Artificial intelligence (AI) is reshaping creativity by challenging its long-held status as a uniquely human faculty. This study uses bibliometric analysis to reveal AI’s evolution from a passive instrument to an active co-creator that amplifies human intuition and expands creative possibilities. We highlight how AI-driven evaluative frameworks offer more objective, scalable, and inclusive assessments of creativity, disrupting bias-prone traditional methods. Also, this transformation raises pressing ethical and legal concerns, particularly regarding authorship, intellectual property, and recognition of machine-generated outputs. By mapping these tensions and opportunities, the study provides a critical foundation for rethinking creativity in the age of human–machine collaboration. Our findings point toward an urgent need for new conceptual models that align innovation with ethical and societal responsibility.

In the context of a global public health crisis, such as COVID-19, developing interventions to improve population health behaviors has emerged as a pivotal element of health management strategies. The efficacy of various interventions implemented during this period has varied, and the impact of different variables on these intervention outcomes remains to be fully elucidated. This study screened 57 papers (n = 47,264) by searching electronic databases and revealed the optimal intervention through pairwise meta-analysis and network meta-analysis, as well as the changes in intervention effectiveness under different conditions. Our research findings indicate that interventions for preventive health behaviors and health-promoting behaviors have significant effects. For preventive health behaviors, the intervention method of health education and low-risk information framework under information intervention was the optimal intervention. For health-promoting behaviors, the exercise intervention and the prosocial information framework with information intervention were the optimal interventions. Accordingly, future research should focus on the in-depth exploration of specific interventions to establish and improve the effectiveness of interventions.

Executive functions (EFs) as a set of cognitive processes play a crucial role in developing children's higher mental functions and academic success. Regardless of the number of studies conducted on EFs, current findings on the structure of cognitive functions as a whole or multifaceted construct are mixed. This study aims to evaluate and compare the latent factor structure of EFs in preschool-aged children (5–7 years) and school-aged children (7–9 years) to identify this structure across two age groups. The study involved 500 children divided into four age groups: senior kindergarten groups, preparatory kindergarten groups, first grade groups, and second grade groups. The participants were assessed using the NEPSY-II neuropsychological battery and the Dimensional Change Card Sort task. The results revealed that a three-factor model of EFs, comprising inhibitory control, working memory, and cognitive flexibility, best fits the data across all age groups. This suggests an earlier differentiation of EFs components, starting at the age of 5, which contradicts some previous studies proposing one- or two-factor structures in preschool age. Correlation analysis showed statistically moderate relationships between EFs components, which weakened by the second grade, potentially indicating stabilization in EFs development during early school years. The findings support the unity and diversity model of EFs and emphasize the importance of conducting longitudinal research to clarify the factors influencing EFs development over time.

Schizophrenia exhibits impairments in remembering the past (autobiographical memory, AM) and imagining the future (episodic future thinking, EFT). Childhood trauma is also associated with deficits in AM and EFT. However, it is not clear whether childhood trauma is associated with severer deficits in AM and EFT in schizophrenia. The present study aimed to examine the effect of childhood trauma on AM and EFT in schizophrenia. We recruited 41 schizophrenia patients with childhood trauma (SCZ + CT), 19 schizophrenia patients without childhood trauma (SCZ − CT), and 40 healthy controls (HC) to participate in this study. Participants underwent the autobiographical interview task, in which they were required to remember or imagine the most important events that occurred or would occur at different times and describe them. Results showed that SCZ + CT exhibited fewer internal details, and lower specificity, time/place richness, and thought/emotion richness in both AM and EFT compared with HC. Meanwhile, SCZ − CT showed lower time/place richness and thought/emotion richness in AM and EFT than HC. However, no significant difference was found between the two patient groups. In addition, AM showed more internal details and stronger phenomenological characteristics (e.g., specificity, time/place richness, etc.) than EFT, while EFT was more positive and important than AM in all participants. Both SCZ + CT and SCZ − CT groups exhibited AM and EFT impairments, and the SCZ + CT group had wider impairments than the SCZ − CT group compared with HC, although the direct comparison between SCZ + CT and SCZ − CT did not show significant differences. These results suggest that childhood trauma had a subtle effect on AM and EFT impairments in schizophrenia patients.

This study examined the impact of childhood environmental unpredictability on hoarding behavior, focusing on the mediating roles of attachment anxiety and attachment avoidance and the moderating role of environmental cues. Three studies were conducted: Study 1 investigated the effect of childhood environmental unpredictability on hoarding behavior through big data analysis and an experiment; Study 2 tested the mediating effects of attachment anxiety and avoidance, as well as the moderating role of environmental cues, using a two-stage questionnaire; and Study 3 further explored differences in hoarding behavior across attachment styles. Results indicated that childhood environmental unpredictability significantly and positively predicted hoarding behavior, with attachment anxiety and avoidance serving as parallel mediators. Moreover, pandemic-related environmental cues moderated the direct effect of childhood environmental unpredictability on hoarding behavior, with this effect weakening after the cues diminished. These findings provide novel insights into hoarding behavior as an adaptive response to childhood environmental unpredictability, clarify the roles of attachment anxiety and avoidance as adaptive mechanisms, and underscore the influence of current environmental cues in shaping hoarding behavior.

Children's externalizing problem behavior is one of the most explored topics among parents, educators, and research scholars. The purpose of this study is to examine the developmental changes of externalizing problem behavior in the early years of poor children and adolescents and the influence of family factors such as family functioning and parental marital quality on the developmental changes. Seven hundred and seventy-eight early adolescents (M_age = 13.7, SD = 2.53) from poor families were studied longitudinally for 14 months. The results showed that three potential characteristics of externalizing problem behavior patterns were identified through Latent Profile Analysis (LPA): well-adjusted group, attention disorder group, and conduct problem group. Latent Transition Analysis (LTA) revealed a tendency for the conduct problem group to transition to the well-adjusted group over two traces (OR = 0.40). There were gender differences in the results: boys in the conduct problem group were more likely to transition to the well-adjusted group (OR = 0.55), while girls in the attention disorder group were more likely to transition to the well-adjusted group (OR = 2.63). Research has found that a supportive family environment is a positive factor in mitigating externalizing problem behaviors of the early adolescents in their transition to adolescence.

Junior high school students frequently multitask with media because of the rapid development of media tools. It is vital to investigate the relationship between junior high school students' individual cognitive abilities and media multitasking to better support their educational and developmental needs. Using a longitudinal design, this study investigated the relationship between media multitasking and divergent thinking, and the mediating role of executive function. Creativity and media were measured using the Development of Adolescent Executive Function Scale, the Alternative Uses Test (AUT), and the Media Multitasking Scale (MMS). Six hundred and nine junior high school students were assessed twice within a six-month period (at T1 and T2). After controlling for grade, gender, and place of origin, T1 media multitasking was negatively correlated with T2 divergent thinking and T2 executive function. Moreover, T2 executive function was negatively correlated with T2 divergent thinking. Middle schoolers' T1 media multitasking significantly negatively predicted their T2 divergent thinking β = −0.1. Vertically, T2 executive function partially mediates the relationship between T1 media multitasking and T2 divergent thinking. High media multitasking reduces individual executive function, whereas low executive function can improve individual divergent thinking. This study reveals the relationship between media multitasking and divergent thinking, as well as the longitudinal mediating mechanism of executive function. Media multitasking can negatively predict divergent thinking, and T2 executive function had a significant longitudinal mediating effect on the relationship between T1 media multitasking and T2 divergent thinking.

Two studies were conducted to investigate: (1) the effects of dispositional mindfulness and short-term mindfulness induction on prosocial willingness, (2) the mediating roles of moral identity and moral disengagement, and (3) age-related differences between young adolescents (12–15 years) and young adults (18–24 years). In Study 1, a cross-sectional survey was conducted among 271 college students (young adults) and 229 middle school students (young adolescents), assessing dispositional mindfulness, moral identity, moral disengagement, and prosocial willingness. In Study 2, an experimental design was employed to explore the short-term effects of two types of mindfulness inductions (with ethical elements or without) on these variables, involving 105 young adults and 142 young adolescents. Study 1 revealed that, in adolescents, moral identity significantly mediated the relationship between dispositional mindfulness and prosocial willingness, while moral disengagement served as the primary mediator among adults. Study 2 showed that different short-term mindfulness inductions significantly affected moral identity, moral disengagement, and prosocial willingness in adolescents, with significant mediation effects of moral identity and moral disengagement. However, these effects were not significant in adults. Both types of mindfulness induction showed differential mediating effects, suggesting age-specific psychological mechanisms. Findings highlighted age-related differences in how mindfulness influences prosocial behavior, mediated by moral constructs. Both studies consistently showed that, for adolescents, the moral psychology (such as moral identity and moral disengagement) significantly influences the association between mindfulness (interventions) and prosocial behavior. This provides important insights into ethical mindfulness education, emphasizing the need to account for psychological development characteristics when designing mindfulness programs for adolescents.

Individuals with higher working memory capacities excel in mathematics performance. However, limited research has explored the impact of working memory on adolescents' algebraic ability and the transferability of training effects. Therefore, we conducted the current investigation with Chinese adolescents. In a correlational study (n = 218), we identified a positive association between n-back working memory and the ability to solve algebraic word and equation problems. In a subsequent training study, the experimental group (n = 28) underwent adaptive n-back working memory training for 20 days, resulting in enhanced working memory performance. However, no improvements in algebraic performance were observed in the experimental group compared to either the passive control (n = 22) or the active control group (n = 28). Together, while n-back working memory performance is associated with better algebraic performance, leveraging training gains of working memory to enhance algebra learning presents challenges. The theoretical and practical implications of these findings are presented.

Minority opinions can be of crucial importance to the diversity, productivity, and harmony of a group, but are often left unattended and unheard. Previous methods that tried to enhance minority influence are usually overly forceful and low on ecological validity. To overcome these pitfalls, we proposed a new intervention method called minority clustering and examined its effects with a social network experiment (N = 456). Minority clustering was implemented by increasing the network connections among participants with initial opinions that deviated from the mainstream opinion and forming an opinion cluster among these minority members. Our results show that minority clustering significantly slowed down the rate at which minority members shifted toward majority opinions, thereby sustaining minority cohesion, and moved majority members closer to minority opinions, thus enhancing minority influence. An additional filter bubble intervention, through which all members of a network were exposed to neighbors with similar opinions to their own, further strengthened minority cohesion but weakened minority influence. Minority clustering is an unobtrusive intervention that does not need overt cooperations of network members and can be implemented easily in social media platforms. The working mechanisms of minority clustering and its effects on group opinion formation are further discussed.

Spicy food consumption is prevalent worldwide, yet its psychological and behavioral impacts remain underexplored compared to basic tastes like sweet, sour, salty, bitter, and umami. The present research aimed to investigate the effects of spicy food preferences and consumption on individuals' sense of fairness, with aggression and pathogen avoidance considered as potential mediators. Two behavioral studies using the Ultimatum Game were conducted to examine these relationships. Study 1 found that individuals with a preference for spicy food were more likely to reject unfair offers and accept fair offers, mediated by trait aggression and trait pathogen avoidance, respectively. In Study 2, immediate consumption of spicy food led to a higher rejection rate of unfair offers compared to non-spicy food consumption, an effect mediated by increased state aggression. However, no significant differences in fair offer rejection rates were observed between the spicy and non-spicy conditions, and no significant mediation effects of situational pathogen avoidance were detected. These findings suggest that spicy food enhances sensitivity to unfairness—likely by elevating an individual's acceptance threshold—an effect primarily driven by aggression. This research provides novel insights into how sensory experiences shape social decision-making and fairness judgments.

People may remember events inaccurately after being exposed to misleading information. This can lead to false memories being reported in multiple interviews. The higher the attentional salience of the original event information (i.e., the extent to which it strongly captures attention during encoding), the less likely young adults are to form false memories. However, it was unknown whether this would also apply to older adults across multiple memory assessments. This study used the misinformation paradigm to examine age differences in memory accuracy and consistency in two recognition tests. It also investigated how attentional salience of the original information influenced memory performances. Thirty young adults (aged 23 ± 2 years) and 30 older adults (aged 70 ± 3 years) saw images of original events, then read misleading narratives, and finally completed a verbal recognition test and a pictorial recognition test based on what they had seen in the original events. Results showed that older adults reported more false memories than young adults in both tests. Older adults were less consistent in reporting true memories across two tests, but there was no age difference in the consistency of false memories. Greater attentional salience helped young and older adults report more original information and less misinformation, though the effect was weaker in older adults. It also helped young and older adults report original information more consistently across tests. Overall, this study showed that how well the original information was encoded significantly influenced eyewitness reports across interviews in young and older adults.

Cognitive reappraisal serves as a pivotal strategy in emotion regulation, encompassing techniques such as repurposing and reconstrual. However, the behavioral and temporal disparities between these two reappraisal subtypes remain underexplored. This study aims to delineate these differences by comparing the psychophysiological impacts of repurposing versus reconstrual on disgust emotion regulation, employing event-related potentials (ERPs) as the primary neurophysiological indicator. Behavioral data revealed that both strategies evoked significantly greater pleasure and less disgust compared to negative description conditions. Notably, repurposing elicited a more pronounced positive emotional shift. Electroencephalographic (EEG) findings indicated that repurposing led to a lower late positive potential (LPP) amplitude (1000–3000 ms) in frontal and parietal regions compared to reconstrual or negative descriptions. Furthermore, both strategies elicited larger left negativity component (LNC) amplitude (500–1000 ms) than negative descriptions, with repurposing demonstrating a prolonged LNC effect (1000–1500 ms) compared to reconstrual. This investigation confirms that although repurposing requires extended semantic processing resources, it exhibits superior efficacy in mitigating disgust responses. By providing direct empirical comparisons between these reappraisal modalities, the research advances our understanding of the neural mechanisms underlying cognitive emotion regulation.

Creative cognitive reappraisal is an emerging emotion regulation strategy, but existing experimental studies often lack ecological validity due to two key limitations: the challenge of spontaneously generating creative cognitive reappraisal and the passive presentation of materials, which resembles comprehension rather than active application. This study addresses these gaps by investigating the teachability and effectiveness of creative cognitive reappraisal in real-world contexts. Using a 3 × 2 mixed-factorial design, 82 teachers provided two personal negative events at baseline and were randomly assigned to one of three conditions (creative cognitive reappraisal, ordinary cognitive reappraisal, and positive emotional picture). Participants were trained in their assigned emotion regulation strategy based on a learning-test paradigm, using materials from the International Affective Picture System and Teachers' Negative Emotional Scenarios System. Pleasure was measured at two time points: immediately after the learning phase and 3 days later, using 20 common and two personal negative teacher-related scenarios. Qualitative data on insights gained from the learning phase were also collected. For common negative events, creative cognitive reappraisal demonstrated a meaningful, delayed, and significant effect after 3 days. The creative cognitive reappraisal group also generated the most creative reappraisal interpretations, highlighting its unique efficacy. These findings suggest that creative cognitive reappraisal is a teachable and enduring skill with delayed benefit for regulating negative emotions in real-world contexts. It highlighted the importance of allowing time for emotional processing—rather than attempting immediate regulation—which could create a pathway for more effective regulation later.

Diminished reward motivation in the wanting or liking dimension constitutes one of the core dysfunctions in patients with schizophrenia (SCZ). However, it remains unclear whether patients with SCZ would dynamically adapt their wanting or liking towards reward in response to a favourable effort-reward ratio and whether such adaptation correlates with their clinical symptoms or functional outcome. In this study, thirty patients with SCZ and 30 healthy controls (HC) were recruited to complete the reward motivation adaptation task (RMAT) based on mental arithmetic effort and manipulating effort-reward ratios. Clinical symptoms were assessed in the clinical group while pleasure experience and social functioning were assessed in all participants. We found that patients with SCZ exhibited less reward wanting and liking than HC in “effort = reward” and “effort < reward” conditions. Neither reward wanting nor liking in patients with SCZ adapted with effort-reward ratio as indicated by significantly smaller coefficients (βwanting and βliking) compared with HCs. Besides, SCZ patients' adaptation ability was positively correlated with social functioning in daily life. In conclusion, this study indicates that patients with SCZ not only exhibited reduced reward motivation in favourable conditions but also dysfunctions of reward motivation adaptation, and such deficits could explain poor functional outcome.

This study examines the comparative effects of immediate and delayed feedback on the engagement and willingness to participate in collaborative learning of English as a Foreign Language (EFL) learners. Ninety EFL students at Guangxi University participated in a quasi-experimental study across three conditions: no feedback, immediate feedback, and delayed feedback. Using one-way ANOVA, the results revealed that both feedback types significantly influenced learners' engagement across affective, cognitive, and behavioral dimensions, with immediate feedback yielding significant effects in the affective and cognitive domains. Delayed feedback, however, was more effective in fostering willingness to collaborate, likely due to the reflective space it provided. These findings suggest that the timing of feedback plays a crucial role in shaping learner outcomes and should be strategically aligned with instructional goals. The study highlights the importance of context-sensitive feedback practices, particularly in digital learning environments where timing constraints and student autonomy vary.