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RE: [xmca] self-regulation

Thanks for sharing, Francine.

Yes I am looking at writing, but underlying writing is thinking and in school we definitely appreciate conceptual thinking.
I am continuing to look at the research about creativity in general because of the oversimplified view that language production is modular and considered to be predominantly a left-hemisphere function. When written language is considered a reproduction and regurgitation of information input and output of amodal symbol systems this seems like a simple loop that does not require more complex self-regulation; but when a creative mental process is added to the model for how we put ideas into words, no matter who we are,  the activity of original composition integrates so many more social, affective, and cognitive functions. Considering any activity of composition including those of children and regular everyday thinkers as inherently "creative" and "imaginative" forces the theorist to begin to cross all sorts of boundaries for mental activity especially those you all have been considering. If we look at ideas in writing as knowledge from a multiple representations (Flower & Hayes, 1984) standpoint, including a variety of categories of cognitive representations in memory (like schemata, concepts,  visual imagery, and all other sensory modalities including proprioceptive and spatial awareness), the combinatory processes involved are limitless. One topic that is especially interesting to me is the role of implicit memory activation as a result of cross hemispheric activities. This is like the ah-ha moment you describe where there are dual processes and dual systems become dynamic and dialogical. Goldberg's novelty and routinization theory is applicable here as well.

Have you read Sawyer's (2011) article? The Cognitive Neuroscience of Creativity: A Critical Review, Creativity Research Journal: 23:2, 137-154. I was thinking of using this in a class with graduate students this summer to provoke thoughtful questions about their own creative process during research inquiry about the brain and literacy. 

-----Original Message-----
From: xmca-bounces@weber.ucsd.edu [mailto:xmca-bounces@weber.ucsd.edu] On Behalf Of larry smolucha
Sent: Tuesday, May 07, 2013 8:18 PM
To: eXtended Mind, Culture, Activity
Subject: RE: [xmca] self-regulation

Message from Francine:
Monica,
I take it that you are interested in writing composition.You might be focusing on something different than Larry and me,but I will share my immediate thoughts There are two aspects of left/right prefrontal 'directives'that come to mind. One is the relationship between the right prefrontal'sdirecting spatial thinking and the ability to consciously direct pattern recognitionsthat are the basis for analogical-metaphoric-figurative thinking. 
The early research on the right hemispheres role in drawing in visual artwas an oversimplification - research ended up showing that regognizing basic geometricforms was a right hemisphere function, but adding the details to a drawing was aleft hemisphere function.
But this suggests once again that pattern recognition might be a strength of the right hemisphere - not just recognizing squares, circles, and triangles but recognizing morecomplex patterns like the bifurcation that characterizes tree branch and roots,branches of rivers, the branching out of neurons, and branching out of family trees andzoological taxonomies. Can the right prefrontal direct the search for such patternswhile the left is directing more analytical processes? This would explain the 'ah-ha'moment of creative insight. This is my second point - creative 'in sight' might involvethis looking with-in to see what patterns are emerging.  The awareness of the collaborationof figurative thinking (pattern recognition) and analytical thinking might help overcomewriter's block. The incubation stage in the old four part model of creativity might involvethe handing over of the problem to the pattern recognition processor (and not necessarily aregression to infantile emotional expresses a.k.a. the Freudian concept of the Id )


> From: monica.hansen@vandals.uidaho.edu
> To: xmca@weber.ucsd.edu
> Subject: RE: [xmca] self-regulation
> Date: Tue, 7 May 2013 17:54:43 +0000
> 
> Thank you, Francine. I have been very appreciative of your references and following this topic of hemispheric differentiation and its role for individuals in composition, which is a process of creativity, the way I see it.
> 
> -----Original Message-----
> From: xmca-bounces@weber.ucsd.edu [mailto:xmca-bounces@weber.ucsd.edu] 
> On Behalf Of larry smolucha
> Sent: Saturday, May 04, 2013 9:38 PM
> To: eXtended Mind, Culture, Activity
> Subject: RE: [xmca] self-regulation
> 
> Here are the two texts that Fuster cited regarding left/right prefrontal differentiation in creativity:
> Luria, A.K. and Simernitskaya, E. (1977).Interhemispheric relations and the functions of the minor hemisphere.Neuropsychologia 15, 175-178.
> Lezak, M. D. (1995). Neuropsychological Assessment, 3rd edn. New York: Oxford University Press.
> 
> > From: monica.hansen@vandals.uidaho.edu
> > To: xmca@weber.ucsd.edu
> > Subject: RE: [xmca] self-regulation
> > Date: Sat, 4 May 2013 15:51:46 +0000
> > 
> > Thank you, Francine. I am very interested in it I would appreciate that.
> > 
> > -----Original Message-----
> > From: xmca-bounces@weber.ucsd.edu 
> > [mailto:xmca-bounces@weber.ucsd.edu]
> > On Behalf Of larry smolucha
> > Sent: Friday, May 03, 2013 8:57 PM
> > To: eXtended Mind, Culture, Activity
> > Subject: RE: [xmca] self-regulation
> > 
> > Message from Francine:
> > Martin - I will give a brief synopsis of the relevant passages from Fuster's 2009 book.Since neither the Table of Contents nor the subject index list left or right prefrontal (orcerebral hemispheres) as organizing terms, you have to read the text to find placeswhere Fuster is discussing the differences. To date, I have only focused on hisdiscussion of creative intelligence.
> > In Joaquin Fuster's book The Prefrontal Cortex (4th edition 2009 Elsevier) pages 369-371 are subtitled Creative Imagination - it is consistent with the interpretation of Vygotsky's Theory of Creativity that my husband Larry and I have been putting forth since the 1980's. Note that the only Vygotsky text that Fuster cites is Kozulin's 1986 translation of Thought and Language.Never-the-less Fuster has inferred that for Vygotsky  several consciously directed thought processes are working together in creative thinking. 
> > In the second column first paragraph p.371, Fuster writes                                      Some developmental psychologists attribute the explosive advent of creative intelligence       to the development of language . . . . Language development, according to Vygotsky (1986),      is at the very essence of the development of intelligence in general . . . .Other cognitive       functions . . . transcend the stage of merely serving intelligence . . . . Thus creative intelligence,      the "intelligence from within," emerges as the aggregate outcome of intelligent attention,      intelligent perception, intelligent memory, and intelligent language. . . .
> > Note that what Fuster described as aggregates, Vygotsky called psychological systems(Vygotsky, 1932 Imagination and its Development in Childhood). However, sinceFuster was apparently unaware of Vygotsky's three papers on the development of imagination and creativity, Fuster did not include intelligent imagination (i.e., consciouslydirected imagination) among his list of 'higher mental functions.'
> > 
> > Next paragraph,                                  All those developments on which creative intelligence is founded take place in conjunction       with - indeed as a result of - the maturation of the lateral prefrontal cortex. The maturation of the      right hemisphere seems especially important for the development of spatial creativity (Luria and        Simernitskaya, 1977; Lezak, 1995). That of the left, as we all know, is important for the development      of  linguistic creativity, and also arguably, for that of musical and logical creativity. Neither,      hemisphere, however, has exclusive control over one or another form of creativity  . . . .
> > On page 371 first colum first paragraph.                       To reiterate, the creative process is largely one of making new cognits out of old . . . under       the agency of the prefrontal cortex. 
> > Even though, Fuster did not elaborate further on the implications of this distinction betweenthe roles of left and right prefrontal cortices in creativity -  I think it is profound. There isa dual consciousness within us (shades of Julian Jaynes), there are two areas of thebrain engaged in different executive functions at the same time - of course, that iswhy we can drive at high speeds in congested traffic and be engaged in some mentaltask at the same time (perhaps, day dreaming, maybe conceptual problem-solving).Notice how much more dangerous this becomes when our external speech is being used in a cell phone conversation or our hands and eyes diverted while texting. 
> > Also, Vygotsky wrote that talking to one's self silently [or even speaking out loud]enables one to observe and direct one's self as if being directed by another person(a feeling of dual consciousness).Since the speech center is typically in the left cerebral hemisphere, it makes sense that the left prefrontal lobe would have more of the linguistic executive function. Vygotsky was particularly interested in the human ability to plan things out in your head before engaing in overt behavior - animals are only capable of some type of self-regulation of overt behavior.
> > Also, a review of the research on the hemispheric specializtion of the left and rightcerebral hemispheres, is not the same as looking at the regulatory role of theprefrontal areas of those hemispheres.
> > Perhaps a new generation of researchers will take on interest in this.
> > P.S. I will send another e-mail with the citations from Luria & Simernitskaya (1977) andfrom Lezak (1995).
> > 
> > > From: packer@duq.edu
> > > To: xmca@weber.ucsd.edu
> > > Subject: Re: [xmca] self-regulation
> > > Date: Fri, 3 May 2013 18:30:41 +0000
> > > 
> > > Hi Francine,
> > > 
> > > On checking, the book by Fuster that I have is his "Cortex and Mind." What distinction does he draw in The Prefrontal Cortex?
> > > 
> > > Martin
> > > 
> > > On May 2, 2013, at 10:02 AM, larry smolucha <lsmolucha@hotmail.com> wrote:
> > > 
> > > > Message from Francine,
> > > > Martin,
> > > > Fuster makes a distinction between the prefrontal cortices that is particularlyrelevant to creative thinking (on pages 369-371 of his book). Goldberg'sdistinctions between functions of the left and right frontal lobes do not specify the roles of the prefrontal areas. 
> > > >> From: packer@duq.edu
> > > >> To: xmca@weber.ucsd.edu
> > > >> Subject: Re: [xmca] self-regulation
> > > >> Date: Thu, 2 May 2013 14:01:52 +0000
> > > >> 
> > > >> Yes, I too have Fuster's book, and he draws no distinction between the two prefrontal areas. Goldberg's argument goes further: he suggests that the traditional account -- that the the right hemisphere is involved in spatial cognition, while the left is involved in linguistic and perhaps musical and logical cognition -- is incorrect, or at best an oversimplification. He presents evidence that the left hemisphere handles cognitive strategies that have become routinized, while the right hemisphere is involved in exploring novel situations to which existing codes and strategies are not applicable. The traditional language/nonlanguage dichotomy may simply be a special case of this functional differentiation. In addition, as a task becomes routinized it may be moved from the right to the left hemisphere.
> > > >> 
> > > >> Martin
> > > >> 
> > > >> On May 2, 2013, at 1:00 AM, larry smolucha <lsmolucha@hotmail.com> wrote:
> > > >> 
> > > >>> Message from Francine:
> > > >>> Martin and Joe, Thank you for the suggesting Goldberg's book.
> > > >>> 
> > > >>> I did read Goldberg's book when preparing our 2012 publication 
> > > >>> (under discussion).But Joaquin Fuster's book  The Prefrontal 
> > > >>> Cortex (2009) NY:Elsevier was much more detailed in its 
> > > >>> discussion of the functions of the left and right prefrontal 
> > > >>> areas (specifically prefrontal areas not just frontal lobes).
> > > >>> Yet Fuster still titled his book The Prefrontal Cortex
> > > >>> (singular) as if the prefrontal cortices were one unitary area 
> > > >>> of the brain (using the customary terminology but 
> > > >>> never-the-less inadvertantly perpetuating the same 
> > > >>> misconception.)
> > > >>>> Subject: Re: [xmca] self-regulation
> > > >>>> From: joe.glick@gmail.com
> > > >>>> Date: Wed, 1 May 2013 23:05:26 -0400
> > > >>>> To: xmca@weber.ucsd.edu
> > > >>>> 
> > > >>>> He's also got a book "The New Executive Brain: the Frontal Lobes in a Complex World." 
> > > >>>> 
> > > >>>> He was among Luria's last students.
> > > >>>> 
> > > >>>> Sent from my iPhone
> > > >>>> 
> > > >>>> On May 1, 2013, at 9:48 PM, Martin Packer <packer@duq.edu> wrote:
> > > >>>> 
> > > >>>>> Hi Francine
> > > >>>>> 
> > > >>>>> There is indeed work by Elkhonon Goldberg that suggests that the frontal lobes are specialized hemispherically. The left frontal lobe seems to be involved in deliberate and context-independent activities that are based on known information, while the right frontal lobe seems to be involved in deliberate, context-dependent activities that are guided by the environment.
> > > >>>>> 
> > > >>>>> Martin
> > > >>>>> 
> > > >>>>> Goldberg, E., Podell, K., & Lovell, M. (1994). Lateralization of frontal lobe functions and cognitive novelty. Journal of Neuropsychiatry, 6, 371-378.
> > > >>>>> 
> > > >>>>> 
> > > >>>>> On Apr 29, 2013, at 12:46 AM, larry smolucha <lsmolucha@hotmail.com> wrote:
> > > >>>>> 
> > > >>>>>> Vygotsky was focusing on self-regulation of conceptual thought. I also wonder what brain imaging technology would show about the development of executive function in the prefrontal cortices in deaf people. I think it has been a mistake for neurologists to refer to the prefrontal cortex as if the left and right prefrontal cortices acted in unity.  There must be different self-regulatory systems operating from the left prefrontal cortex (speech) and perhaps some other type of non-verbal self-regulation operates from the right prefrontal cortex.This other type of non-verbal self-regulation could be left prefrontal in the deaf. Brain imaging techniques like the functional MRI could provide a breakthrough. Since Vygotsky was focused on the ability to self-regulate conceptual thought we can expect that self-regulation of sensori-motor functions is going involve the development of a different neurological system.
> > > >>>>> 
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