概念結合產生創新概念的機制探討：概念的抽象性對創意與詮釋的影響

Abstract

概念結合指將兩個不同概念聯結去產生新概念的認知歷程。根據隨機變異的理 論，概念間在腦中的隨機組合是人類產生新觀念的一個途徑。然而，由概念間隨機結 合而產生的新概念不一定是創新的，如何我們才能由概念結合的過程產生有創意的新 概念因此是本研究所要探討的問題。研究的重點是分析概念結合作業中，組成概念的 知識類別對新概念的創意程度的影響。概念結合作業的材料一般是名詞-名詞的配對， 這些名詞的知識類別可分成自然物或是人造物。然而，自然物或人造物均屬具像的概 念，另一種名詞的分類法是抽象或具體。過去的研究發現，不同類別的概念的結合比 較可以產生創新的概念，且當具像概念和抽象概念結合時，新概念的創新程度也會較 高。研究中我們將概念的知識類別分成自然物、人造物、抽象概念三類，探討它們如 何影響概念結合時的詮釋歷程以及創新概念產生的機制。此研究的資料來源是先前的 研究計畫中所蒐集到的602 位大學生在18 題概念結合（第一個名詞的3 類別 x 第一個 名詞的3 類別 x 2 題）測驗上的反應。我們將以其中創新分數在前27％的179 人為對 象，將他們在9 類名詞配對中創意程度為低、中、高三類，分析知識類別對概念結合 過程中創意產生的詮釋方式與機制的影響。

Conceptual combination refers to creation of a meaning that links two or more than two concepts together. According to Campbell’s random variation and selective retention hypothesis, conceptual combination is the basic cognitive mechanism that leads to emergence of new ideas. However, ideas emerged from conceptual combination may not be original. Previous studies have found that the pairing of concepts across different domain may lead to higher originality of emerged new concept. More importantly, it was found that pairing of concrete nouns with abstract nouns led to higher originality score of the emerged concepts. However, it remains unclear why joining with an abstract concept would lead to higher originality in emerged new concept. Therefore, the purpose of this study is to investigate the effects of ontological category on emergency of original ideas from conceptual combination. While natural kind and artifact are two distinct ontological categories we use to categorize objects, concrete versus abstract category are another way to classify ideas. In the present study, the experimental materials are18 noun-noun pairs composed of 3 ontological categories of the first noun (natural, artifact, abstract) x 3 ontological categories of the second noun (natural, artifact, abstract) x 2 trials. Participants’ responses on the nine types of noun-noun pairs will be content analyzed to examine: 1. the effects of ontological category on types of interpretations, 2. the effects of ontological category on mechanism of how original ideas are emerged. The data source comes from a project by Wang, Chen & Horng in which 602 college students’ responses on these 18 noun-noun pairs were collected. One hundred and seventy-nine students whose originality scores are on the top 27% of the total sample will be the sample for the present study. Each of their responses received a originality score of 0, 1, or 2. How ontological category affects originality of the emerged concept and how original responses differ from less original responses in interpretation processes will be content analyzed and compared.