Reactive control in evaluating appropriately or inappropriately novel ideas: Evidence from electrophysiological measures

Novelty and appropriateness have been considered two necessary criteria to distinguish creative ideas, but little is known about what kind of reactive control people will make when they evaluate appropriately or inappropriately novel ideas. To study this issue, high-density technology was used to record electroencephalography (EEG) signals when participants were evaluating ideas in novel & appropriate, novel & inappropriate, ordinary & appropriate, and ordinary & inappropriate conditions. An analysis of event-related potentials (ERPs) revealed that greater conflict detection-related N2 and N400-like components over the anterior scalp appeared in novel conditions than in ordinary conditions, suggesting that people are able to rapidly monitor novel ideas. Afterward, the mean amplitudes of the LPC over the left anterior scalp were greater in novel & appropriate condition than ordinary & appropriate condition, but no difference was found between novel & appropriate and novel & inappropriate conditions, which likely displayed much more reactive control was recruited to handle novel ideas and no additional control was recruited when the novel ideas were inappropriate. In addition, the mean amplitudes of the LPC/LNC over the posterior scalp were greater in novel than ordinary conditions and were also greater in inappropriate than appropriate conditions, which likely reflected the processing difficulties of conceptual understanding. These findings revealed the early rise monitoring, conceptual understanding, and reactive control mechanism underlying the evaluation of novel ideas.