About

Wilma Koutstaal is a professor of psychology at the University of Minnesota, affiliated with the College of Liberal Arts. Her research explores how the human mind innovates and creates using past and present knowledge, focusing on the cognitive, behavioral, and brain mechanisms that underpin mental agility. Her lab employs diverse methodologies of cognitive neuroscience to investigate the role of different levels of specificity of mental representation and varying levels of cognitive control in creative and adaptive thinking. Koutstaal holds a Ph.D. from Harvard University, earned in 1996, and her specialties include cognitive psychology and cognitive neuroscience, with particular emphasis on thinking, memory, and mental agility. She has authored numerous publications on creativity, mental flexibility, and cognitive processes, and has contributed to the understanding of how flexible thinking can be fostered and how the mind adapts to challenges. Her work also involves developing new assessments for creative flexibility and exploring the neural basis of imagination and curiosity. She is actively engaged in outreach activities, including blogging, public talks, and interdisciplinary projects, and is a fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science. Koutstaal is also involved in teaching courses related to cognition, brain, behavior, and creativity.

Research topics

• Psychology
• Cognitive psychology
• Computer science
• Developmental psychology
• Neuroscience

Selected publications

• Personally speaking: Developing and evaluating an ontology of dimensions of meaning for self-disclosure with a conversational assistant

  PLoS ONE · 2026-02-20

  articleOpen accessSenior author

  Dialogue systems and conversational assistants are promising technologies given their general accessibility and appeal, but longer-term adoption often falters. Creating systems that engage users over the long term is a challenging design problem, largely because it depends on relationship formation between user and agent. Self-disclosure, or the act of revealing information about oneself, is a fundamental component of relationship building and maintenance between humans, and it has been shown to occur in interactions between humans and language-based systems as well. Disclosure on the part of users is an exceptionally rich source of information that has the potential to shape everything from user modeling to conversational experience design; however, that same richness makes interpreting disclosure difficult. Although some research has examined different sources of meaning such as topic and intimacy, the convergence of these sources of meaning under one umbrella has yet to be considered. We propose an ontology of self-disclosure with dialogue systems as a means to address this gap. The proposed ontology encapsulates previously explored dimensions of self-disclosure, such as topic and intimacy, as well as some additional novel layers of meaning, such as the separation of topic from the mental verb referred to in the disclosure (e.g., habit vs. preference vs. memory), in order to further discretize the separate dimensions of this complex phenomenon and make explicit potentially valuable sources of information for agents. We demonstrate an application of this ontology to instances of self-disclosure, drawn from real dialogues between users and a task-oriented conversational assistant, and examine the observed relationships between different dimensions of meaning. The practical implications of these findings, as well as the potential for further developing the ontology, demonstrate the usefulness and value of approaching self-disclosure as a multi-faceted, interconnected phenomenon.

  PublisherDOI

• What Are You Looking Forward to? Deliberate Positivity as a Promising Strategy for Conversational Agents

  ACM Transactions on Interactive Intelligent Systems · 2025-03-27 · 2 citations

  articleOpen accessSenior author

  Conversational agents (CAs) are one of the most promising technologies for helping older adults maintain independence longer by augmenting their support and social networks. Voice-based technology in particular is especially powerful in this regard due to its accessibility and ease of use. There is also a growing body of evidence supporting the potential use of such technology in mitigating common issues such as loneliness and isolation, particularly for independent older adults aging in place. One of the key challenges for smart technologies deployed in this context is the development and maintenance of long-term user engagement and adoption, which is often addressed by attempting to closely mimic human social interactions. However, the more human-like the system, the more glaring fault conditions become, and the more jarring they are for users. In this study we explore the effectiveness of an alternative conversational strategy meant to encourage users to engage in positive reflection and introspection. We detail the iterative design and implementation of a prototype CA developed to engage in social conversation with older adults on selected topics of interest. We then use this system as part of a multi-method approach to investigate the effect of deliberate positivity as a conversational strategy, including its impact on user impressions and willingness to continue using the CA. Our results from different approaches, including methods such as psycholinguistic analysis, user self-report, and researcher-based coding, paint a promising picture of this conversational design. We show that the deliberate encouragement by a CA of positive conversation and reflection in users has a measurable positive impact on both user enjoyment and desire to continue engaging with a system. We further demonstrate how some user characteristics may amplify this effect, and discuss the implications of these results for the design and testing of future conversational systems for older adults.

  PublisherOA PDFDOI

• Self-guided transitions and creative idea search: adaptively choosing flexibility versus persistence in divergent and convergent thinking tasks

  Royal Society Open Science · 2025-03-01 · 1 citations

  articleOpen access1st authorCorresponding

  Adaptivity allows individuals to flexibly execute cognitive control to meet dynamically changing task demands while adhering to task goals. Such adaptivity is crucial for navigating complex problem spaces such as creative problem-solving. Recent theoretical and empirical investigations of individuals' tendencies towards flexibility versus persistence have begun to address the questions of how adaptivity may be jointly shaped by general (across-situational) predispositions and by task requirements. However, such investigation is hampered by the lack of comparable ways to quantify trait-like tendencies across different task contexts. Using a Self-Guided Transitions paradigm, in which participants are allowed to autonomously choose whether to continue, to switch or to return to working on either of two concurrently presented problem-solving items, this preregistered study provides evidence for both clear within-individual consistency in the proclivity towards flexibility versus persistence, and adaptive modulation of flexibility versus persistence for tasks that predominantly call on divergent versus convergent idea search. Both shifting and dwelling were associated with the generation of more numerous and more original ideas on divergent-thinking tasks—underscoring the creative and ideational rewards to be found both by sometimes staying the course (persistence/exploitation) and sometimes choosing to shift our efforts in a different direction (flexibility/exploration).

  PublisherDOI

• Development and application of the propensity/ability framework in alexithymia: “Do you” versus “Can you” engage with your emotions?

  Neuroscience & Biobehavioral Reviews · 2025-10-30

  reviewSenior author
  PublisherDOI

• Author response for "Self-guided transitions and creative idea search: adaptively choosing flexibility versus persistence in divergent and convergent thinking tasks"

  2025-01-06

  peer-review1st authorCorresponding
  PublisherDOI

• Personal growth through navigating the world as an artist: a qualitative study of the impact of creativity camp on adolescents with depression

  Child and Adolescent Psychiatry and Mental Health · 2025-04-02 · 2 citations

  articleOpen access

  BACKGROUND: A growing body of literature suggests that creative arts interventions can effectively support mental health and well-being in young people. We recently reported that after participating in "Creativity Camp"- a 2-week creative arts group intervention- 69 adolescents with depression showed significantly reduced depression symptoms and improved ratings of well-being. To understand the key processes impacting adolescents during and after this intervention, this study applies a multi-informant qualitative data approach. METHOD: Qualitative data collection methods included participatory observation notes taken during the Creativity Camp sessions and interviewing the adolescents and their parents or guardians at the end of the intervention and six months later. We analyzed data using Constructivist Grounded Theory and triangulated the findings from both sets of data to gain comprehensive and reliable interpretation. RESULTS: We found several key processes in the adolescents' experiences during and after camp: internal negotiation between novelty and discomfort, exploring playfulness and responsibility, discovering the uniqueness of self and others, flexible approach toward life, and an expanded view of creativity. From parent interviews, we found that their children expanded personal boundaries and enthusiasm through deep engagement, empowered perspective, and sustained enthusiasm. Triangulating the data from both sources, we constructed a theory that explains the benefits of Creativity Camp on adolescent well-being: "Personal growth by navigating the world as an artist." DISCUSSION: The qualitative analysis identified key processes from the Creativity Camp intervention, along with changes and long-term impacts that may have fostered personal growth. The framework of navigating the world through an artist's lens as a pathway to personal growth presents a novel contribution to existing knowledge and practice in art-based interventions for adolescents with depression. This insight can help shape the design of future arts-in-health approaches for supporting adolescent mental health.

  PublisherOA PDFDOI

• Capturing Creative Imagination in the Adolescent Brain: Development of a Novel fMRI Task

  Creativity Research Journal · 2025-07-03 · 2 citations

  articleSenior author
  PublisherDOI

• The Impact of a Creativity Camp Intervention on Depression and Well-Being in Adolescents

  Child Psychiatry & Human Development · 2024-10-16 · 3 citations

  articleOpen access

  Depression is a serious public health problem that often emerges during adolescence. Many adolescents do not respond to standard treatments, necessitating the development of novel interventions. We conducted a preliminary study to assess the impact of a novel creative arts intervention on depression and well-being in adolescents. In this quasi-experimental study, 69 adolescents 12-17 years completed an 8-day "Creativity Camp" intervention encompassing multiple creative activities. Self-report questionnaires to measure depression, anxiety, and well-being were administered at five time points to allow examination of change across multiple temporal segments: the 2 weeks before the intervention, the 2 weeks during the intervention, the 2 weeks after the intervention, and the 6 months after the intervention. Adolescents were assigned to one of two groups to compare changes observed during the 2 week before-intervention period (Group A) to the changes observed during the intervention period (pre-post intervention) (Group B). According to both parent and child reports, pre-to-post-intervention, mean adolescent depressive symptoms significantly decreased, and these changes were sustained 2 weeks after the intervention and (according to parents) at the 6-month follow-up. There was preliminary evidence for improved well-being at post-intervention. Comparison of Group A's changes during the before-intervention period to Group B's changes pre-post intervention was significant for parent-reported depression. Preliminary evidence suggests that the Creativity Camp intervention may positively impact adolescent depression and well-being. This evidence highlights the importance of investigating and implementing treatment approaches focusing on creative arts for adolescents with depression.

  PublisherOA PDFDOI

• A new test for assessing creative flexibility of perceptual interpretation: The figural interpretation quest.

  Psychology of Aesthetics Creativity and the Arts · 2024-02-08 · 6 citations

  article1st authorCorresponding
  PublisherDOI

• The Impact of a Creativity Camp Intervention on Depression and Well-Being in Adolescents

  Research Square · 2024-05-07

  preprintOpen access

  <title>Abstract</title> Background: Depression is a serious public health problem that often emerges during adolescence. Many adolescents do not respond to standard treatments, necessitating the development of novel interventions. We conducted a preliminary study to assess the impact of a creative arts intervention on depression and well-being in adolescents. Methods: Sixty-nine adolescents 12-17 years completed an eight-day “Creativity Camp” intervention encompassing multiple creative activities. Self-report questionnaires to measure depression, anxiety, and well-being were administered at five time points to allow examination of change across multiple temporal segments: the two weeks before camp, the two weeks of camp, the two weeks after camp, and the 6 months after camp. Additionally, while all adolescents in the study participated in camp, they were assigned to one of two groups to compare change observed during the pre-camp period in one group to the during-camp period in the other group. Results: According to both parent and child reports, pre-to-post-camp, mean adolescent depressive symptoms significantly decreased, and well-being significantly increased, and these changes were sustained two weeks after camp and at the 6-month follow-up. Comparison of change in the pre-camp period to the change observed pre-post camp was significant for parent-reported depression. Conclusions: Preliminary evidence suggests that the Creativity Camp intervention may positively impact adolescent depression and well-being. This evidence highlights the importance of investigating and implementing treatment approaches focusing on creative arts for adolescents with depression.

  PublisherOA PDFDOI

Frequent coauthors

• Daniel L. Schacter

  43 shared

• Randy L. Buckner

  Harvard University

  25 shared

• Alaitz Aizpurua

  University of the Basque Country

  12 shared

• Bruce R. Rosen

  Athinoula A. Martinos Center for Biomedical Imaging

  11 shared

• Yuhong Jiang

  China University of Geosciences

  11 shared

• Anders M. Dale

  University of California, San Diego

  9 shared

• Michael Rotte

  Novartis Institutes for BioMedical Research

  9 shared

• Anthony D. Wagner

  Stanford University

  7 shared

Awards & honors

• Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Sc…
• William James Book Award, American Psychological Association…