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HaHa and Aha! Creativity, Idea Generation, Improvisational Humor, and Product Design
Abstract
It is widely recognized that innovation and creativity is the new competitive battleground for product development firms. Engineers and product designers are now expected to be highly creative, prolific idea generators in addition to being analytically competent. Thus, it is of interest to study methods to improve a designer's idea generation capabilities. It is believed that wit, being spontaneous humor production, is strongly related to creativity as both involve making nonobvious connections between seemingly unrelated things. This thesis looks into the realm of humor and improvisational comedy to suggest means of enhancing creative output in blue-sky product design idea generation. We have found that the ability to quickly generate many ideas is strongly correlated (r2=.82) with being able to come up with a single, promising, creative idea. It was also found that, with appropriate training, individuals may learn to become more prolific idea generators. Furthermore, improvisational comedians were more proficient at new product idea generation than professional product designers, and methods for training comedians can be effectively adapted to product design idea generation. In a study where 84 participants (students, professional designers and improvisational comedians) took a cartoon caption humor test and a nominal product brainstorming test, we found that improvisational comedians on average produced 20% more product ideas and 25% more creative product ideas than professional product designers. Furthermore, the few individuals that were highly prolific in both creative product ideation and humorous cartoon caption production had an improvisational comedy background. Many of the games used in improvisational comedy training are intended to promote associative thinking. We designed an improvisational comedy workshop composed of these association-based games. A group of 11 subjects who participated in this workshop increased their idea output on average by 37% in a subsequent product brainstorming session. Our findings suggest that improvisational comedy games are a useful warm-up for idea generation, that prolific generation is not a domain-specific ability and that it is possible to teach creativity. Ultimately, this work can lead to the development of tools and methods that designers can use to improve their idea generation skills.
... Researchers have started making connections between humor and creativity. Humor helps connect concepts that at a glance may seem unrelated (Kudrowitz, 2010) and develops a habit of looking at job tasks from a new perspective (Tang, 2008). Humor fosters divergent thinking (Csikszentmihalyi, 1996), makes employees be more open to new ideas, less worried about making mistakes (Romero and Cruthirds, 2006) and more willing to take risks (Morreall, 1991), thus increasing employee ability to generate, support and accept new ideas. ...
... For example, Madrid et al. (2013) suggests that positive mood creates a certain mental flexibility that helps employees generate novel ideas and engage in innovative behaviors. Humor also helps connect concepts that at a glance may seem unrelated (Kudrowitz, 2010) and develops a habit of looking at job tasks from a new perspective (Tang, 2008). For example, Kudrowitz (2010) found that participation in improvisational comedy workshops could increase engineers' and product developers' idea generation output by over 30%. ...
... Humor also helps connect concepts that at a glance may seem unrelated (Kudrowitz, 2010) and develops a habit of looking at job tasks from a new perspective (Tang, 2008). For example, Kudrowitz (2010) found that participation in improvisational comedy workshops could increase engineers' and product developers' idea generation output by over 30%. Lang and Lee (2010) suggest that humor interacts with creativity in several ways. ...
Purpose
The purpose of this study is to investigate the impact of humor work climate on innovative work behavior of back-office employees in the banking industry in Russia.
Design/methodology/approach
Data was collected via an online survey that included scales to measure humor climate and innovative work behavior. The survey was distributed electronically among employees of one department of a bank. The sample included 104 back-office employees (response rate 60.4%). Correlation and regression analyses were used.
Findings
The results indicate that humor climate fosters employee innovative work behavior. Positive humor contributes to innovative work behavior more than remaining humor climate dimensions (i.e. negative humor, outgroup humor and supervisory support). Only position type (managers vs non-managers), and not gender, education and job tenure, was found to have a significant impact on employee perceptions of humor climate and innovative work behavior exhibition.
Originality/value
This study adds to the limited empirical evidence on the links between humor and innovative work behavior, especially at a group level. This study focused on humor climate as a multidimensional construct, whereas previous research mostly explored positive forms of humor in relation to different social aspects of the organization. To the best of authors’ knowledge, this study is first to use a validated scale to explore connections between innovative work behavior and humor climate.
... Humor has already been examined in the design context, too: humor has been linked to increasing creativity in a design process (e.g. [23,36] and it has been intentionally integrated into design activities [19,22,23]. Principles for the design of humorous products have also been generated (e.g. ...
... Humor has been examined in the design context, too: it has been regarded as a resource and strategy in design process [1,7,17,18,25] and in design reviews [56], increasing creativity of design participants [23,36]. Humor has been intentionally integrated into design activities [19,22,23] and even principles for the design of humorous products have been proposed (e.g. ...
... Humor has already been identified as an important element in the design process, e.g., for increasing creativity [36], to the extent that it has become intentionally integrated into design activities [19,22,23]. In the light of our findings, we welcome such an approach of supporting benign humorous activities between the participants and seeing humor as a valuable resource in the design process. ...
... Effective and quick thinking are closely tied to an individual's imagination and their ability to create associations between various information chunks [10]. Incidentally, this is also a skill that takes time to develop and manifest in novices. ...
... Specifically, a user stated: "Some suggestions (or queries) under certain context might not be straight forward." In this regard, finding the balance between suggestions/inspirations that are near to and far from the context of the central concept is important to not only cater to user perception but also encourage the creation of non-obvious connections across seemingly unrelated concepts for the Aha! moment in design [10,18,68]. ...
Mind-mapping is useful for externalizing ideas and their relationships surrounding a central problem. However, balancing between the exploration of different aspects (breadth) of the problem with respect to the detailed exploration of each of its aspects (depth) can be challenging, especially for novices. The goal of this paper is to investigate the notion of “reflection-in-design” through a novel interactive digital mind-mapping workflow that we call “QCue”. The idea behind this workflow is to incorporate the notion of reflective thinking through two mechanisms: (1) offering suggestions to promote depth exploration through user's queries (Q), and (2) asking questions (Cue) to promote reflection for breadth exploration. This paper is an extension of our prior work where our focus was mainly on the algorithmic development and implementation of a cognitive support mechanism behind QCue enabled by ConceptNet (a graph-based rich ontology with “commonsense” knowledge). In this extended work, we first present a detailed summary of how QCue facilitated the breadth-depth balance in a mind-mapping task. Second, we present a comparison between QCue and conventional digital mind-mapping i.e. without our algorithm through a between-subjects user study. Third, we present new detailed analysis on the usage of different cognitive mechanisms provided by QCue. We further consolidate our prior quantitative analysis and build a connection with our observational analysis. Finally, we discuss in detail the different cognitive mechanisms provided by QCue to stimulate reflection in design.
... Besides offering a method to express and reflect participants' perspectives non-verbally, special forms of drama, such as improvisation comedy interventions may be applied (Kudrowitz, 2010;Westwood, 2004). Particularly humour and irony can be a revelation to resolve emotionally problematic issues (ibid.). ...
... Particularly humour and irony can be a revelation to resolve emotionally problematic issues (ibid.). Additionally, several studies have found correlations between humour and creativity (Koestler, 1964;Goodchilds, 1972;Besemer and Treffinger, 1981;O'Quinn and Derks, 1999;Kudrowitz, 2010). Drama intervention leaves it open to applicants to integrate comedy, humour or irony and therefore to integrate emotion in the creative process. ...
In this article we consider intervention methods for idea generation workshops in the automotive industry. The growing complexity of innovation, particularly through combining products and services in a sustainable way, require methodical approaches that facilitate creativity and integrate multiple perspectives. Hands-on modelling, playfulness, and bodily experience are principles that are gaining growing interest beyond artists and designers. However, in the rather traditional innovation environment of the automotive industry the question arises, what intervention methods based on these principles can contribute to innovation? We therefore applied three different methods: drama intervention, tool-kit-based modelling, and gaming, independent of each other in idea generation workshops of an automobile producer. We assessed the quantity and quality of ideas developed with each method, and also the workshop experience of participants in an exploratory study. It turned out that there is no significant difference between the methods, however in comparison to traditional workshops, the output number and quality is higher. Furthermore, participants capitalized from the workshop experience and considered it as inspiration for their daily collaboration.
... Several research efforts have revealed that people will perform more creatively by exposing them to humour, such as simply listening to a humorous record, watching comedy films and other "play" conditions (Ziv, 1976), (Isen et al., 1987). Moreover, in his experiments, Kudrowitz (2010) finds that improvisational comedians on average produced 20% more productive idea and 25% more creative ideas than professional product designers. Humour is also considered to have a function of stressbuffering, acting as a moderator between stress and mood (Martin & Lefcourt, 1983). ...
... Therefore, subjects will not perform better in logical reasoning test after being exposed humour. Experiment: Kudrowitz (2010) found that: ...
A comparison between humour and creative design is presented in this paper. First, we will show that humour comprehension process and creative design share similar mechanisms. Both processes start with a “story” and
ends with concepts that are surprising. Expectation or requirement is updated along the process. To demonstrate the similarity between the two processes, examples of humour comprehension and design processes were analysed. Second, we will show that humour and creative design can be complementary to each other. Development of a humour is a creative design process in which designer has to creatively come up with a text that can incorporate two irrelevant or even opposite scripts to produce humour effects. Enhancement to creative design is found in in humorous conditions or by equipping designers with skills associated with humour creation. An interpretation of these phenomena is also presented based on a theoretical model of design creativity.
... Ugyancsak a munkateljesítményhez járul hozzá a humoros attitűd azáltal, hogy távolságot képes teremteni a személy és a megoldandó kérdés között: másik megvilágításba helyezi, "újrakeretezi" a problémát. Ezt bizonyítandó egy kísérlet (Kudrowitz 2010) 84 résztvevője brainstormingfeladatot kapott: a New Yorker folyóirat stílusában kellett egy előre megadott képregényhez a feliratot megalkotniuk. A kísérleti alanyok három csoportból kerültek ki: hallgatók, professzionális tervezők és improvizációs humoristák voltak közöttük. ...
Humor a munkában: valóban oximoron? John Morreall filozófus nevéhez kapcsolódik az a megállapítás, miszerint a munkahelyi humor oximoronnak számít ("humor in work is an oxymoron", 1991: 359). Valóban nem lehet, nem érdemes professzionális szituációkban élni a humor lehetőségével? Nem lesz meglepetés, hogy az itt összegzett empirikus kutatások mind arra utalnak, hogy a jól alkalmazott humor a munkában is hasznos, előremutató, hatékonyságnövelő lehet. E tanulmány azt a kérdéskört járja körül a desktopkutatás módszertanával, hogy a jelenleg érvényes menedzsment-szakirodalom mit állít, esetleg mit tanácsol a humor munkahelyi szituációkban történő használatáról, a humor hogyan járul hozzá az egészséges munka-helyi légkör, továbbá a dolgozói elégedettség megteremtéséhez és megtartásához, külön kitérve az ajánlott és a kerülendő humorstílusokra. Öt szempont szerint összegzem a vonatkozó tanulmányokat: 1. hogyan hat a (vezetői) humor a munkahelyi teljesítményre és a munkahelyi légkörre, hangulatra; 2. miképpen befolyásolja a vezető humorhaszná-lata a státuszát (ezen belül kiemelten a női vezetőkét); 3. hogyan járul hozzá a vezetői kontrollhoz a humor; 4. létezik-e nem jó humor; 5. zárásképpen pedig azt vizsgálom, milyen szerepet tölt be a humor a szervezeti kommunikációban.
... It is an art showing the impromptu performance of the players. Improv comedy was derived from Italian improvisational theatrical performance initiated in the 15th century (Kudrowitz, 2010). In this show, the performers were given the liberty to perform an unscripted story and they were able to improvise their acts and speeches as long as they were still following the plot that might be given by the viewers. ...
Speaking is considered a complicated language skill by many EFL (English as Foreign Language) learners since they could not be able to speak spontaneously. However, spoken language production is a universal problem for Indonesian English teachers which might be caused by the lack of speaking spontaneity training in the classroom. To solve this obstacle, the teachers could use improv comedy as this art has certain principles that might be useful to train the learners' speaking ability. Improv comedy takes its origin from Italian improvisational theatre appeared during the 15th century which performed unscripted drama and the players deliberately improvised their lines and acts. This study aims to illustrate how the improv comedy principles might be useful for English speaking class especially to train the students' ability in speaking spontaneously.
... To enable this perspective, the units of analysis for most of this study were 'activities' (what practitioners physically enact) and 'mindsets' (what practitioners mentally consider, from individual ideas to entire paradigms). While terminology is not universal, most engineering design literature uses 'activities' (Stoyell et al. 2001;Kudrowitz 2010;Vallet et al. 2013b;Cash, Stanković & Štorga 2014;Montagna & Cantamessa 2019). Smith (1998) found 172 ideation practices were merely combinations of 50 core activities. ...
Recommendations of sustainable design methods are usually based on theory, not empirical industry tests. Furthermore, since professionals often mix components of different design methods, recommending whole methods may not be relevant. It may be better to recommend component activities or mindsets. To provide empirical grounding for recommendations, this study performed 23 workshops on three sustainable design methods involving over 172 professionals from 27 companies, including consultancies and manufacturers in three industries (consumer electronics, furniture and clothing). The design methods tested were The Natural Step, Whole System Mapping and Biomimicry. Participants were surveyed about what components in each design method drove perceived innovation, sustainability or other value, and why. The most valued components only partially supported theoretical predictions. Thus, recommendations should be more empirically based. Results also found unique and complementary value in components of each method, which suggests recommending mixed methods for sustainable design. This may help design professionals find more value in green design practices, and thus integrate sustainability more into their practice.
... Contrasting this, design methods are the tools or techniques created to help designers through one or more of the design process stages. For example, design heuristics [11]- [13], designby-analogy [14], [15], and humor-driven practices [16], [17] are all design methods to help with the concept development stage within the design process. Design methods, or tools, are concerned with how to approach specific design phases. ...
Companies need to employ new design methods and tools to remain competitive in today's global economy. Design methods are used to help teams move through the different stages of the design process, such as during project scoping, concept generation, and concept selection. Concept generation design methods are meant to help teams generate diverse, novel, and creative potential solutions. However, most design methods are developed and refined based on studies with student teams. This limits our understanding of how professionals engage with design methods in practice. This is a case study exploring the design methods used by three companies during the early stages of new product development. These companies are from the consumer electronics, footwear, and medical devices industries, and each design team within the companies was tasked with developing a new physical end product. We identified that all three teams heavily relied on internal and external benchmarking and reverse engineering design methods as part of concept generation. Ultimately, the products they developed were all considered evolutionary, meaning that the final product was a slightly improved version of similar products already on the market. This contrasts revolutionary products, which can change or disrupt the current field in one or more ways. This research contributes to design theory and methodology through empirically studying how companies engage in the design process, identifying the methods employed by professionals, and raising new questions about design methods, especially translation to industry. This research also contributes to design education by identifying methods that professionals use in practice, which can translate to direct recommendations for improving project-based engineering design courses.
... Engineering design literature has parsed design practices into 'activities'; (Smith, 1998;Kudrowitz, 2010;Vallet et al., 2013) or 'techniques' (Hanington and Martin, 2012). Smith (1998) found that 172 ideation practices were all different combinations of 50 core 'activities'. ...
... Engineering design literature has parsed design practices into 'activities'; (Smith, 1998;Kudrowitz, 2010;Vallet et al., 2013) or 'techniques' (Hanington and Martin, 2012). Smith (1998) found that 172 ideation practices were all different combinations of 50 core 'activities'. ...
... So, organizations need to invoke to fresh thoughts, innovative ideas and ways to preserve their current customers, to prevent themselves from losing market share, to meet needs of customers and to achieve their targets (Bolanowski, 2008). Now a day's employee creativity and organizational innovation is considered as a competitive arena for products developing organizations and employees are expected to be creative and innovative in addition to their needed education (Kudrowitz, 2010). ...
This study aims to examine the relationship between Transformational leadership and Organizational Innovation. This relationship is mediated through an intervening variable like Employee Creativity. Using the sample of 250 including supervisors and their respective subordinates of Telecommunication industry of Pakistan. This is purely quantitative research and a survey was designed to collect data from supervisors and subordinates to reduce the common method biasness. This study supports the " Transformational theory, LMX theory and Social learning theory " Data was analyzed by using SPSS and AMOS. The results of this study confirms the results of previous studies showing the significant relationship of Transformational leadership style, Employee Creativity and Organizational Innovation with each other, but in previous studies no indication was found about the cause of organizational Innovation through Employee creativity in Telecommunication sector of Pakistan. So the findings of current study have explicit practical considerations for leadership practice, particularly in the situation where both followers and leaders interact with each other.
... The improvisers' ideas were also generally rated as more creative than the control group. While the workshop itself had nothing to do with product ideation, the results suggest that improv workshops may prime the pump for creativity that extends beyond the events themselves (Kudrowitz, 2010). Another study found that engaging in improv activities correlated with higher divergent thinking scores in the realms of fluency, originality, and flexibility on tasks not specifically associated with the exercises (Lewis & Lovatt, 2013). ...
As the average American adult spends more time at work than anywhere else, the workplace, and the relationships built therein, plays a key role in overall well-being. With this in mind, many organizations dedicate significant time and resources to improve employee well-being, often in the form of fun, social events. In recent years, improvisational comedy, or improv, has emerged as a popular teambuilding activity due to its foundations in play, spontaneity, and trust. However, improv is more than just fun and laughs. Beyond merely being an energizing teambuilding event, I argue that improv has the ability to generate positive social connections and strengthen workplace relationships by improving communication, collaboration, and interpersonal understanding. Within this paper, I provide a historical overview of improvisation in the theater and applied settings, connecting modern-day improv to organizational well-being via the lens of positive psychology. I then theorize that improv enhances positive, workplace relationships by linking the improv principles of being present, co-creation, and heightening offers to constructs of interpersonal mindfulness, perspective taking, and active constructive responding. This paper culminates with recommendations to culturally embed improv into regular work activities and suggestions for further research. An appendix provides easily implementable, short improv exercises that can be used by anyone to develop positive workplace relationships.
... While the concept of implementing humour constructs to the engineering design process remains largely unexplored, there have been a small number of studies on the use of humour in the creative design process. Kudrowitz [2010] noted the link between shortform improvisation games and the associative thinking that benefits idea generation. They carried out an improvisation workshop with students, professional designers and improvisational comedians, and found that on average the comedians were significantly more productive and creative in their idea generation than the designers. ...
Humour has long been associated with creativity, however the link has rarely been applied to engineering design. This paper highlights analogies between humour creation and engineering design, and discusses opportunities to develop new processes and methods that could reinvigorate engineering concept design. Idea generation methods have been explored within the realms of improvised comedy and the visual medium of comic strips. The structures and principles of these creative humour processes present opportunities to view complex engineering problems from new and surprising perspectives.
http://strathprints.strath.ac.uk/56133/
World development has fostered the effectiveness of utilizing visuals in print
and electronic media communication. The visuals for communication are
crafted through the ideation process to the final execution of the project. In
completing a design project, ideation must be successfully carried out. But
sometimes, there are instances where the process is hindered since designers
may want to settle for comfort zones and thus become fixated on ideas. This
study therefore aims at exploring the challenges associated with design fixation
in ideation in the local setting and how to mitigate them. Using interviews
and observation in a qualitative inquiry, the researchers examined the
phenomenon under study with the aid of the Ideation Activity Model as a
theoretical lens. The study revealed an insightful relationship between designers,
tools (manual and digital), design process, ideation techniques, client,
design team, and the outcome of a designer’s activity during ideation. Four
major themes that affect design fixation were discovered: the Designer’s
background, Digital Ideation, Client and Designer tensions, and Fixation
type.
Keywords
Design Fixation, Communication, Ideation, Activity Model, Fixated
We offer the first systematic quantitative meta-analysis on sex differences in humor production ability. We included studies where participants created humor output that was assessed for funniness by independent raters. Our meta-analysis includes 36 effect sizes from 28 studies published between 1976 and 2018 (N = 5057, 67% women). Twenty of the 36 effect sizes, accounting for 61% of the participants, were not previously published. Results based on random-effects model revealed that men’s humor output was rated as funnier than women’s, with a combined effect size d = 0.321. Results were robust across various moderators and study characteristics, and multiple tests indicated that publication bias is unlikely. Both evolutionary and cultural explanations were considered and discussed.
This research was conducted with the aim of studying the impact of managers' leadership style on employees' creativity with considering the mediating role of organizational structure in Metal Industries of Kaveh Industrial City at 2012. The populution of the research was including 4700 employee involved in metal industries of Iranian Kaveh Industrial City and among whom, 355 people was considered as sample by using Cochran formula and sampling method of rational random classification. Data collection was carried out through questionnaires. Technical characteristic of questionnaire including reliability and validity studied by using of various criterion, for example Alpha Chronbach method used as one of the methods of reliability assessment for this research, that reliability coefficient obtained for standard questionnaires MLQ leadership style 0.81, Torrance creativity 0.84 and Robbins organizational structure 0.78. Also to test the validity of questionnaires we used content validity and construct validity. Data analysis was carried out through SPSS, Smart PLS and Lisrel software in two aspects of descriptive (frequency, frequency percentage, mean, Standard deviation) and inferential (Structural Equation Modeling, Shapiro-Wilk Test, Pearson correlation coefficient, Exploratory factor analysis, Confirmatory Factor Analysis, Simple and multi-variable linear regression). The results showed that there is a significant relationship between manager's leadership style and its dimensions with employees' creativity; there is a significant relationship between manager's leadership style and its dimensions with organizational structure; besides, there is a significant relationship between organizational structure and its dimensions with employees' creativity. Also in relationship between managers' leadership style and creativity, organizational structure variable play the role of mediator.
Keywords: Leadership Style, Creativity, Organizational Structure, Metal Industrial
Humor and its relationship to user experience have received limited prior attention in design and HCI. In this paper, we present a framework of design principles that could be used to design humorous products. First, we identified three aspects of experience with humorous products by collecting various amusing products and analyzing them with designers. Next, we conducted a workshop with professional comedians and designers to understand methods for creating humorous products. Through this process, we elicited nine principles for making products humorous: visualization of taboo, bizarre consequence, destructive play, zoomorphism, self-depreciation, abused product, shape incongruity, unconventional use, and unexpected function. To understand how the principles are used in the conceptual design phase, we conducted design sessions for a water fountain using a software application to explain the principles. The results indicate that some principles were more actively used. This work contributes to knowledge on designing products and interaction that deliver more positive feelings to users.
In addition to playing an important role in social bonds and group dynamics, humor has a long association with creativity and creative thinking. This study attempts to utilize this relationship in the context of design by enhancing brainstorming with the use of humor. The theories of Incongruity, Superiority, and Relief are central in the creation of humor. This research hypothesizes that these can be applied to enhance creative performance in brainstorming by (1) inducing a humorous atmosphere through stimuli and (2) applying jocular structure to the brainstorming process itself. A study of three brainstorming methods (classical, silent structured, and video-enhanced) was undertaken, the results analyzed using the Torrance Test of Creative Thinking, and possible influences of humor on levels of creativity evaluated. The results in this indicated that using a humorous stimulus did not have a positive effect, although there remains a strong case in the literature for further investigation. Structuring the brainstorming session did increase fluency and originality, and a number of insights for creative team formation and working are outlined.
Research on group brainstorming has demonstrated that it is less effective for generating large numbers of ideas than individual brainstorming, yet various scholars have presumed that group idea sharing should enhance cognitive stimulation and idea production. Three experiments examined the potential of cognitive stimulation in brainstorming. Experiments 1 and 2 used a paradigm in which individuals were exposed to ideas on audiotape as they were brainstorming, and Experiment 3 used the electronic brainstorming paradigm. Evidence was obtained for enhanced idea generation both during and after idea exposure. The attentional set of the participant and the content of the exposure manipulation (number of ideas, presence of irrelevant information) influenced this effect. These results are consistent with a cognitive perspective on group brainstorming.
It is not clear what heuristics are best for generating solutions to ill-structured problems. This research examined 3 heuristics (brainstorming, the hierarchical technique, and changing perspectives) to determine which produced the most solutions, the best solutions, and the most creative solutions. Ninety-tivo participants generated as many solutions as they could to 1 ill-structured problem concerning a drug-dealing roommate. Participants were then randomly assigned to 1 kind of training. After training, participants returned to generate solutions to the roommate problem. Results indicate that the hierarchical method produced the most solutions and the highest proportion of participants who judged their best solution as occurring after training. Those trained in brainstorming were most likely to judge their most creative solution as occurring after training. The changing perspectives technique was found to be relatively less helpful in terms of best and most creative solutions.
Three studies, conducted with 143 undergraduates, are reported that investigated the hypothesis, long held by theorists, therapists, and laypersons alike, that a sense of humor reduces the deleterious impact of stressful experiences. In each study a negative-life-events checklist was used to predict stress scores on a measure of mood disturbance. These studies made use of different measures of Ss' sense of humor, including 4 self-report scales and 2 behavioral assessments of Ss' ability to produce humor under nonstressful and mildly stressful conditions. Hierarchical multiple regression analyses revealed that 5 of the 6 humor measures produced a significant moderating effect on the relation between negative life events and mood disturbance. Ss with low humor scores obtained higher correlations between these 2 variables than did those with high humor scores. Results provide initial evidence for the stress-buffering role of humor. (42 ref)
When information from two or more sensory modalities conflicts, this can evoke a surprise reaction as well as feelings of amusement, interest, confusion or disappointment. In concurrence to joke theory, we argue that people appre ciate and enjoy appropriate incongruities that can be related back to the p roduct, whereas they are confused by and have negative opinions towards inappropriate incongruities. This paper reports the design and the evaluation of products in two catego ries (rubber duckies and deodorants), with (in)appropriate sensory incon gruities of three types: visualtactual, visualolfactory and visualauditory. Participants evaluated the level of surprise felt and the intensity of resulting emotions. They also indicated their overall liking for the products. Both appropriate and inappropriate incongruities were evaluated as sur prising as well as confusing. As expected, appropriate incongruities evoked more amusement and were generally favored. Whereas products with visual tactual incongruities showed large differences in ratings on liking and amuse ment between appropriate and inappropriate incongruities, these differences were smaller for products with visualauditory and visualolfactory incongrui ties. Possibly, the appropriateness of an incongruity is more conspicuous when it is brought about by a conflict between touch and vision than when olfaction or audition are involved.
I (Waterhouse, 2006) argued that, because multiple intelligences, the Mozart effect, and emo- tional intelligence theories have inadequate empirical support and are not consistent with cog- nitive neuroscience findings, these theories should not be applied in education. Proponents countered that their theories had sufficient empirical support, were consistent with cognitive neuroscience findings, and should be applied in education (Cherniss, Extein, Goleman, & Weissberg, 2006; Gardner & Moran, 2006; Rauscher & Hinton, 2006). However, Gardner and Moran offered no validating evidence for multiple intelligences, Rauscher and Hinton con- cluded that "listening-to-Mozart" studies should be disregarded, and Cherniss, Extein, Goleman, and Weissberg agreed that emotional intelligence lacked a unitary empirically sup- ported construct. My reply addresses theory proponents' specific criticisms of my review and reasserts my original claims. In "Multiple Intelligences, the Mozart Effect, and Emotional Intelligence: A Critical Review" (Waterhouse, 2006), I ar- gued that "MI theory has no validating data … the Mozart ef- fect theory has more negative than positive findings, and EI theory lacks a unitary empirically supported construct." I also argued that these theories' brain system claims were not consistent with relevant cognitive neuroscience findings and concluded that until these theories have garnered reasonable evidentiary support they should not be applied in education. Theory proponents counterargued that their theories were
The profusion of creativity techniques that have been proposed and used is based on a much smaller set of active ingredients, devices that promote idea generation. This paper reports the results of a study that identified these active ingredients through an analysis of 172 idea-generation methods. Fifty idea-generation devices of three types - strategies, tactics, and enablers - were identified and organized in a formulary. Research results facilitate the evaluation of idea-generation methods and the selection of methods suited to particular idea-generation tasks.
Describes the development of the Situational Humor Response Questionnaire (SHRQ) and reports a reliability study with 497 undergraduates and 3 validity studies with 125 undergraduates. Reliability coefficients were in the 70's, and significant correlations were found between the SHRQ and a number of criteria, including mirth responses during an interview, peer ratings of Ss' sense of humor, a measure of positive mood, and rated wittiness of impromptu comedy monologs. The SHRQ is included. (34 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2012 APA, all rights reserved)
We conducted four experiments to investigate free riding, evaluation apprehension, and production blocking as explanations of the difference in brainstorming productivity typically observed between real and nominal groups. In Experiment 1, we manipulated assessment expectations in group and individual brainstorming. Although productivity was higher when subjects worked under personal rather than collective assessment instructions, type of session still had a major impact on brainstorming productivity under conditions that eliminated the temptation to free ride. Experiment 2 demonstrated that inducing evaluation apprehension reduced productivity in individual brainstorming. However, the failure to find an interaction between evaluation apprehension and type of session in Experiment 3 raises doubts about evaluation apprehension as a major explanation of the productivity loss in brainstorming groups. Finally, by manipulating blocking directly, we determined in Experiment 4 that production blocking accounted for most of the productivity loss of real brainstorming groups. The processes underlying production blocking are discussed, and a motivational interpretation of blocking is offered. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2012 APA, all rights reserved)
Toy designers and students may benefit from a universal classification system to communicate and ideate new toy concepts. In this paper, we present two graphical tools that help designers to classify and manipulate toy product concepts. The play pyramid is a three-dimensional map that allows designers to classify a toy concept by placing it in a space between what we believe to be four independent axes of play (sensory, fantasy, construction and challenge). The sliding scales of play are modifiers or adjectives that one can use to further describe the play of a toy concept. By taking a toy design and moving it around inside the play pyramid or along the scales of play, the design can take on new and unforeseen play affordances. Both of these tools have been tested and applied in industry sponsored research and design education settings and were successful in expanding upon toy ideas. Reference to this paper should be made as follows: Kudrowitz, B.M. and Wallace, D.R. (xxxx) 'The play pyramid: a play classification and ideation tool for toy design', Int. J. Arts and Technology, Vol. x, No. x, pp.xx–xx. Biographical notes: Barry M. Kudrowitz received his Masters of Mechanical Engineering from MIT in 2006 studying Nerf® and Super Soaker® design. Currently, he is pursuing his PhD in the Department of MIT Mechanical Engineering studying relationships between humour, creativity and innovation under the advisement of Professor David Wallace. He is the course instructor and cocreator of 2.00b Toy Product Design, an introductory course in product design process for students at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. He is also one of the founders of the MIT Toy Lab. His work has appeared on television shows including: The Martha Stewart Show®, Design Squad and Mythbusters®.
The present study investigates the relationship of self-report inventories of "sense of humor" and behavioral measures of humor as well as their location in the Eysenckian PEN system. 110 male and female adults in the ages from 17 to 83 years answered the following inventories: SHRQ (Martin and Lefcourt 1984), SHQZ (Ziv 1981), SHQ-3 revised (Svebak 1993), CHS (Martin and Lefcourt 1983), MSHS (Thorson and Powell 1993), HIS (Bell, McGhee, and Duffey 1986), 3 WD-K (Ruch 1983), CPPT (Köhler and Ruch 1993), TDS (Murgatroyd, Rushton, Apter, and Ray 1978), STCI-T (Ruch, Freiss, and Köhler 1993), and EPQ-R (Eysenck, Eysenck, and Barrett 1985). Reliability of the humor scales is examined and convergent and discriminant validity of homologous scales of humor appreciation and humor creation is determined. Behavioral measures and self-report instruments yield only meager correlations. While humor appreciation and humor creation form distinct traits in the behavioral measures, they can not be validly discriminated in the self-reports. Factor analysis of self-report inventories yields that the sense of humor is composed of the two orthogonal dimensions of cheerfulness and seriousness. Extraversion is predictive of cheerfulness, low seriousness, and quantity of humor production. Psychoticism is associated with low seriousness, wit and quality of humor production. Finally, emotional stability correlates with cheerfulness. All in all, the general state of the art in the assessment of the sense of humor and its components appears to be far from being satisfactory.
Group brainstorming is a popular ideation method for design teams, yet brainstorming outcomes vary greatly. The method depends on individuals working collectively to generate ideas, and so group dynamics determine whether the method succeeds or fails. This paper explores how interaction designers used techniques from theatrical improvisation, or improv, to adhere to the rules of brainstorming thereby enhancing group interactions while collaborating. The usefulness of improvisation for brainstorming stems from the similarity of the goals of improvisation and brainstorming, the similarity of the recurrent problems that actors and designers encounter when collaborating, and the distinctness of the ways each have devised to resolve the problems that block the group's performance. This paper reflects on the individual- and group-level outcomes for design students and practitioners while brainstorming.
Researchers and practitioners have an abiding interest in improving tools and methods to support idea generation. In studies that go beyond merely enumerating ideas, researchers typically select one or more of the following three constructs, which are often operationalized as the dependent variable( s): 1) idea quality, 2) idea novelty, which is sometimes referred to as rarity or unusualness, and 3) idea creativity. It has been chronically problematic to compare findings across studies because these evaluation constructs have been variously defined and the constructs have been sampled in different ways. For example, some researchers term an idea 'creative' if it is novel, while others consider an idea to be creative only if it is also applicable, effective, and implementable. This paper examines 90 studies on creativity and idea generation. Within the creativity studies considered here, the novelty of ideas was always measured, but in some cases the ideas had to also meet additional requirements to be considered creative. Some studies that examined idea quality also assessed novelty, while others measured different quality attributes, such as effectiveness and implementability, instead. This paper describes a method for evaluating ideas with regard to four dimensions - novelty, workability, relevance, and specificity - and has identified two measurable sub-dimensions for each of the four main dimensions. An action-research approach was used to develop ordinal scales anchored by clearly differentiable descriptions for each sub-dimension. Confirmatory factor analysis revealed high loadings among the sub-dimensions that comprise each dimension as well as high discriminant validity between dimensions. Application of this method resulted in high inter-rater reliability even when the method was applied by different raters to different problems and to ideas produced by both manual methods and group support systems (GSS).
Research on humor is carried out in a number of areas in psychology, including the cognitive (What makes something funny?), developmental (when do we develop a sense of humor?), and social (how is humor used in social interactions?) Although there is enough interest in the area to have spawned several societies, the literature is dispersed in a number of primary journals, with little in the way of integration of the material into a book. Dr. Martin is one of the best known researchers in the area, and his research goes across subdisciplines in psychology to be of wide appeal. This is a singly authored monograph that provides in one source, a summary of information researchers might wish to know about research into the psychology of humor. The material is scholarly, but the presentation of the material is suitable for people unfamiliar with the subject-making the book suitable for use for advanced undergraduate and graduate level courses on the psychology of humor-which have not had a textbook source.
This article seeks to explain the acceptance of an innovation or a novel idea from a phenomenological perspective, with special reference to creativity in art. It argues that whether a new idea like cubism in oil painting, is accepted or not by the community is a matter of subjective interpretation. Based on human agency theories put forwarded by Max Weber and Alfred Schutz, this article uses the concept of intersubjective understanding to explain how innovative works are interpreted and accepted by the community. The phenomenological approach to understand an artwork is illustrated by oil paintings of Pablo Picasso. Implications regarding different types of innovations (namely, radical breakthrough vs. adaptive innovation and scientific innovation vs. creativity in art) in association with their community acceptance are discussed.
This study systematically examines the relations between the folk concept of ''sense of humor'' and the behavioral domain of everyday humorous conduct. Participants completed our Humorous Behavior e-sort Deck (HBQD) and a set of self-ratings contributing to an overall sense of humor index as well as personality measures including the California Psychological Inventory and the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator. Our analyses revealed that overall sense of humor subsumed only a delimited and specific set of humor-related behaviors, in particular, socially constructive and competent forms of humorous conduct within interpersonal contexts. Results with the HBQD further indicated that overall sense of humor was positively associated with only two dimensions of humorous conduct (Socially Warm Versus Cold humorous style and Competent versus Inept humorous style) and unrelated to three others (Reflective versus Boorish, Earthy versus Repressed and Benign versus Mean-spirited humorous styles). Sense of humor was also found to be linked to socially desirable behaviors, but only those behaviors associated with social warmth and competence and not the entire range of socially desirable forms of humor. Analysis of the concept of ''sense of humor'' among subsamples of extraverts and introverts also revealed that although socially constructive uses of humor were important for both psychological types, humor competence figured more prominently in the introverts' notion of sense of humor. General personality characteristics were only minimally related to overall sense of humor, but revealed substantial and differentiated correlates to the styles of humorous conduct isolated by the HBQD. Overall, our findings argue strongly for a comprehensive approach to the assessment of individuals' understanding of humor and their styles of everyday humorous conduct.
There has been a renaissance of research interest in the "sense of humor" in recent years, partly äs an attempt to define the concept but more strenuously to provide Instruments for its measurement. A quick count of recent publications shows an average of two to three new sense of humor- instruments per year — or one every four to six months. This intensity of research is unparalleled in the history of humor research and contrasts sharply with 25 years ago when the renewal of interest in humor feil into a period where cognitive approaches dominated the Zeitgeist in psychology, and the long tradition of personality research in humor was at a point of Stagnation. As an indicator, the "classic" anthologies Psychology of Humor (1972, edited by Jeffrey Goldstein and Paul McGhee) and Humor and Laughter (1976, edited by Tony Chapman and Hugh Foot) contained no chapter on personality and humor. Perhaps even more striking, "sense of humor" did not appear among the index terms in the former. In the latter, the index guides the reader to Lawrence LaFave's suspicion that the sense of humor is merely a "myopic illusion" (LaFave, Haddad, and Maesen 1976: 79).
This article describes the empirical use of the Creative Product Semantic Scale (CPSS) to evaluate 3 creative products by 128 student participants in 2 "folk high schools" in western Norway. First, the factor structure of the model was examined and tested through exploratory principle components factor analysis and confirmatory factor analysis (CFA). Then, multivariate analysis of variance was used to confirm that the CPSS could detect differences perceived in the levels of the factors Novelty, Resolution, and Elaboration and Synthesis in the 3 products. In CFA, as hypothesized, a solution with 3 factors provided a better fit to the data for each of the 3 creative products than an alternative 2-factor solution. The results of this study established the usefulness of the CPSS to detect differences perceived by the participants among the 3 chairs along all 3 dimensions.
The purpose of this study was to confirm, in an American sample, the validity of a three-factor structural equation model that had been previously tested and refined with a sample of young adult students in Norway (Besemer, 1998). The three-factor model, a Creative Product Analysis Matrix (Besemer & Treffinger, 1981), was tested by analyzing the responses to the Creative Product Semantic Scale by a sample of American college students from two State University of New York colleges. Confirmatory factor analyses provided strong support for construct validity of the questionnaire and the three-dimensional creativity model. Participantjudges were able to detect differences perceived in Novelty, Resolution, and Elaboration and Synthesis of the 4 stimulus items.
One of the most important criteria for performance quality, in both art and design seems to be the creativity of the product. Being original and innovative is by, definition a feature of both areas. The primary objective of this study was to determine whether human judgment of creativity is a reliable and valid method in design evaluation and selection. In a first experiment, the judgments of experts, nonexperts, and people with an intermediate level of expertise were compared. They rated 44 first-year designs on creativity, prototypical value, attractiveness, interest, technical quality, expressiveness, and integrating capacity. Pearson product-moment correlations for creativity were relatively low, ranging from .23 to .29. There was little difference between experts and nonexperts. The results confirmed the research in artwork assessment. In Experiment 2 the results were replicated with senior design students as judges, a group with an intermediate level of expertise. Ratings were given for 3 different designs. Correlations were much higher ranging from .48 to .57. This could be a consequence of the homogeneity of the group of judges. The prototypicality of a design, the distance between the design and the observers' internal representation, appeared to discriminate between creativity and other aesthetic criteria. A pair-comparisons analysis also contributed to the definition of creativity in both general and domain-specific terms.
Two experiments examined hemispheric differences in information processing that may contribute to solving insight problems. We propose that right-hemisphere (RH) coarse semantic coding is more likely than left-hemisphere (LH) fine semantic coding to activate distantly related information or unusual interpretations of words, and thus more likely to activate solution-relevant information for insight problems. In Experiment 1, after trying to solve insight problems, participants read aloud solution or unrelated target words presented to the left visual field (lvf) or right visual field (rvf). Participants showed greater lvf-RH than rvf-LH priming for solutions for solved problems and priming only in the lvf-RH for unsolved problems. In Experiment 2, participants showed an lvf-RH advantage for recognizing solutions to unsolved problems. These results demonstrate that in a problem-solving context, there was greater activation of solution-relevant information in the RH than in the LH. This activation is useful for recognizing, and perhaps producing, solutions to insight problems.
A wide range of formal methods have been devised and used for idea generation in conceptual design. Experimental evidence is needed to support claims regarding the effectiveness of these methods in promoting idea generation in engineering design. Towards that goal this paper presents a set of effectiveness metrics experimental methods, data collection and analysis techniques. Statistically based Design of Experiments (DOE) principles were used in developing the guidelines. Four classes of operating variables were considered to characterize the design problem and the environment. The effectiveness metrics proposed are based on outcome and consists of the quantity, quality, novelty, and variety of ideas generated. Two experimental approaches have been developed. In the Direct Method. the influence of the! type of design problem and various parameters related to the procedure of an idea generation method is measured by using the method in its entirety. In the Indirect Method each idea generation method is decomposed into key components and its overall effectiveness is predicted by experimentally studying the effectiveness of its components and their mutual interactions. [S1050-0472(00)02004-3].
The Creative Product Analysis Matrix was evaluated and refined by asking 133 undergraduate students to apply the questionnaire items in three areas (novelty, resolution, elaboration/synthesis) to two T-shirts, only one of predetermined creative design. Results indicated the instrument reliably assessed overall perceptions of the product. (DB)
Humor often plays an important role in creativity and, contrary to the widely held belief that groups interfere with creativity, groups often facilitate humor. This article argues that the Incongruity Theory (IT) of humor comprehension is unable to account for a broad range of humorous events. This argument is supported by detailing the inability of IT to successfully explain a case involving a lack of humor response to a purported incongruity. The notion of the joke-transaction is used as a starting point for an investigation into the psychology and biology of laughter and humor. The findings offer an accurate definition of portions of the joke-transaction concept and contribute to our understanding of creativity in groups.
In a study of the effects of cannabis on cognitive functioning, several cognitive and psychomotor tests were administered to 4 groups of male college Ss (84 Ss): (a) a high-dose group [equivalent to 6 mg of Δ–9-tetrahydrocannabinol (THC)], (b) a low-dose group (equivalent to 3 mg of THC), (c) a placebo group, and (d) a control group. Cannabis was smoked in the form of marihuana. Even Ss who received the low dose showed impairment on the WAIS Block Design test and the Memory-for-Designs Test. High-dose Ss gave an impaired performance on several other cognitive tests; however, on some cognitive tests, mainly those measuring divergent production and oral fluency, low-dose Ss performed the best and high-dose Ss performed the worst. Consequently, there is a possibility, requiring further exploration, that cannabis at low dose levels can act as a stimulant and can improve performance on certain tests. (69 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2012 APA, all rights reserved)
States that both the popular creativity tests, such as the Torrance Tests of Creative Thinking, and the subjective assessment techniques used in some previous creativity studies are ill-suited to social psychological studies of creativity. A consensual definition of creativity is presented, and as a refinement of previous subjective methods, a reliable subjective assessment technique based on that definition is described. The results of 8 studies testing the methodology in elementary school and undergraduate populations in both artistic and verbal domains are presented, and the advantages and limitations of this technique are discussed. The present methodology can be useful for the development of a social psychology of creativity because of the nature of the tasks employed and the creativity assessments obtained. Creativity assessment is discussed in terms of the divergent aims and methods of personality psychology and social psychology. (46 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2012 APA, all rights reserved)
In the current value-based economy, product creativity is a potential resource for organizations to compete, thus emphasizing the need for product creativity measurement. Two studies were performed to refine and validate a previously tested model and measurement of consumer perception of product creativity: one with web-based evaluations (N = 208) of chairs and lamps and one with paper-based evaluations (N = 105) of individually selected products. Results of exploratory factor analyses indicated three main product creativity factors: Affect, Importance, and Novelty, which explained 72% of the common variance. Results of stepwise regressions indicated that the Affect factor significantly predicts (65% of the explained variance) willingness to purchase creative consumer products. One major contribution of this research is the finding that affect is as equally (R2 = .28) important as novelty (R2 = .25) in consumer perception of product creativity. Theoretical and practical implications are discussed for the Affect, Importance, and Novelty product creativity factors, and general creativity guidelines are provided for consumer product design. © 2009 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.
In the current value-based economy, organizations compete to match customer needs and requirements by adding various types of value to products or programs. One example of this added value is product creativity, which is defined as the originality and appropriateness of a product that elicits a positive affect compatible with the consumer or judge. In this article, the authors review current research on creativity, product development, and consumer behavior and reappraise the current tools to measure product creativity. The overall conclusion of this review and reappraisal is that whereas product creativity shows relevance to consumer behavior, a more detailed model of product creativity and measurement tool needs to be developed and validated before fully understanding the impact of product creativity on consumer attitudes and purchase intentions. © 2006 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Hum Factors Man 16: 155–175, 2006.
Describes the development and initial validation of the Humor Styles Questionnaire, which assesses four dimensions relating to individual differences in uses of humor. These are: relatively benign uses of humor to enhance the self (Self-enhancing) and to enhance one’s relationships with others (Affiliative), use of humor to enhance the self at the expense of others (Aggressive), and use of humor to enhance relationships at the expense of self (Self-defeating). Validation data indicate that the four scales differentially relate in predicted ways to peer ratings of humor styles and to measures of mood (cheerfulness, depression, anxiety, hostility), self-esteem, optimism, well-being, intimacy, and social support. They also relate to all five dimensions of the Five Factor Model and to Agency and Communion. The first two scales overlap with previous humor tests, whereas the Aggressive and Self-defeating humor scales largely tap different dimensions. Males scored higher than females on Aggressive and Self-defeating humor. It is expected that the HSQ will be useful for research on humor and psychological well-being by assessing forms of humor that may be deleterious to health as well as those that are beneficial.
Musical training has been associated with structural changes in the brain as well as functional differences in brain activity when musicians are compared to nonmusicians on both perceptual and motor tasks. Previous neuroimaging comparisons of musicians and nonmusicians in the motor domain have used tasks involving prelearned motor sequences or synchronization with an auditorily presented sequence during the experiment. Here we use functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) to examine expertise-related differences in brain activity between musicians and nonmusicians during improvisation – the generation of novel musical–motor sequences – using a paradigm that we previously used in musicians alone. Despite behaviorally matched performance, the two groups showed significant differences in functional brain activity during improvisation. Specifically, musicians deactivated the right temporoparietal junction (rTPJ) during melodic improvisation, while nonmusicians showed no change in activity in this region. The rTPJ is thought to be part of a ventral attentional network for bottom-up stimulus-driven processing, and it has been postulated that deactivation of this region occurs in order to inhibit attentional shifts toward task-irrelevant stimuli during top-down, goal-driven behavior. We propose that the musicians' deactivation of the rTPJ during melodic improvisation may represent a training-induced shift toward inhibition of stimulus-driven attention, allowing for a more goal-directed performance state that aids in creative thought.
Two studies investigating the influence of a humorous atmosphere on students' creativity scores are presented. In the first study 78 adolescents were shown humorous film clips and given a task requiring them to write captions for cartoons. A creativity test was subsequently administered to these students and to a control group. In the second study, Form A of the Torrance creativity test (TCT) with standard instructions was given to 130 adolescents. These were then divided into two groups, one experimental and one control. The experimental group was instructed to complete Form B of the TCT with humorous responses, while the control group was instructed to proceed as before. Results of both experiments showed that a humorous atmosphere significantly increases creativity scores. Several explanations for the findings were proposed and the practical applicability of the results in education were stressed.
A plethora of definitions for innovation types has resulted in an ambiguity in the way the terms ‘innovation’ and ‘innovativeness’ are operationalized and utilized in the new product development literature. The terms radical, really-new, incremental and discontinuous are used ubiquitously to identify innovations. One must question, what is the difference between these different classifications? To date consistent definitions for these innovation types have not emerged from the new product research community. A review of the literature from the marketing, engineering, and new product development disciplines attempts to put some clarity and continuity to the use of these terms. This review shows that it is important to consider both a marketing and technological perspective as well as a macrolevel and microlevel perspective when identifying innovations. Additionally, it is shown when strict classifications from the extant literature are applied, a significant shortfall appears in empirical work directed toward radical and really new innovations. A method for classifying innovations is suggested so that practitioners and academics can talk with a common understanding of how a specific innovation type is identified and how the innovation process may be unique for that particular innovation type. A recommended list of measures based on extant literature is provided for future empirical research concerning technological innovations and innovativeness.
“A rose is a rose is a rose. And a rose by any other name would smell just as sweet.”
Gertrude Stein & William Shakespeare
Examined the influence of group size, task difficulty, and member sex on the relationship between actual productivity and potential productivity proposed by I. D. Steiner (1972), and tested the predictive accuracy of hierarchical and equalitarian latency models proposed by F. Restle and J. H. Davis (1962). 349 undergraduates worked 3 intellectual problems of varying difficulty, either as individuals or in same-sex groups of 2, 3, 6, and 10 members. Actual performance was assessed using indexes of the proportion of solvers and time to solution. Potential performance scores were generated from theoretical models for the same indexes. Group size and problem difficulty were important determinants of group performance, whereas member sex generally was not. Size and difficulty effects varied depending on choice of performance measure. For the proportion index, groups often worked up to potential, but those same groups usually fell below potential on the latency index; they were effective but inefficient. Group performance on both indexes generally fell below potential as size and difficulty increased. The concept of "functional size" is advanced to explain the observed pattern of group performance: As group size increases the number of nonparticipators also increases, resulting in a functional group size smaller than actual size. (36 ref)