Differences in working memory involvement in analytical and creative tasks: an ERP study

If, as suggested. creative (insight) problem solving is less systematic and employs less planning than analytical problem solving, the former requires substantially less working memory (WM) than the latter. Subjects simultane ously solved problems and counted auditory stimuli (concurrent WM task), in response to which ERPs were recorded. Counting disrupted analytical, but n ot creative performance. Peak and time-window average P300 were more fronta l during analytical problem solving as compared to insight or counting tone s only (control). A PCA extracted two factors in the P3 range, one frontal and one broad left-lateralized, which distinguished analytical from creativ e problem solving. The findings indicate distinct processing pathways for t he two types of tasks with more WM involvement in analytical tasks. NeuroRe port 11:1613-1618 (C) 2000 Lippincott Williams & Wilkins.