and cognitive component. Some of the activities that I perform on a

daily basis include:

Painting and Mandala Art (Creative Productivity)

Painting and Mandala art are a way of expressing frustration and confusion in a creative

way on a blank piece of canvas, that are also a type of creative productivity. Creative

productivity is the expression of creativity in the actual creation of creative works, as opposed to

the unrealized potential for such creation (Hayes, 1989).

Rationale:

Creativity is a crucial characteristic that makes human beings a unique species. As a

budding researcher, the concept of creative productivity in scientific research intrigues me. Every
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human possesses the trait of creative productivity, whether they reflect that in their dance, art,

story telling, stand-comedies or teaching. Thus, it is important to understand the cognitive and

biopsychological mechanisms of creativity.

Cognitive Processes and their biological mechanisms

Problem-solving. Creative actions are a type of problem-solving and entail procedures

that are also used in routine problem-solving tasks (Simon, 1966). They are actions of

problem-solving that are innovative and worthwhile and exhibit the problem-cognitive solver's

ability. It is not necessary to equate problem-solving with creative activity, yet many people do

so since it implies that only when a person is facing difficulty would they be able to create.

“Necessity is the mother of invention” (Hayes, 1989, p.139).

During the process of finding a solution, activity in the prefrontal and parietal areas

increases (Lee et al., 2015). Fink et al (2009) noticed that creative story generation was linked to

increased bilateral frontal and right middle occipital activation. The study indicated that the

parietotemporal cortices, especially the angular and supramarginal gyri, play an important role in

creative thinking. Occipitotemporal brain regions may also aid in the production of creative ideas

through mental imagery. Syncing of posterior parietal alpha activity has also been observed to

develop in creative thoughts (Fink & Neubauer, 2006).

Divergent and Associative Thinking. Associative thinking is the ability to identify

probable associations that exist between cognition elements. Shallow associative thinking

indicates that the associative power linking distinct items is relatively weak, allowing for more

flexible recollection, pairing, or other cognitive element combinations. Similarly, Mednick

(1962) proposed that creative thinking is distinguished by easier access to various word

meanings and linkages. Associative thinking has been linked to Default Mode Network activity
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that includes the posterior cingulate cortex, medial prefrontal cortex, bilateral inferior parietal

lobes, middle temporal gyrus, and medial temporal lobe (Bar et al., 2007). Thus, during initial

stages of creativity production these brain areas are activated for the generation of a novel

output.

On the other hand, divergent thinking is defined as the ability to think out of the box and

generate novel ideas. Massimiliano (2015) has indicates a strong association between creative

objects production and divergent thinking. According to a recent meta-analysis, the important

areas activated during divergent thinking are identified in the lateral prefrontal cortex, posterior

parietal cortex, precuneus, anterior cingulate cortex, and numerous temporal cortical regions (Wu

et al., 2015). These areas are associated with cognitive flexibility and the ability to switch

between different perspectives, have been implicated in divergent thinking.

Playing Chess

Chess is a two-player strategy game played on a square checkered gameboard. The

objective is to checkmate the opponent's king by putting it under attack in such a way that it

cannot escape capture.

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Rationale:

Chess is an activity that many students are enrolled for by their parents as it helps to

improve concentration and maintain discipline in them. Since, the activity has gained so much

attention in recent years, I believe it is important to understand the complex mechanisms while

playing the game.

Cognitive Processes and their biological mechanisms

Pattern Recognition. Chess players have learned hundreds of thousands of perceptual

chess patterns via practise and study (through chunking). When one of these patterns is identified

in a certain position, the players gains immediate access to information like as prospective moves

or move sequences, tactics, and plans. This explains a player's instinctive and intuitive finding of

solid moves, as well as his exceptional recall for game-like chess scenarios.

The processing of visual images sensed by the eyes entails transferring image features to

neuronal circuits in the primary visual cortex, in which the graphics are encoded in neurons in

spatially-localized and directed receptive fields comprised of co-operating neural networks that

encode patterns, objects and their location (Rao and Ballard, 1998). However, it's important to

note that pattern recognition is a complex process that is thought to involve the interaction and

coordination of multiple brain regions.

Taking notes in class

Taking notes in class is an effective way to summarize and retain information presented

during lectures or lessons.

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Rationale:

Note-taking is a personal process, and what works best for one person may not work for

another. It's important to find a system that works best for an individual's learning style. That is

only possible when you know your cognitive skills and the cognitive process required while

maintaining notes.

Cognitive Processes and their biological mechanisms

Taking notes involves three distinct cognitive mechanisms: generating processing,

summarization, and sustained attention. The latter is the most important cognitive process.

Sustained Attention. Sustained attention is focused on specific data while disregarding

unnecessary distractions. Even when working with written texts, note takers must contend with

time constraints since their transcribing is slower than their reading. They can't postpone or slow

down their writing time too much in order to keep the intermediate representations that arise

from comprehension in working memory. They are thus bound by the limited resources of the

central executive and working memory storage components (Baddeley, 1996).

Visual and somatomotor cortices, as well as association cortices in the frontal and parietal

cortex, are found to be substantially linked with sustained attention performance (Mitko et al.,
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2019). Sustained attention activation of the basal forebrain is viewed as a component of

top-down processes that are initiated by activation of the anterior attention system and are

intended to mediate knowledge-driven detection and selection of target stimuli. Inputs improve

these processes, especially under challenging attentional settings, by improving cortical sensory

and sensory-associational information processing, including noise and distraction filtering (Sarter

et al., 2001).

Cooking

Cooking is another activity that I perform atleast twice or thrice a day. The activity

involves preparation of different cuisines that depends on my mood and energy.

Rationale:

Cooking is a valuable and crucial life skill that allows people to provide for themselves

and their families. I started cooking in Bnagalore and now it is an important component of my

life, experimenting with food. It is an avenue for creativity and self-expression by allowing to
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experiment with flavours and ingredients. Thus, I feel it is important to understand the cognitive

and biological mechanism behind cooking.

Cognitive Processes and their biological mechanisms

Cooking involves several cognitive processes including perception, attention, memory

and decision making.

Executive Functions. To steer behaviour toward a goal, executive function requires the

effective and adaptable involvement of the cognitive mechanisms of upgrading, switching, and

inhibiting (Miyake, 2000). According to Craik and Bialystok (2006), achieving these objectives

requires the cognitive skills of working memory, task switching, and prospective memory. These

executive functions are needed to keep track of each food's general plan and progress as well as

to switch between tasks like cooking and setting the table effectively.

Executive impairments have been linked to injury to the frontal lobes' most forward

regions, which are slightly above the eyes, as well as to the cortical and subcortical regions that

link to the frontal lobes. The prefrontal cortex, basal ganglia, and thalamus are all parts of the

executive system.

Clincking photographs

Photography is a medium that allows to preserve memories, tell tales, document events,

and express thoughts and feelings.

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Rationale:

Photography is a mean of self-expression and creative discovery. Many photographers

strive to push the limits of their craft and to alter how we see the world but at the same time

forget the cognitive processes involved and enhanced through this art. As an individual who is

always capturing moments around her, I find it important to understand the mechanism

underlying this process.

Cognitive Processes and their biological mechanisms

Perception. Perception is the process of deciphering and understanding visual data. This

entails identifying shapes, colours, and patterns as well as gauging distance, size, and depth. In

photography, perception is a key cognitive activity. It is essential to the process of making

pictures because skilled photographers need to be able to spot shapes, colours, patterns, and other

visual components in order to produce pictures that are interesting and significant.

Since this complex art involves depth perception, color perception, form perception,

motion perception and more, multiple brain areas are involved including V2, V3 Medial

Temporal Lobe, V4, V5, primary visual cortex and more depending upon the type of

photography.
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Thus, these are some of the activities I perform on a daily basis along with their

underlying cognitive processes and the biopsychological mechanism.

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References

Baddeley, A. D. (1996). Exploring the central executive. Quarterly Journal of Experimental

Psychology, 49A, 5–28

Bar, M., Aminoff, E., Mason, M., & Fenske, M. (2007). The units of thought. Hippocampus,

17(6), 420-428.

Craik, F. I. M., & Bialystok, E. (2006). Planning and task management in older adults: Cooking

breakfast. Memory & Cognition, 34, 1236–1249. http://dx.doi.org/10.3758/BF03193268

Fink A, Grabner RH, Benedek M, Neubauer AC (2006): Divergent thinking training is related to

frontal electroencephalogram alpha synchronization. European Journal of Neuroscience

23:2241–2246.

Fink, A., Grabner, R. H., Benedek, M., Reishofer, G., Hauswirth, V., Fally, M., … Neubauer, A.

C. (2009). The creative brain: Investigation of brain activity during creative problem

solving by means of EEG and FMRI. Human Brain Mapping, 30(3), 734–748.

doi:10.1002/hbm.20538

Hayes, J.R. (1989). Cognitive Processes in Creativity. In: Glover, J.A., Ronning, R.R., Reynolds,

C.R. (eds) Handbook of Creativity. Perspectives on Individual Differences. Springer,

Boston, MA. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4757-5356-1_7

Lee, H. S., Fincham, J. M., & Anderson, J. R. (2015). Learning from examples versus verbal

directions in mathematical problem solving. Mind, Brain, and Education, 9(4), 232-245.\

Massimiliano, P. (2015). The effects of age on divergent thinking and creative objects

production: a cross-sectional study. High Ability Studies, 26(1), 93-104.

Mednick,S.A.(1962). The associative basis of the creative process. Psychological Review, 69,

220–232.
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Mitko, A., Rothlein, D., Poole, V., Robinson, M., McGlinchey, R., DeGutis, J., Salat, D., &

Esterman, M. (2019). Individual differences in sustained attention are associated with

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Rao, R. P., & Ballard, D. H. (1998). Development of localized oriented receptive fields by

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Sarter, M., Givens, B., & Bruno, J. P. (2001). The cognitive neuroscience of sustained attention:

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146–160. https://doi.org/10.1016/s0165-0173(01)00044-3

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