No full-text available
To read the full-text of this research,
you can request a copy directly from the authors.
''Switching On" creativity: Task switching can increase creativity by reducing cognitive fixation
Abstract
Whereas past research has focused on the downsides of task switching, the present research uncovers a potential upside: increased creativity. In two experiments, we show that task switching can enhance two principal forms of creativity—divergent thinking (Study 1) and convergent thinking (Study 2)—in part because temporarily setting a task aside reduces cognitive fixation. Participants who continually alternated back and forth between two creativity tasks outperformed both participants who switched between the tasks at their discretion and participants who attempted one task for the first half of the allotted time before switching to the other task for the second half. Importantly, Studies 3a–3d reveal that people overwhelmingly fail to adopt a continual-switch approach when incentivized to choose a task switching strategy that would maximize their creative performance. These findings provide insights into how individuals can ''switch on " creativity when navigating multiple creative tasks.
... While research has highlighted the positive impact of cognitive job resources on creativity (Amabile & Gryskiewicz, 1987;de Jonge et al., 2012;Elsbach & Hargadon, 2006;Lu et al., 2017;Niks et al., 2017), little attention has been given to the antecedents of cognitive job resources and how these resources can be enhanced through interventions in the workplace. ...
... While creativity often requires challenging, complex tasks that stimulate the creative process (Zhou & Shalley, 2003), constantly working on complex tasks can be cognitively straining and ultimately hinder creativity (de Jonge & Dormann, 2006;Sonnentag et al., 2010;Sun et al., 2020). The opportunity to alternate between complex and simple tasks enables employees to focus on complex problem-solving while using simpler tasks and mental breaks to restore cognitive capacity and shift away from fixed mindsets (Elsbach & Hargadon, 2006;Lu et al., 2017;Madjar & Shalley, 2008). As a result, creative insights are more likely to "spring to mind" when individuals have the opportunity to switch tasks and take mental breaks after periods of focused concentration (Beeftink et al., 2008;Smith, 1995). ...
... Furthermore, metacognitive strategies help employees monitor their cognitive load during cognitively demanding tasks (Sun, 2024;Winne & Nesbit, 2010). This awareness enables them to strategically offload work to GENERATIVE AI USE AND CREATIVITY LLMs, creating opportunities for mental breaks or transitions to simpler tasks, which help restore cognitive capacity and prevent mental fixation (Elsbach & Hargadon, 2006;Lu et al., 2017). ...
We develop a theoretical perspective on how and for whom large language model (LLM) assistance influences creativity in the workplace. We propose that LLM assistance increases employees’ creativity by providing cognitive job resources. Furthermore, we hypothesize that employees with high levels of metacognitive strategies—who actively monitor and regulate their thinking to achieve goals and solve problems—are more likely to leverage LLM assistance effectively to acquire cognitive job resources, thereby increasing creativity. Our hypotheses were supported by a field experiment, in which we randomly assigned employees in a technology consulting firm to either receive LLM assistance or not. The results are robust across both supervisor and external evaluator ratings of employee creativity. Our findings indicate that LLM assistance enhances employees’ creativity by providing cognitive job resources, especially for employees with high (vs. low) levels of metacognitive strategies. Overall, our field experiment offers novel insights into the mediating and moderating mechanisms linking LLM assistance and employee creativity in the workplace.
... In line with this suggestion, other research has found that promoting more frequent item switching was beneficial to divergent thinking performance [40,41]. For instance, using a category exemplar-generation task, where participants are asked to list possible instances or examples within a given indicated category (e.g. ...
... In the Remote Associates Task, participants are presented sets of three apparently unrelated words, for which they are challenged to find a fourth word that can be combined with each of the three stimulus words (e.g. the words dew/ comb/bee can all be combined with the word honey: honey dew, honey comb and honey bee). Some studies using the Remote Associates Task have provided support for the benefits of increased frequency of switching between items, compared with a continuous item focus, on the generation of correct solutions [41]. However, other studies have failed to find a benefit of heightened switching on solution rates for this convergent task [44] (Study 2) or have found a benefit only for a subset of RAT stimuli with a common misleading associate [45]. ...
... The provision of a second item on a divergent thinking task under free-to-choose conditions provides individuals with the opportunity (but not the requirement) to choose to transition to a different item, or to transition back to the item they were earlier thinking about. The 2-item format thus may offer bottom-up stimulation or support to counter possible fixation on earlier generated ideas [42,52], or a form of indirect incubational 'time away' for the emergence of ideas relating to the (not currently attended) item [41,42]. Yet, in our prior research [5], both shift-count and dwell-length were positively associated with originality of responses on the 2-item AUT-suggesting that both shifting one's generational efforts to a different item, and sustaining one's generational attention on the current item, can contribute to idea originality. ...
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).
... Moreover, the study also confirmed the relationship between decreased cognitive flexibility and reduced individual creativity, aligning with prior previous research findings, suggesting that the process of stress impairing creative performance is accompanied by a decline in cognitive flexibility (Alexander et al., 2007;Duan et al., 2020a;Kalia et al., 2018;Zabelina & Robinson;2010). Lu et al. (2017) suggested that cognitive flexibility influences creativity performance by mitigating cognitive fixation. It is suggested that an inherent balance exists between flexibility and persistence in task-switching scenarios, where a reduction in flexibility leads to an increase in persistence and vice versa (Nijstad et al., 2010;Lu et al., 2017). ...
... Lu et al. (2017) suggested that cognitive flexibility influences creativity performance by mitigating cognitive fixation. It is suggested that an inherent balance exists between flexibility and persistence in task-switching scenarios, where a reduction in flexibility leads to an increase in persistence and vice versa (Nijstad et al., 2010;Lu et al., 2017). When flexibility is reduced, then persistence is strengthened and vice versa (Lu et al., 2017). ...
... It is suggested that an inherent balance exists between flexibility and persistence in task-switching scenarios, where a reduction in flexibility leads to an increase in persistence and vice versa (Nijstad et al., 2010;Lu et al., 2017). When flexibility is reduced, then persistence is strengthened and vice versa (Lu et al., 2017). Additionally, the Dual Pathway to Creativity Model posits a direct correlation between cognitive flexibility and the originality of ideas (Nijstad et al., 2010). ...
Based on the “Dual Pathway to Creativity Model”, this study explores the potential relationship between acute stress and individual creative performance, and further unveils the mediating roles of the neuroendocrine system and cognitive functions in this relationship, providing empirical evidence and theoretical support for addressing creative challenges under stress. Sixty healthy adults were randomly assigned to complete tests of cognitive flexibility and creativity under stress or control conditions, with salivary cortisol levels evaluated by the Enzyme-Linked Immuno Sorbent Assay. Changes in participants’ heart rate, anxiety state, negative affect, and positive affect were monitored to reflect the effects of stress during the experiment. The findings demonstrated that acute stress negatively impacts creative performance and indirectly affects individual creativity through the mediating role of cortisol levels and cognitive flexibility. This study provides a theoretical foundation for enhancing creativity in stressful situations.
... For instance, studies have been conducted to investigate what would fixate individuals (e.g., Wiley, 1998;Smith et al., 2017) and clarify the mechanism of how fixation influences problem solving (e.g., Ward et al., 2002;Bilalić et al., 2008). Importantly, as fixation is reported as an obstacle that suppresses the performance of solving problems which involve creative processes (e.g., Jansson and Smith, 1991;Wiley, 1998), and reducing fixation indicates an enhancement of creativity (e.g., Lu et al., 2017;Beda and Smith, 2022), the discussion of fixation and defixation is taken to be an important topic in the study of creativity (e.g., Loesche and Ionescu, 2020). Moreover, as individuals are usually unaware of being fixated (e.g., Bilalić et al., 2008), fixation is difficult to diminish. ...
... Further, being fixated is argued to be a cognitive state that is prior to an impasse (Beeftink et al., 2008). In the investigation of an effective defixation approach, given that reaching an impasse is not an essential condition for solving insight problems (Fleck and Weisberg, 2004;Tseng et al., 2014) and a longer impasse might produce more fixation (Lu et al., 2017), studies were conducted to examine the defixation effect of reducing impasses. For instance, instructing individuals to switch task before reaching an impasse is found to contribute to enhancing solution rates (Lu et al., 2017). ...
... In the investigation of an effective defixation approach, given that reaching an impasse is not an essential condition for solving insight problems (Fleck and Weisberg, 2004;Tseng et al., 2014) and a longer impasse might produce more fixation (Lu et al., 2017), studies were conducted to examine the defixation effect of reducing impasses. For instance, instructing individuals to switch task before reaching an impasse is found to contribute to enhancing solution rates (Lu et al., 2017). Further, Beeftink et al. (2008) revealed that individuals who switched tasks at their own discretion solved more problems. ...
As a cognitive state that impedes idea generation, fixation has been well studied across various domains in relation to the cultivation of creativity. With the aim of contributing to the development of an effective approach to overcoming fixation in order to enhance creativity, a systematic review is conducted of 53 experimental studies concerning the source of fixation and the problem type, which are two critical factors influencing the effectiveness of defixation approaches. Based on the results, it is indicated that an enhancement of the search beyond the frame, constructed by either information that is externally provided or memory that is internally activated by information about the problem, is essential in overcoming fixation. Further, the elimination of fixation leads to an increase in solution rates of closed-ended problems. However, in open-ended problem solving, defixation does not necessarily lead to an improvement in the performance of problem solving, and an advancement can still be achieved by enhancing the search within the constructed frame even when there is no search beyond the frame. Accordingly, an examination of both beyond-frame searches and within-frame searches is essential for an effective defixation approach to enhance creativity in open-ended problem solving.
... Multiple insiders can help bring diverse experiences together (Hoever, van Knippenberg, van Ginkel, & Barkema, 2012), and can also keep these diverse experiences in contact in a cohesive group to see a novel combination becoming a product. Strong, open ties make it more likely that team members contrast their diverse experiences, and consider possible syntheses (Lu, Akinola, & Mason, 2017). But multiple insiders often generate and experience tension and conflict as well, although findings indicate that tensions about tasks and work relationships can contribute to innovativeness (Jehn, 1995;Jehn & Mannix, 2001;Simons & Peterson, 1998), and taskrelated tensions can be beneficial to team performance in general (Shah, Peterson, Jones, & Ferguson, 2020). ...
... Diversity in itself can be a challenge for team communication, and breeds conflict, without organizational networks to turn it into an asset (Guillaume, Dawson, Otaye-Ebede, Woods, & West, 2017;Paulus, van der Zee, & Kenworthy, 2019). Strong, open ties make it more likely that team members contrast their diverse experiences, and consider possible syntheses (Lu et al., 2017). ...
... This respite, when spent in a different domain, could also facilitate enrichment-a positive spillover from one domain to the other (Greenhaus & Powell, 2006). For instance, chatting with a family member might help a person think about their work in a more innovative way (Lu, Akinola & Mason, 2017). This additional creative capacity facilitated by engaging with the nonwork domain could create enrichment for the work domain and vice versa. ...
... Doing so not only helps delineate the impact of integration but also contributes to multitasking theory. While multitasking researchers have examined benefits such as creativity (Lu et al., 2017), we expand theory to encompass recovery-related gains that are illuminated by the work-nonwork context. ...
... In this study, we used the two-item AUT paradigm (Lu et al., 2017;Wu & Koutstaal, 2020). This paradigm allows participants to freely shift between two AUT prompts (chopsticks and bedsheet) while simultaneously solving two AUT items. ...
... Besides, we introduce reference as a new measure to capture the process of drawing inspirations from the other task in the two-item AUT, which helps us understand the mechanism of how shifting between different tasks items improves the performance on creativity tasks (Lu et al., 2017;Smith et al., 2017). Previous literature has highlighted both the potential benefits and costs of task shifting during two-item creative tasks (Wu & Koutstaal, 2022). ...
This study employed a person-centered approach to examine the working memory capacity (WMC) and mind wandering (MW) profiles among college students. Latent profile analyses (N = 159) identified three profiles: high-WMC–high-MW, low-WMC–low-MW, and high-WMC–low-MW. The study further explored the relationship between task item shifting, idea referencing, and creative outcomes within a two-item alternative uses task across different WMC–MW profiles. Using the novel measure of reference in the two-item alternative uses task, our study discovered a distinctive creative process among the three identified profiles: students with a high-WMC–high-MW profile can draw inspiration from one another while shifting between two creative tasks, ultimately facilitating the generation of creative ideas.
... Scholarly consensus recognizes creative thinking and cognitive flexibility as interconnected yet distinct constructs, demonstrating bidirectional influence on each other (e.g., Lu et al., 2017). On the one hand, creative thinking is often considered a function of cognitive flexibility (Nijstad et al., 2010), and cognitive flexibility can facilitate creative thinking (e.g., Lu et al., 2017). ...
... Scholarly consensus recognizes creative thinking and cognitive flexibility as interconnected yet distinct constructs, demonstrating bidirectional influence on each other (e.g., Lu et al., 2017). On the one hand, creative thinking is often considered a function of cognitive flexibility (Nijstad et al., 2010), and cognitive flexibility can facilitate creative thinking (e.g., Lu et al., 2017). On the other hand, cognitive flexibility is observed as a key outcome of engaging in creative thinking (Baas et al., 2008;Ritter et al., 2012). ...
Repeat consumption, a common aspect of consumers' daily lives, often results in hedonic adaptation such as satiation or boredom. In line with a growing body of research exploring methods to alleviate hedonic adaptation, this research proposes and finds that creative thinking can effectively reduce hedonic adaptation. Through five experiments conducted across various consumption contexts (music listening, video watching, photograph viewing, snack eating), we show that creative thinking reduces hedonic adaptation by fostering cognitive flexibility during repeat consumption (e.g., enjoying the same photograph from different aspects across repetitions). Supporting this underlying mechanism, the mitigating effect of creative thinking on hedonic adaptation attenuates when consumers' cognitive flexibility is constrained, or when the product itself possesses sufficient complexity that naturally encourages cognitive flexibility over repetitions. Overall, this research sheds light on how creative thinking helps alleviate hedonic adaptation in repeat consumption, with implications for marketing managers and practitioners.
... This finding aligns with prior research suggesting that multitasking negatively affects creative task performance (Marchewka et al. 2020) and involvement in creative activities (Yang et al. 2023). However, some studies present contrasting results, showing that multitasking may enhance creative thinking by reducing cognitive fixation (Lu et al. 2017) and improve subsequent creative performance by fostering activation and cognitive flexibility (Kapadia and Melwani 2021). These contradictions may arise from the dual effects of multitasking, which depletes resources and hinders resource restoration, while also promoting cognitive flexibility. ...
In the digital‐driven workplace, individuals are required to multitask frequently while maintaining high levels of creativity to stay indispensable. But does multitasking promote or hinder creative process engagement? Utilizing the stressor‐detachment model, this study examines the links between multitasking and creative process engagement. Through a survey of 329 employees conducted over three time points, findings reveal that psychological detachment mediates the negative relationship between multitasking and creative process engagement. Furthermore, temporal leadership mitigates the negative relationship between multitasking and psychological detachment and, by extension, the indirect relationship between multitasking and creative process engagement via psychological detachment.
... The generative procedures in design (e.g., prototyping) directly correspond to pathways thinking, while its iterative procedures (e.g., user testing and feedback loops) mirror agentic thinking. Moreover, design thinking helps us reframe problems and overcome cognitive fixations [15,23,40] about what goals are possible in the first place. For instance, when envisioning a "better" social media, design thinking pushes us not to be confined by existing platforms and their limitations. ...
Design has the power to cultivate hope, especially in the face of seemingly intractable societal challenges. This one-day workshop explores how design methodologies -- ranging from problem reframing to participatory, speculative, and critical design -- can empower research communities to drive meaningful real-world changes. By aligning design thinking with hope theory -- framework of viewing hope as "goal-directed," "pathways," and "agentic" thinking processes -- we aim to examine how researchers can move beyond focusing on harm mitigation and instead reimagine alternative futures. Through hands-on activities, participants will engage in problem reframing, develop a taxonomy of design methods related to hope, and explore how community-driven design approaches can sustain efforts toward societal and individual hope. The workshop also interrogates the ethical and practical boundaries of leveraging hope in design research. By the end of the session, participants will leave with concrete strategies for integrating a hopeful design approach into their research, as well as a network for ongoing collaboration. Ultimately, we position hopeful design not just as a practical tool for action and problem-solving but as a catalyst for cultivating resilience and envisioning transformative futures.
... In this case, they must proactively look for ways and strategies to handle their tasks or solve their problems. Research shows that such unknown cause-effect relationships ask for creative thinking and the experimentation with new work methods or approaches (Lu et al., 2017), which might explain why we still find a positive relationship between learning-oriented goals and employees' innovative work behaviour, even when employees receive little feedback and coaching accuracy from their leader. Future research can try to better understand these processes by using a qualitative approach, in which employees are asked about how they deal with their learning-oriented goals, the potential levels of felt uncertainty, and the role that receiving feedback and coaching from their leader plays in this regard. ...
... The players should stick with repetitive thought and behavior. Thus, games could cause impaired cognitive flexibility, which is the ability to switch from one way of thinking to another and it is linked to creativity (Lu et al., 2017). Furthermore, certain games can be mentally demanding, requiring focused attention and quick decision-making. ...
This study explored the relationship between digital gaming and creativity by conducting a meta-analysis of effect sizes using data from 78 effect sizes in 19 studies encompassing 3,172 samples. We employed a two-level multivariate model with a robust variance estimator and conducted separate analyses for between-subject and within-subject designs. For the between-subject designs, the mean effect size was r = .109, 95% [−0.036, 0.249], indicating non-significance. We conducted moderator analyses to explore potential sources of variation in the observed effects, including creativity test modality, creativity test type, divergent thinking index, analytical approach, age, gender, and year of publication. None of the examined moderators were found to be statistically significant. In contrast, we observed a significant mean effect size for within-subject designs based on 29 effects from seven studies (r = .772, 95% CI [0.595, 0.878]). Variation in mean effects by study design warrants caution when making inferences about the impact of digital gaming on creativity. The implications and limitations of the findings are discussed.
... However, studies generally suggest that tenure is an obstructing factor for tasks related to creativity (Ng & Feldman, 2010;Yang et al., 2022). A well-established theoretical explanation is that long-tenured users tend to have a high level of cognitive fixation-the tendency to be mentally stuck on a particular solution and unable to explore other problem solving approaches (Duncker, 1945;Lu et al., 2017). Due to cognitive fixation on their past knowledge and experience, Q&A community participants with lengthy tenures are less likely to actively engage in divergent and convergent thinking in the peer knowledge production process. ...
Professional question-and-answer (Q&A) communities have become important online social media platforms for peer-to-peer knowledge production. Such communities are vital for users seeking technical solutions and innovative methods for developing new products and features. A key challenge is ensuring information flows across areas of specialization, as such communities thrive on access to diverse expertise. Yet, we know little about how a user’s network brokerage (i.e., the extent to which the user bridges structural holes between groups in the Q&A social network) and related reinforcement mechanisms impact continued user engagement, particularly in contexts where balancing efficient solutions and innovative recommendations from diverse users creates tension. Drawing on the molar theories of structural holes and reinforcement, this study proposes a moderated mediation research model set at the middle range (i.e., with deep connection to the empirical context) that explains the underlying mechanisms in the relationship between Q&A community network brokerage and continued knowledge production. Based on a panel dataset from Game Development Stack Exchange, we find that: (1) network brokerage indeed fosters knowledge receipt, which in turn reinforces users to continue knowledge seeking and contribution; (2) knowledge receipt partially mediates the effects of network brokerage on continued knowledge seeking and contribution; and (3) user tenure negatively moderates the indirect effects of network brokerage on continued knowledge seeking and contribution through knowledge receipt. This research offers theoretical and practical implications for designing and managing online communities dedicated to peer knowledge production.
... Our findings also contribute to the task switching literature, which has demonstrated that task switching can influence cognition in both positive (Kapadia & Melwani, 2021) and negative ways (Leroy, 2009). For example, Lu et al. (2017) suggest that task switching can increase creativity by decreasing cognitive fixation. Task switching can also increase creativity via increased affective arousal (Newton et al., 2020). ...
Flow is touted for the enjoyment it provides and for its relationship with concurrent task performance. But what happens when flow ends, and you move on to your next task? Our research demonstrates that there is a cost to being in flow in this regard. Specifically, the findings of three studies with 746 participants demonstrate that a person who just experienced flow carries forward a figurative tunnel vision which limits their creativity. This is important because flow can happen throughout daily life and can thus impair many creative tasks. In fact, our findings demonstrate that common activities can elicit a flow state that produces the effect on multiple subsequent tasks. Specifically, participants who experienced flow while playing video games in Study 1 were less creative in their subsequent two tasks compared to those who did not experience flow. This finding was replicated in Study 2 with a new flow inducing task. Study 2 also confirmed cognitive flexibility as an underlying mechanism wherein flow leads to a reduction in cognitive flexibility. Lastly, Study 3 shows that people can experience flow while shopping online, and if they do, their creativity is impaired in their next task. The negative carry-over effect was not equal for all forms of creativity, however; it consistently limited verbal creativity, but had limited influence on figural creativity. These findings make several theoretical contributions regarding the nature of flow and its consequences, while also providing practical insights for people structuring their day to increase creativity.
... A context change was only beneficial for solving problems that involved previously induced fixation, but not for solving control problems neither for recall performance. Thus, the present findings do not represent a general benefit of alternating between tasks for divergent or convergent thinking (George & Wiley, 2019;Lu et al., 2017;Smith et al., 2017). This pattern of results allows for two major conclusions: (a) Processing prose material containing misleading information induces fixation, as indicated by impeded problem-solving performance for targets, and (b) this fixation can be overcome when supported by using an interactive sidebar for changing work contexts. ...
General Audience Summary
Finding innovative solutions to problems that cannot be solved using familiar routines is an essential part of modern professions. A common issue in creative problem-solving is that the process of finding adequate solutions can be hindered by dominant (i.e., highly associated) but misleading ideas. In the present study, we confirmed that the processing of texts can cause fixation on misleading associations and, thus, impede subsequent problem-solving performance. More importantly, we also found that fixation can be prevented when problem-solving takes place in a different work context than initial text-encoding—a finding that corresponds to the well-known phenomenon that memory is context-dependent. Here, a change of context was induced by simulating the main features of a prototype of an innovative artificial intelligence based assistance software called cSpaces, which aims at individually supporting users in their digital information management. This software contains a context-sensitive, interactive sidebar that constantly captures, updates, and saves context-specific information (e.g., documents, mails that belong to a certain task) in so-called work contexts, which users can actively switch back and forth between. It allows for facilitated switching between work contexts by automatically (or manually) saving and displaying all relevant information of each (task-) context. Our results provide important evidence that interacting with an interface that supports individual data management by switching between work contexts can be beneficial for complex human cognitive functions such as creative problem-solving. Thus, implementing it in everyday life (or work life in particular) seems very promising.
... For all NCA analyses, we selected the CE-FDH ceiling line because of the non-linearity of the border between the empty and full area. The p-values were estimated with 10 000 permutations.4 Lee et al. (2017) theorize the effect of switching on creativity by arguing that switching reduces cognitive fixation. ...
... Cognitive flexibility in set shifting can support more advanced cognitive functions associated with creativity, such as divergent thinking (Ravizza & Carter, 2008). Several studies have identified a strong correlation between set shifting and divergent thinking (Fischer & Hommel, 2012;Gerwig et al., 2021;Lu et al., 2017). Specifically, high cognitive flexibility might facilitate the capacity to shift between different categories, thereby enhancing divergent exploration to generate original ideas (Berzenski et al., 2022;Krumm et al., 2018). ...
With the ever‐changing social environment, individual creativity is facing a severe challenge induced by stress. However, little is known regarding the underlying mechanisms by which acute stress affects creative cognitive processing. The current research explored the impacts of the neuroendocrine response on creativity under stress and its underlying cognitive flexibility mechanisms. The enzyme‐linked immuno sorbent assay was employed to assess salivary cortisol, which acted as a marker of stress‐induced activation of the hypothalamic–pituitary–adrenal (HPA) axis. Eye blink rate (EBR) and pupil diameter were measured as respective indicators of dopamine and noradrenaline released by the activation of the sympathetic–adrenal–medullary (SAM) axis. The Wisconsin card task (WCST) measured cognitive flexibility, while the alternative uses task (AUT) and the remote association task (RAT) measured separately divergent and convergent thinking in creativity. Results showed higher cortisol increments following acute stress induction in the stress group than control group. Ocular results showed that the stress manipulation significantly increased EBR and pupil diameter compared to controls, reflecting increased SAM activity. Further analysis revealed that stress‐released cortisol impaired the originality component of the AUT, reducing cognitive flexibility as measured by perseverative errors on the WCST task. Serial mediation analyses showed that both EBR and pupil diameter were also associated with increased perseverative errors leading to poor originality on the AUT. These findings confirm that physiological arousal under stress can impair divergent thinking through the regulation of different neuroendocrine pathways, in which the deterioration of flexible switching plays an important mediating role.
... Creativity is defined as the ability to generate novel and useful ideas (Amabile, 1983;Lu et al., 2017;Shalley et al., 2004). Evaluating individuals' creativity is a subjective and social process (Elsbach & Kramer, 2003;Katz et al., 2022;Luksyte et al., 2018;Proudfoot & Fath, 2021;Proudfoot et al., 2015). ...
The “Bamboo Ceiling” refers to the perplexing phenomenon that, despite the educational and economic achievements of East Asians (e.g., ethnic Chinese, Koreans) in the United States, they are disproportionately underrepresented in leadership positions. To help elucidate this phenomenon, we propose a novel theoretical perspective: East Asians are underselected for leadership positions partially because they are stereotyped as lacking creativity, a prized leadership attribute in U.S. culture. We first tested our proposition in two field studies in a natural setting: Across 33 full class sections of 2,304 Master of Business Administration (MBA) students in a U.S. business program, East Asians were perceived by their classmates as less creative than other ethnicities (e.g., South Asian, White) at the beginning of the MBA program—when the students had limited interactions and thus were likely influenced by creativity stereotypes. Lower perceived creativity mediated why East Asians were less likely than other ethnicities to be nominated (Study 1) and elected (Study 2) as class-section leaders by their classmates. These patterns were robust after accounting for variables such as assertiveness (parallel mediator), leadership motivation, English proficiency, and demographics. These findings were conceptually replicated in two preregistered vignette experiments of non-Asian Americans with managerial experience (Studies 3 and 4, N = 1,775): Compared to candidates of other ethnicities, East Asian American candidates with a substantively identical profile were viewed as less leader-like as a function of lower perceived creativity. Overall, although East Asians are commonly stereotyped as competent, they are also stereotyped as lacking creativity, which can hinder their leadership emergence in U.S. organizations.
... Shifting was suggested to allow management of the trade-off between competing interests during curiosity tasks (Cervera et al., 2020) and the selection and implementation of more effective task strategies during creativity tasks (Beaty & Silvia, 2012;Benedek et al., 2012). Interestingly, task-switching was recently found to enhance both divergent and convergent forms of creative thinking, by reducing cognitive fixation, which is characterized by the inability to shift away from an undesired thought or idea (Lu et al., 2017). ...
Curiosity and creativity are central pillars of human growth and invention. While they have been studied extensively in isolation, the relationship between them has not yet been established. We propose that curiosity and creativity both emanate from the same mechanism of novelty-seeking. We first present a synthesis showing that curiosity and creativity are affected similarly by a number of key cognitive faculties such as memory, cognitive control, attention, and reward. We then review empirical evidence from neuroscience research, indicating that the same brain regions are involved in both curiosity and creativity, focusing on the interplay between three major brain networks: the default-mode network, the salience network, and the executive control network. After substantiating the link between curiosity and creativity, we propose a novelty-seeking model (NSM) that underlies them both and suggest that the manifestation of the NSM is governed by one's state of mind (SoM).
... *p < 0.05 (two tailed), **p < 0.01 (two tailed). to decrease fixation (the failure to reject an inappropriate problem-solving perspective or the inability to think beyond the common use of an object), companies could set up training aimed to promote abstraction by categorising specific examples (Ezzat et al., 2020) and change perspectives by switching between two DT tasks (Lu et al., 2017). This study showed some limitations that suggest future research directions. ...
... Studies show that switching back and forth between tasks can harm productivity. On the other hand, task switching can be beneficial when stuck, as it can increase creativity by decreasing cognitive fixation (Geurts et al., 2009;Lu et al., 2017;Monsell, 2003). ...
Rapid individual cognitive phenotyping holds the potential to revolutionize domains as wide-ranging as personalized learning, employment practices, and precision psychiatry. Going beyond limitations imposed by traditional lab-based experiments, new efforts have been underway toward greater ecological validity and participant diversity to capture the full range of individual differences in cognitive abilities and behaviors across the general population. Building on this, we developed Skill Lab, a novel game-based tool that simultaneously assesses a broad suite of cognitive abilities while providing an engaging narrative. Skill Lab consists of six mini-games as well as 14 established cognitive ability tasks. Using a popular citizen science platform (N = 10,725), we conducted a comprehensive validation in the wild of a game-based cognitive assessment suite. Based on the game and validation task data, we constructed reliable models to simultaneously predict eight cognitive abilities based on the users' in-game behavior. Follow-up validation tests revealed that the models can discriminate nuances contained within each separate cognitive ability as well as capture a shared main factor of generalized cognitive ability. Our game-based measures are five times faster to complete than the equivalent task-based measures and replicate previous findings on the decline of certain cognitive abilities with age in our large cross-sectional population sample (N = 6369). Taken together, our results demonstrate the feasibility of rapid in-the-wild systematic assessment of cognitive abilities as a promising first step toward population-scale benchmarking and individualized mental health diagnostics.
... Overcoming the mental set can be one of the mechanisms for breaking the impasse and it is an important part of insight solution ( € Ollinger et al., 2008). The overcoming may require the activity of the shifting (Lu, Akinola, & Mason, 2017). Shifting may also be required to switch between different interpretations in search of suitable representation for correct solution (Laukkonen & Tangen, 2017;Murray & Byrne, 2005). ...
Usually the central executive is considered as a single capacity in the insight studies which leads to inconsistent results on the link between the central executive of working memory and insight. We suppose a more detailed view on the process of insight solution in which various executive functions could be important at different solution stages: updating is necessary to build a problem's representation, inhibition-to overcome the impasse, shifting-to restructure the problem's representation. These assumptions were not confirmed in an experiment via dual-task paradigm and cognitive load. We did not find the relation between executive functions and solution stages, but we demonstrated that the more complexity of dual-task, the more cognitive load in problem solving. Moreover, the highest load of executive functions is observed at the end of insight solution. We speculate that the loading occurs either due to decrease of the free space in working memory storage systems, or due to a resource-intensive event (for example, representational change).
... Diversity in itself can be a challenge for team communication, and breeds conflict, without organizational networks to turn it into an asset (Guillaume et al. 2017;Paulus et al. 2019). Strong, open ties make it more likely that team members contrast their diverse experiences, and consider possible syntheses (Lu et al. 2017). ...
... Lee et al. (2017) theorizes the effect of switching on creativity by arguing that switching reduces cognitive fixation. ...
This paper characterizes creative cognition as a multi-armed bandit problem involving a trade-off between exploration and exploitation in sequential decisions from experience taking place in novel uncertain environments. Creative cognition implements an efficient learning process in this kind of dynamic decision. Special emphasis is put on the optimal sequencing of divergent and convergent behavior by showing that divergence must be inhibited at one point to converge toward creative behavior so that excessive divergence is counterproductive. We test this hypothesis in two behavioral experiments, using both novel and well-known tasks and precise measures of individual differences in creative potential in middle and high school students. Results in both studies confirmed that a task-dependent mix of divergence and convergence predicted high performance in a production task and better satisfaction in a consumption task, but exclusively in novel uncertain environments. These predictions were maintained after controlling for gender, personality, incentives, and other factors. As hypothesized, creative cognition was shown to be necessary for high performance under the appropriate conditions. However, it was not necessary for getting high grades in a traditional school system. The research was conducted with French participants who provided informed consent with appropriate school and parental authorization. The protocol was designed with respect to the Helsinki convention and the French national research center (CNRS) ethical committee guidelines. Declarations of interest: none.
... This suggests a complex relationship between the negative role of inhibitory control in unconscious processes and the important role it plays in the top-down overcoming of functional fixity. Lu et al. (2017) found that task switching can enhance creativity by reducing cognitive fixation, suggesting the role of switching in fixation, similar to inhibition. Ding et al. (2019) found that subjects' performance in the Creative Scientific Problem Finding Test, regardless of the field, had no significant difference after conscious and unconscious thinking. ...
Previously published studies on the effect of how different levels of unconsciousness (UC) and different loads of executive functions (EFs) affect insight problem solving are inconsistent. In a set of three experiments, we used scientific innovation problems (SIP) as insight metrics and distractor tasks to induce UC. Experiment 1 confirmed that, compared with conscious processing, unconscious processing is more conducive to obtaining prototype heuristics for correctly solving scientific innovation problems creatively. Furthermore, Experiment 2 found that different levels of unconscious processing, which were induced by different distractor tasks, made a different impact on high or low difficulty creative problem solving. Experiment 3 indicated that unconscious processing could improve prototype activation and the ability to use key heuristics information in prototype heuristics processing by improving working memory, inhibitory control, and shifting ability of EFs. Overall, the present results provide additional evidence for the role of consciousness levels in insight problem solving.
... Regarding creativity, there has been no direct comparison between creative and task-switching performance or investigation of the connection between creative styles and cognitive control strategies in task-switching. To our knowledge the only paper on this topic was about enhancing creative performance by switching between different everyday activities (Lu et al., 2017). ...
Introduction
Based on the two-factor model of creativity, two distinct types of creative problem solving can be differentiated: innovative (“do things differently”) and adaptive (“do things better”). Flexible cognitive control is a crucial concept in connection with both general and specific styles of creativity: innovative problem-solving benefits from broader attention and flexible mental set shifting; while adaptive creativity relies on focused attention and persistent goal-oriented processes. We applied an informatively cued task-switching paradigm which is suitable for measuring different cognitive control processes and mechanisms like proactive and reactive control. We hypothesized that adaptive creativity is connected to effective proactive control processes, while innovative creativity is based on reactive task-execution. As we have found no previous evidence how age-related changes in cognitive control affects creative cognition; we also examined the effect of healthy aging on different problem-solving styles in an explorative way.
Methods
Our participants, 37 younger (18–30 years) and 37 older (60–75 years) adults, were divided into innovative and adaptive creative groups according to the Torrance Test of Creative Thinking’s Figural Subtest (Hungarian version).
Results
Our results showed that among younger adults the adaptively creative group had larger cue-locked CNV component (effective preparatory activity connected to proactive control), while the innovatively creative group had a larger target-locked P3b component (effective target evaluation and categorization in line with reactive control) which supports a functional difference in the two creative styles. By contrast, in older adults innovative problem-solving showed larger mixing costs (less effective maintenance and selection of task sets), and the lack of trial type effect on target-locked N2b (target-induced goal reactivation and less effective conflict resolution); while adaptive problem-solving caused them to make fewer errors (accuracy-oriented behavior).
Discussion
All in all, innovative and adaptive creativity is based on distinct cognitive control mechanisms in both age-groups, but their processing level is affected by age-related changes.
Mind-wandering and boredom are common phenomena, characterized by shifts in attention and difficulties in sustaining focus. Despite extensive research on the costs and benefits of these states, our understanding of the relationship between mind-wandering, boredom, attention, and memory remains limited. In the current study, we examined the impact that mind-wandering and boredom during encoding have on recognition. In particular, we investigated what impact mind-wandering and boredom have during the encoding of visual stimuli on the pupil old/new effect during recognition. We used an incidental memory task and measured mind-wandering and boredom with thought probes during encoding. Furthermore, we used the pupil old/new effect, assessed via eye-tracking, as a measure of recognition memory. We found a significant effect of boredom on recognition memory and observed the pupil old/new effect in participants regardless of instances of mind-wandering or boredom during encoding. Our findings point towards different mechanisms that underly mind-wandering and boredom’s obstruction of attention during stimuli encoding and their effects on stimuli processing. In addition, these findings reinforce the idea of the pupil old/new effect as a reliable measure of recognition memory as it remained consistent irrespective of attentional lapses due to mind-wandering and boredom.
We are all familiar with the feeling of being stuck when a problem we are faced with seems intractable and we are unable to find a solution. But sometimes, a new way of seeing the problem pops into the mind from out of the blue. The missing piece of the puzzle is found, the gap is filled, and the solution is now obvious. This is the insight experience - the Aha! Moment - which has been a source of fascination to those who study problem solving for centuries. Written by leading researchers from around the world, this volume explores cutting-edge perspectives on insight, the processes that underlie it, and the conditions that promote it. Chapters draw on key themes: from attention, to memory and learning, to evolutionary perspectives. Students and researchers in applied, cognitive, and educational psychology, as well as those studying creativity, insight, and cognitive neuroscience, will benefit from these perspectives.
We are all familiar with the feeling of being stuck when a problem we are faced with seems intractable and we are unable to find a solution. But sometimes, a new way of seeing the problem pops into the mind from out of the blue. The missing piece of the puzzle is found, the gap is filled, and the solution is now obvious. This is the insight experience - the Aha! Moment - which has been a source of fascination to those who study problem solving for centuries. Written by leading researchers from around the world, this volume explores cutting-edge perspectives on insight, the processes that underlie it, and the conditions that promote it. Chapters draw on key themes: from attention, to memory and learning, to evolutionary perspectives. Students and researchers in applied, cognitive, and educational psychology, as well as those studying creativity, insight, and cognitive neuroscience, will benefit from these perspectives.
Innovation is crucial for public organizations to adapt to changing circumstances. While successful innovation requires employees both to explore new ideas and to exploit current processes, such innovative work behavior is often bounded by constraints, both situational and personal. This study examines individual-level constraints on innovation by focusing on cognitive uncertainty as a personal state that may affect innovative work behavior. Using a quantitative daily diary study among public professionals in the Netherlands ( n = 88 respondents and 369 diary entries), the analysis identifies a positive relationship between daily cognitive uncertainty experiences and daily employee innovative work behavior. However, this relationship is only present when employees perceive substantial support from their team leader. This support takes the form of ambidextrous leadership, which mirrors the duality of the innovation process and is shown to be most effective in stimulating innovative work behavior and in managing cognitive uncertainty in stimulating innovation.
Online learning includes courses that require learners to create and innovate. While many of these include domain-specific pedagogical approaches, there are a range of universal and passive prompts for both ideational creativity and innovation in online learning socio-technical spaces. These include elements in the following four areas: (1) instructional leadership and guidance, (2) course policies and implementation, (3) online learning ecosystem (LMS and other spaces), and (4) integrated social media enablements. Such approaches enable increased inclusive learning engagement. They affirm the creative capability in all people. This work is informed by the academic research literature, hands-on instructional design of online courses, and abductive logic. This work posits that reconceptualizing pedagogy and growth-based critical mindsets by educators—about the capability of learners of all backgrounds to think and do in novel ways—may enable larger spaces for learner creativity and innovation.
Retail store employees are increasingly being asked to pick orders from inventory. These tasks are performed under intense conditions and are often made more difficult because of high product variety and high degrees of product similarity. We conduct a real-effort task in a virtual environment where subjects must sort cubes into bins. We study task complexity by varying the degree of similarity between the cubes and task intensity by varying the arrival pace of the cube. Beyond traditional descriptive performance analysis, we also analyze subjects’ movements. We focus on four performance metrics: Throughput (number of cubes sorted per minute), Accuracy (percentage of correctly sorted cubes), Productivity (number of correctly sorted cubes per minute), and Error Rate (number of incorrectly sorted cubes per minute). When task complexity is reduced, productivity rises by as much as 38.2%, and the error rate falls by as much as 93.6%. It also leads to more efficient movements. Increasing task intensity improves throughput but decreases accuracy slightly while varying task intensity improves performance via faster learning. Subjects tend to cut corners when the task is more complex or more intense.
Managerial cognition research is becoming more prevalent in the corporate sustainability literature, providing insights as to how functioning of the mind impacts decision‐making. As we witness catastrophic decline of the planet's natural capital, entering the sixth wave of mass extinction, this study investigates decision‐making related to natural resource consumption through interviews with 32 decision‐makers in the construction/infrastructure and manufacturing industries. Drawing on mindset theory and interview data, we develop the concept of an operational mindset and a societal mindset . The study also identifies the occurrence of individuals switching between operational and societal mindsets when asked to consider the sustainability of key natural resources for the interviewees' organisations. While similarities exist with the prominent business case and paradoxical cognitive frames concept, a number of differences are identified by drawing on the foundations of mindset theory and extensive empirical research from its application in other business disciplines.
Employees are frequently interrupted when doing their work, sometimes with tasks that seem unreasonable or unnecessary. Drawing on stress-as-offense-to-self and stress appraisal theories, we expected that perceived illegitimacy of an interrupting task is detrimental to employees’ affective (i.e., anxiety, fatigue, vitality) and cognitive (i.e., task focus, attention residue) reactions to an interruption, because such interruptions are appraised as more of a hindrance and less of a challenge. To test this, we first used a within-persons recall study,where participants (N=144) recalled two interrupting tasks, one perceived as legitimate, and one illegitimate. As expected, perceived illegitimacy of the interrupting task was associated with more anxiety and less task focus, because of more hindrance appraisal. Perceived illegitimacy also was associated with less vitality, task focus, and more attention residue, because of less challenge appraisal. Second, using a between-persons manipulation of an interrupting task in a work simulation (N=231), perceived illegitimacy was associated with more anxiety, fatigue, attention residue, and less task focus, because of more hindrance appraisal. Furthermore, participants performed worse on the interrupting task because of more hindrance appraisal and less task focus. Overall, interrupting tasks perceived as illegitimate can be more negatively impacting, because such interruptions are appraised as hindering.
Case Study Research in the Digital Age is an in-depth exploration of the case study method as applied to social media, algorithms, digital networks, artificial intelligence, and online life.
By applying and adapting case study theory to digital phenomena, Case Study Research in the Digital Age argues for a fundamental change to the unit of analysis in case study research: the entity. It uses this change as a jumping off point for an overview of case study work as applied to a variety of digital phenomena, including online discussions, social media communities, and artificial intelligence. Written in an accessible way, this book presents a rigorous theoretical discussion of the very definitions of a case study while providing guidance on case study definitions, research design, data collection, analysis, ethics, and case reporting.
Case Study Research in the Digital Age can be used by a wide array of scholars, from novice to seasoned case study researchers, as well as a variety of disciplines, including but not limited to anthropology, communication, education, history, information science, psychology, and sociology.
Creative cognition is the driving force behind all cultural and scientific progress. In recent years, the field of neurocognitive creativity research (NCR) has made considerable progress in revealing the neural and psychological correlates of creative cognition. However, a detailed understanding of how cognitive processes produce creative ideas, and how these processes interact differently across tasks and individuals, remains elusive. In this article, we argue that the increased adoption of computational modeling can help greatly in achieving this goal. While the verbal theories guiding NCR have evolved from broader accounts into more specific descriptions of neurocognitive processes, they remain more open to interpretation and harder to falsify than formal models. Translating theories into computational models can make them more concrete, accessible, and easier to compare, and helps researchers to develop causal hypotheses for how variation in cognitive factors leads to variation in creative outcomes. Currently, however, computational modeling of creativity is conducted almost entirely separately from NCR, and few attempts have been made to embody the cognitive theories of NCR in models that can simulate performance on common lab-based tasks. In this article, we discuss theories of creative cognition and how they might benefit from the wider adoption of formal modeling. We also examine recent computational models of creativity and how these might be improved and better integrated with NCR. Finally, we describe a pathway toward a mechanistic understanding of creative cognition through the integration of computational modeling, psychological theory, and empirical research, outlining an example model based on dual-process accounts.
Cognitive flexibility, or the ability to mentally switch between tasks according to changing environmental demands, supports optimal life outcomes, making it an important executive function to study across development. Here we review the literature examining the development of cognitive flexibility, with an emphasis on studies using task-based functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI). The neuroimaging literature suggests that key brain regions important for cognitive flexibility include the inferior frontal junction and regions within the midcingulo-insular network, including the insular and dorsal anterior cingulate cortices. We further discuss challenges surrounding studying cognitive flexibility during neurodevelopment, including inconsistent terminology, the diversity of fMRI task paradigms, difficulties with isolating cognitive flexibility from other executive functions, and accounting for developmental changes in cognitive strategy. Future directions include assessing how developmental changes in brain network dynamics enable cognitive flexibility and examining potential modulators of cognitive flexibility including physical activity and bilingualism.
Expected final online publication date for the Annual Review of Developmental Psychology, Volume 5 is December 2023. Please see http://www.annualreviews.org/page/journal/pubdates for revised estimates.
Because of the unprecedented pace of globalization, foreign experiences are increasingly common and valued. Past research has focused on the benefits of foreign experiences, including enhanced creativity and reduced intergroup bias. In contrast, the present work uncovers a potential dark side of foreign experiences: increased immoral behavior. We propose that broad foreign experiences (i.e., experiences in multiple foreign countries) foster not only cognitive flexibility but also moral flexibility. Using multiple methods (longitudinal, correlational, and experimental), 8 studies (N Ͼ 2,200) establish that broad foreign experiences can lead to immoral behavior by increasing moral relativism-the belief that morality is relative rather than absolute. The relationship between broad foreign experiences and immoral behavior was robust across a variety of cultural populations (anglophone, francophone), life stages (high school students, university students, MBA students, middle-aged adults), and 7 different measures of immorality. As individuals are exposed to diverse cultures, their moral compass may lose some of its precision.
The present research investigates whether close intercultural relationships promote creativity, workplace innovation, and entrepreneurship—outcomes vital to individual and organizational success. We triangulate on these questions with multiple methods (longitudinal, experimental, and field studies), diverse population samples (MBA students, employees, and professional repatriates), and both laboratory and real-world measures. Using a longitudinal design over a ten-month MBA program, Study 1 found that intercultural dating predicted improved creative performance on both divergent and convergent thinking tasks. Using an experimental design, Study 2 established the causal connection between intercultural dating and creativity: Among participants who had previously had both intercultural and intra-cultural dating experiences, those who reflected on an intercultural dating experience displayed higher creativity compared to those who reflected on an intra-cultural dating experience. Importantly, cultural learning mediated this effect. Extending the first two studies, Study 3 revealed that the duration of past intercultural romantic relationships positively predicted the ability of current employees to generate creative names for marketing products, but the number of past intercultural romantic partners did not. In Study 4, we analyzed an original dataset of 2,226 professional repatriates from 96 countries who had previously worked in the U.S. under J-1 visas: Participants’ frequency of contact with American friends since returning to their home countries positively predicted their workplace innovation and likelihood of becoming entrepreneurs. Going out with a close friend or romantic partner from a foreign culture can help people “go out” of the box and into a creative frame of mind.
Across 7 studies, we investigated the prediction that people underestimate the value of persistence for creative performance. Across a range of creative tasks, people consistently underestimated how productive they would be while persisting (Studies 1-3). Study 3 found that the subjectively experienced difficulty, or disfluency, of creative thought accounted for persistence undervaluation. Alternative explanations based on idea quality (Studies 1-2B) and goal setting (Study 4) were considered and ruled out and domain knowledge was explored as a boundary condition (Study 5). In Study 6, the disfluency of creative thought reduced people's willingness to invest in an opportunity to persist, resulting in lower financial performance. This research demonstrates that persistence is a critical determinant of creative performance and that people may undervalue and underutilize persistence in everyday creative problem solving. (PsycINFO Database Record
(c) 2015 APA, all rights reserved).
Four experiments tested the forgetting fixation hypothesis of incubation effects, comparing continuous vs. alternating generation of exemplars from three different types of categories. In two experiments, participants who listed as many members as possible from two different categories produced more responses, and more novel responses, when they alternated back and forth between the two categories, as compared to continuous uninterrupted listing from each of the two categories. This incubation effect was not found in Experiment 1, when participants were given taxonomic categories (birds and clothing) for the generation task, but was found in Experiment 2 with sense impression categories (cold things and heavy things), and in Experiment 3 with ad hoc categories (equipment you take camping and fattening foods). A similar incubation effect was observed in Experiment 4 when a non-verbal task was given between category generation tasks, but only for flexibly defined categories. The results suggest that forgetting from one alternating listing period to the next in the form of altering category cue representations was consistent with the observed incubation effects. These alternating incubation effects have implications for understanding cognitive processes that underlie creative cognition.
Abstract ,The first ideas to be considered during creative idea generation can have profoundly constraining effects on the scope of the ideas that are subsequently generated. Even if initial ideasare intended to serve as helpful examples, or they are given simply to get the creative process going, the constraints of initial ideas may,be inescapable. Such constraints can impede,successful problem,solving and inhibit creative invention. Overcoming these constraints can be enhanced by reconsidering initially failed problems in new contexts. Empirical research examining,cognitive mechanisms,for these constraints is discussed. ,3 The Constraining Effects of Initial Ideas ,What is the best source of creative ideas? The wisdom of proverbs advises us that if we are to see farther than others, wemust "stand on the shoulders of giants." This means,thatwe,should use the prior knowledge,that has been provided by our predecessors, because in solving problems there is no need to "re-invent the wheel." On the other hand, a different proverb advises us not to get "stuck in a rut," meaning that using prior knowledge to solve problems can lead us to the same,old tired ideas and blocked thinking that stymied progress on those problems,in the past. How are we to choose,between,these apparently contradictory sources of wisdom? One way to address this question is through empirical studies of creative thinking and problem solving, a method
For many years creativity researchers assumed that creativity was rooted in general domain-transcending skills or traits. A growing body of evidence suggests that creative performance is domain specific. This has led both to changes in thinking about the nature of creativity and to a reexamination of previous evidence and assumptions about the generality of creativity. More research is needed to settle this issue; until then, creativity trainers would be wise to assume that creativity is domain specific. This assumption, even if incorrect, is less likely to nullify their efforts than the assumption of content generality.
A theoretical framework for understanding creativity in a complex social setting, such as an organization, is developed. Organizational creativity is defined as the creation of a valuable, useful new product, service, idea, procedure, or process by individuals working together in a complex social system. The starting point for the theoretical development is provided by the interactionist model of creative behavior developed by Woodman and Schoenfeldt (1989). This model and supporting literature on creative behavior and organizational innovation are used to develop an interactional framework for organizational creativity. The theoretical framework is summarized by 3 propositions that can effectively guide the development of testable hypotheses.
Abstract We investigated whether multitasking with media was a unique predictor of depression and social anxiety symptoms. Participants (N=318) completed measures of their media use, personality characteristics, depression, and social anxiety. Regression analyses revealed that increased media multitasking was associated with higher depression and social anxiety symptoms, even after controlling for overall media use and the personality traits of neuroticism and extraversion. The unique association between media multitasking and these measures of psychosocial dysfunction suggests that the growing trend of multitasking with media may represent a unique risk factor for mental health problems related to mood and anxiety. Further, the results strongly suggest that future research investigating the impact of media use on mental health needs to consider the role that multitasking with media plays in the relationship.
Prior to each target letter string presented visually to 120 university students in a speeded word–nonword classification task, either {bird, body, building,} or {xxx} appeared as a priming event. Five types of word-prime/word-target trials were used: bird-robin, bird-arm, body-door, body-sparrow, and body-heart. The stimulus onset asynchrony (SOA) between prime and target letter string varied between 250 and 2,000 msec. At 2,000-msec SOA, reaction times (RTs) on bird-robin type trials were faster than on xxx-prime trials (facilitation), whereas RTs on bird-arm type trials were slower than on xxx-prime (inhibition). As SOA decreased, the facilitation effect on bird-robin trials remained constant, but the inhibition effect on bird-arm decreased until, at 250-msec SOA, there was no inhibition. For Shift conditions at 2,000-msec SOA, facilitation was obtained on body-door type trials and inhibition was obtained on body-sparrow type. These effects decreased as SOA decreased until there was no facilitation or inhibition. On body-heart type trials, there was an inhibition effect at 2,000 msec SOA, which decreased as SOA decreased until, at 250-msec SOA, it became a facilitation effect. Results support the theory of M. I. Posner and S. R. Snyder (1975) that postulated 2 distinct components of attention: a fast automatic inhibitionless spreading-activation process and a slow limited-capacity conscious-attention mechanism. (27 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2012 APA, all rights reserved)
Considers the definition and assessment of creativity and presents a componential framework for conceptualizing this faculty. Including domain-relevant skills, creativity-relevant skills, and task motivation as a set of necessary and sufficient components of creativity, the framework describes the way in which cognitive abilities, personality characteristics, and social factors might contribute to stages of the creative process. The discussion emphasizes the previously neglected social factors and highlights the contributions that a social psychology of creativity can make to a comprehensive view of creative performance. (99 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2012 APA, all rights reserved)
In an investigation of task-set reconfiguration, participants switched between 2 tasks on every 2nd trial in 5 experiments and on every 4th trial in a final experiment. The tasks were to classify either the digit member of a pair of characters as even/odd or the letter member as consonant/vowel. As the response–stimulus interval increased up to 0.6 s, the substantial cost to performance of this predictable task-switch fell: Participants could partially reconfigure in advance of the stimulus. However, even with 1.2 s available for preparation, a large asymptotic reaction time (RT) cost remained, but only on the 1st trial of the new task. This is attributed to a component of reconfiguration triggered exogenously, i.e., only by a task-relevant stimulus. That stimuli evoke associated task-sets also explains why RT and switch costs increased when the stimulus included a character associated with the currently irrelevant task. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2012 APA, all rights reserved)
Divergent thinking is central to the study of individual differences in creativity, but the traditional scoring systems (assigning points for infrequent responses and summing the points) face well-known problems. After critically reviewing past scoring methods, this article describes a new approach to assessing divergent thinking and appraises its reliability and validity. In our new Top 2 scoring method, participants complete a divergent thinking task and then circle the 2 responses that they think are their most creative responses. Raters then evaluate the responses on a 5-point scale. Regarding reliability, a generalizability analysis showed that subjective ratings of unusual-uses tasks and instances tasks yield dependable scores with only 2 or 3 raters. Regarding validity, a latent-variable study (n=226) predicted divergent thinking from the Big Five factors and their higher-order traits (Plasticity and Stability). Over half of the variance in divergent thinking could be explained by dimensions of personality. The article presents instructions for measuring divergent thinking with the new method. (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)
This study examined the interactive effects of 3 contextual variables (feedback valence, feedback style, and task autonomy) on creative performance. Data were collected from participants who performed a role-playing task in a laboratory setting (
N = 210). Results demonstrated that the 3 contextual variables interacted to affect creative performance such that individuals who received positive feedback delivered in an informational style, and who worked in a high task autonomy work environment, generated the most creative ideas. This 3-way interaction held regardless of the participants' differences in achievement orientation. Implications of these results for future research are discussed. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2012 APA, all rights reserved)
Demanding work settings often require the deferral of intended actions. In 3 experiments, participants were to withhold a response until they encountered a task change (which occurred 5, 15, or 40 sec later). To approximate highly demanding settings, the experimenters sometimes divided attention during the delay period. During some of the delays the experimenters interrupted the participants with an additional task (Experiment 1). Demanding conditions as well as interruptions revealed rapid forgetting of intentions at levels that would be considered significant in applied settings. Experiments 2 and 3 showed that this rapid forgetting was not reduced by strategic rehearsal and implementation intention strategies. The results suggest that maintaining intentions over brief delays is not a trivial task for the human cognitive system.
Although anecdotes that creative thoughts often arise when one is engaged in an unrelated train of thought date back thousands of years, empirical research has not yet investigated this potentially critical source of inspiration. We used an incubation paradigm to assess whether performance on validated creativity problems (the Unusual Uses Task, or UUT) can be facilitated by engaging in either a demanding task or an undemanding task that maximizes mind wandering. Compared with engaging in a demanding task, rest, or no break, engaging in an undemanding task during an incubation period led to substantial improvements in performance on previously encountered problems. Critically, the context that improved performance after the incubation period was associated with higher levels of mind wandering but not with a greater number of explicitly directed thoughts about the UUT. These data suggest that engaging in simple external tasks that allow the mind to wander may facilitate creative problem solving.
The current research investigated how patterns of home and host cultural identification can explain which individuals who have lived abroad achieve the greatest creative and professional success. We hypothesized that individuals who identified with both their home and host cultures (i.e., biculturals) would show enhanced creativity and professional success compared with individuals who identified with only a single culture (i.e., assimilated and separated individuals). Further, we expected that these effects would be driven by biculturals' greater levels of integrative complexity, an information processing capacity that involves considering and combining multiple perspectives. Two studies demonstrated that biculturals exhibited more fluency, flexibility, and novelty on a creative uses task (Study 1) and produced more innovations at work (Study 2) than did assimilated or separated individuals. Study 3 extended these findings to general professional outcomes: Bicultural professionals achieved higher promotion rates and more positive reputations compared with assimilated or separated individuals. Importantly, in all 3 studies, integrative complexity mediated the relationship between home/host identification and performance. Overall, the current results demonstrate who is most likely to achieve professional and creative success following experiences abroad and why.
Despite the clear importance of team creativity for organizations, the conditions that foster it are not very well understood. Even though diversity, especially diversity of perspectives and knowledge, is frequently argued to stimulate higher creativity in teams, empirical findings on this relationship remain inconsistent. We have developed a theoretical model in which the effect of a team's diversity on its creativity is moderated by the degree to which team members engage in perspective taking. We propose that perspective taking helps realize the creative benefits of diversity of perspectives by fostering information elaboration. Results of a laboratory experiment support the hypothesized interaction between diversity and perspective taking on team creativity. Diverse teams performed more creatively than homogeneous teams when they engaged in perspective taking, but not when they were not instructed to take their team members' perspectives. Team information elaboration was found to mediate this moderated effect and was associated with a stronger indirect effect than mere information sharing or task conflict. Our results point to perspective taking as an important mechanism to unlock diversity's potential for team creativity. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2012 APA, all rights reserved).
Three experiments examined whether or not fixation effects occur in brainstorming as a function of receiving ideas from others. Exchanging ideas in a group reduced the number of domains of ideas that were explored by participants. Additionally, ideas given by brainstormers conformed to ideas suggested by other participants. Temporal analyses showed how the quantity, variety and novelty of ideas fluctuate over the course of a brainstorming session. Taking a break modulated the natural decline over time in the quantity and variety of ideas. Although fixation was observed in brainstorming in terms of conformity and restriction of the breadth of ideas, it did not influence the number of ideas generated in these experiments. Copyright © 2010 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
Prologue Modern conceptions of creativity The focus of this book Part I. Perspective: 1. Genius and creativity: historical perspective of theory and research 2. Methods used in research on productive creators Part II. The Creative Person: 3. Social background 4. The home environment 5. Education and career 6. Characteristics of creative achievers 7. The creator's motivation 8. The developmental pattern Part III. Creative Thinking and Inspiration: 9. Stages in creative problem-solving 10. Specific abilities and processes involved in creative problem-solving 11. Traditional views of the role of unconscious processes 12. Unconscious processing and inspiration: a new interpretation Epilogue References Indexes.
Innovation has become a primary force driving the growth, performance, and valuation of companies. Our research reveals a wide gap between the aspirations of executives to innovate and their ability to execute. Many companies make the mistake of trying to spur innovation by turning to unreliable best practices and to organizational structures and processes. Our research shows that executives who focus on stimulating and supporting innovation by their employees can promote and sustain it with the current talent and resources - and more effectively than they could by using other incentives. Three approaches can help executives mount innovation efforts. First, senior management should actively support behavior that promotes innovation. Second, network analysis can identify where the capacity for innovation already exists within an organization and help it build more innovative networks. Finally, executives should seed innovative thinking by focusing on selected managers and projects.
Using novel data on CEO time use, we document the relationship between the size and composition of the executive team and the attention of the CEO. We combine information about CEO span of control for a sample of 65 companies with detailed data on how CEOs allocate their time, which we define as their span of attention. CEOs with larger executive teams do not save time for personal use, or to cultivate external constituencies. Instead, CEOs with broader spans of control invest more in a “team” model of interaction. They spend more time internally, specifically in pre-planned meetings that have more participants from different functions. The complementarity between span of control and the team model of interaction is more prevalent in larger firms.
The aim of this study was to determine if interruptions affect the quality of work.
Interruptions are commonplace at home and in the office. Previous research in this area has traditionally involved time and errors as the primary measures of disruption. Little is known about the effect interruptions have on quality of work.
Fifty-four students outlined and wrote three essays using a within-subjects design. During Condition 1, interruptions occurred while participants were outlining. During Condition 2, interruptions occurred while they were writing. No interruptions occurred in Condition 3.
Quality of work was significantly reduced in both interruption conditions when compared to the non-interruption condition. The number of words produced was significantly reduced when participants were interrupted while writing the essay but not when outlining the essay.
This research represents a crucial first step in understanding the effect interruptions have on quality of work. Our research suggests that interruptions negatively impact quality of work during a complex, creative writing task. Since interruptions are such a prevalent part of daily life, more research needs to be conducted to determine what other tasks are negatively impacted. Moreover, the underlying mechanism(s) causing these decrements needs to be identified. Finally, strategies and systems need to be designed and put in place to help counteract the decline in quality of work caused by interruptions.
This study examined the independent and joint effects of expected developmental assessment strategies (self-administered, other-administered, and no assessment) and creative personality on individuals' creative performance. Data were collected from 68 participants who performed a role-playing task in a laboratory setting. Results showed that individuals exhibited the highest creative performance when they expected a self-administered assessment (i.e., an opportunity to assess their own work in order to develop their creativity-relevant skills) and had creative personalities.
Workplace creativity exhibited by individual employees and teams is a key driver of organizational innovation and success. After briefly touching upon issues related to the historical roots of research on workplace creativity, we focus on reviewing empirical work published since 2000 by researchers in the field of organizational psychology and management. We observe that although earlier research tended to take either an actor-centered or a context-centered approach, continuing to do so may have diminishing returns. To understand creativity in all its complexity and potential, an interactionist perspective that emphasizes actor–context interactive effects on creativity holds much promise. Moreover, after reviewing existing work taking an interactionist approach, we conclude that the nature of the actor–context interaction needs further theoretical advancement and refinement. Toward this end, we propose a typology that reveals a complex and intriguing set of actor–context interactions, including ones that are synergistic, antagonistic, inhibitory, remedial, and configurational, as well as ones that show patterns of diminishing gains and diminishing losses. We also discuss future research directions and practical implications.
This study investigates the effects of prior experience, task instruction, and choice on creative performance. Although extant research suggests that giving people choice in how they approach a task could enhance creative performance, we propose that this view needs to be circumscribed.
Specifically, we argue that when choice is administered during problem solving by varying the number of available resources, the high combinatorial flexibility conferred by a large choice set of resources can be overwhelming. Through two experiments, we found that only individuals with high prior experience in the task domain and given explicit instruction to be creative produced more creative outcomes when given more choice. When either of these two conditions is not met (i.e., low prior experience or given non-creativity instruction), more choice did not lead to more creative performance. Theoretical and practical implications of these findings are discussed.
We propose that dishonest and creative behavior have something in common: They both involve breaking rules. Because of this shared feature, creativity may lead to dishonesty (as shown in prior work), and dishonesty may lead to creativity (the hypothesis we tested in this research). In five experiments, participants had the opportunity to behave dishonestly by overreporting their performance on various tasks. They then completed one or more tasks designed to measure creativity. Those who cheated were subsequently more creative than noncheaters, even when we accounted for individual differences in their creative ability (Experiment 1). Using random assignment, we confirmed that acting dishonestly leads to greater creativity in subsequent tasks (Experiments 2 and 3). The link between dishonesty and creativity is explained by a heightened feeling of being unconstrained by rules, as indicated by both mediation (Experiment 4) and moderation (Experiment 5).
The “flash of insight” sometimes observed in problem solving and in scientific discovery has been thought to be due to a sudden cognitive restructuring of the problem situation Direct confirmation of restructuring has been difficult without an independent procedure for determining cognitive structure Graph structures were derived from judgments of concept relatedness made by subjects who had an insight and by several groups who either did not or could not have the insight The graphs of the solvers differed from the graphs of subjects who tried and failed, those who listened to the solvers, and those who were given the solution When other subjects in a subsequent experiment repeatedly judged similarity of pairs of concepts, there was evidence that those connections critical to the new cognitive order were targeted long before there was the breathtaking cognitive reorganization
Ikujiro Nonaka e Hirotaka Takeuchi establecen una vinculación del desempeño de las empresas japonesas con su capacidad para crear conocimiento y emplearlo en la producción de productos y tecnologías exitosas en el mercado. Los autores explican que hay dos tipos de conocimiento: el explícito, contenido en manuales y procedimientos, y el tácito, aprendido mediante la experiencia y comunicado, de manera indirecta, en forma de metáforas y analogías. Mientras los administradores estadounidenses se concentran en el conocimiento explícito, los japoneses lo hacen en el tácito y la clave de su éxito estriba en que han aprendido a convertir el conocimiento tácito en explícito. Finalmente, muestran que el mejor estilo administrativo para crear conocimiento es el que ellos denominan centro-arriba-abajo, en el que los gerentes de niveles intermedios son un puente entre los ideales de la alta dirección y la realidad caótica de los niveles inferiores.
The provision of choice is one of the most common vehicles through which managers empower employees in organizations. Although past psychological and organizational research persuasively suggests that choice confers personal agency, and is thus intrinsically motivating, emerging research indicates that there could be potential pitfalls. In this chapter, we examine the various factors that could influence the effects of choice. Specifically, we examine individual-level factors such as the chooser's socioeconomic status and cultural background. We also examine situational factors such as the content of choice and the number of choices offered. We then expand our discussion on the effect of giving employees extensive choice by looking at its influence on creative performance. In the second half of this chapter, we discuss implications for future organizational behavior research and examine how emerging research on choice making can inform specific managerial practices.
Abstract Interruptions are typically considered disruptive for organizational members, hindering their performance,and effectiveness. Although interruptions can have negative effects on work performance, they also can serve in multiple ways as facilitators of performance. In this paper, we discuss four key types of interruptions that have different causes and consequences: intrusions, breaks, distractions, and discrepancies. Each type of interruption can occur during the workday, and each type has different implications for individual effectiveness. We delineate the principle features of each of the four types of interruptions and specify when each kind of interruption is likely to have positive or negative consequences,for the person being interrupted. By discussing in detail the multiple kinds of interruptions and their potential for positive or negative consequences, we provide a means for organizational scholars to treat interruptions and their consequences,in more discriminating ways. 2 Interruptions are generally defined as incidents or occurrences that obstruct or delay organizational members as they attempt to make progress on work tasks and, thus, are typically
The authors examine the effects of multiple goals on three different tasks (i.e., two creativity tasks and one intervening task) and the discretion to switch back and forth between tasks on creative performance. They propose that individuals' focus of attention and cognitive exhaustion may explain the hypothesized effects on incubation and subsequent creativity. Results demonstrate the highest creativity when individuals have goals for all tasks and discretion to switch between them. The results in part are explained by focus of attention and cognitive exhaustion. The authors discuss how multiple tasks'and goals' effect on creativity can lead to forced incubation.
This article systematically reviews and integrates empirical research that has examined the personal and contextual characteristics that enhance or stifle employee creativity in the workplace. Based on our review, we discuss possible determinants of employee creativity that have received little research attention, describe several areas where substantial challenges and unanswered questions remain, present a number of new research directions for theory building, and identify methodological improvements needed in future studies of creativity in organizations.
The dual pathway to creativity model argues that creativity—the generation of original and appropriate ideas—is a function of cognitive flexibility and cognitive persistence, and that dispositional or situational variables may influence creativity either through their effects on flexibility, on persistence, or both. This model is tested in a number of studies in which participants performed creative ideation tasks. We review work showing that cognitive flexibility, operationalised as the number of content categories surveyed, directly relates to idea originality, but that originality can also be achieved by exploring a few content categories in great depth (i.e., persistence). We also show that a global processing mode is associated with cognitive flexibility, but only leads to high originality in tasks that capitalise on cognitive flexibility. We finally show that activating positive mood states enhance creativity because they stimulate flexibility, while activating negative mood states can enhance creativity because they stimulate persistence. Implications for theory and practice are discussed.
A problematical situation was arranged so that it could be broken into three parts and presented to the subject as three separate experiences. Under these conditions the subjects could not find a solution. "Thus a selected presentation of the experience is not enough. The parts of the experience must be combined in a certain manner and a 'direction' or way the problem is attacked, seems to be a factor which determines the nature of the combination. 'Trial and error' may be present in the attempts at the solution, but is inadequate to explain the sudden appearance of the correct solution, when such solution requires productive rather than reproductive thinking." These results are oriented with respect to the theories of Ach, Selz, Wertheimer, etc. The author favors an explanation in terms of
Gestalt. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2012 APA, all rights reserved)
Performed a simulation experiment involving manipulation of creativity, autonomy, and evaluation. 96 students of fashion design from 3 schools produced a dress design for a mature woman for a formal occasion. Three experimental treatments were examined: choice of problem, deadline, and supervision. More creative output was obtained from Ss who had more choice in selecting problems on which to work, took more time to perform the task, had more training, expressed positive feelings about their work in general and the task in particular, and attended the school with the best reputations. There were also trends in which Ss who anticipated self-employment performed better, and conditions of flexibility in deadlines resulted in better creative output. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2012 APA, all rights reserved)
Several problems, all solvable by one somewhat complex procedure, are presented in succession. If afterwards a similar task is given which can be solved by a more direct and simple method, will the individual be blinded to this direct possibility (
Einstellung)? If a blinding effect does result, will it be of characteristically different strength in groups that differ in educational level, age, etc.? Moreover, if we introduce means to save the subjects or to rescue them from such blindness, will these means readily work? Will they operate differently in various groups? And what may be the real cause for the blinding effect? How are we to understand this phenomenon? (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2012 APA, all rights reserved)
Corporate lawyers, investment bankers, computer programmers, and many other types of workers routinely work seventy-or eighty-hour weeks, putting in extra effort during particularly hectic times (Kidder, 1981; Schor, 1991). These men and women, married and single, are stressed, exhausted, and even dying as a result of frantic schedules (Harris, 1987). They have insufficient time to meet all of the demands on them from work and their lives outside of work. The purpose of this paper is to explore what I refer to as their time famine -their feeling of having too much to do and not enough time to do it -and to question whether this famine must exist. I chose to study a group of software engineers in a high-tech corporation. Over the past three decades, a number of studies have described the nature of engineers' work (e.g., Perrucci and Gerstl, 1969; Ritti, 1971; Brooks, 1982; Zussman, 1985; Whalley, 1986); however, I chose this group not because of the type of work they do but, rather, because of the immense pressure they are under to get their product to market and the time famine they experience as a result. Several recent books have described with awe the fast-paced, high-pressure, crisis-filled environment in which software engineers work (Kidder, 1981; Moody, 1990; Zachary, 1994). These authors portray the engineers as heroes for their willingness to work extremely long hours and celebrate the engineers' intensity and total devotion to work. I, in contrast, explore the engineers' actual use of time at work and the impact their use of time has on other individuals and the groups to which the individuals belong, which reveals the problematic nature of the current way of using time. Ultimately, I therefore challenge the assumption that the current way of using time, which is so destructive to individuals' lives outside of work, is in the corporation's best interest (Perlow, 1995, 1997).
Amazon's Mechanical Turk (MTurk) is a relatively new website that contains the major elements required to conduct research: an integrated participant compensation system; a large participant pool; and a streamlined process of study design, participant recruitment, and data collection. In this article, we describe and evaluate the potential contributions of MTurk to psychology and other social sciences. Findings indicate that (a) MTurk participants are slightly more demographically diverse than are standard Internet samples and are significantly more diverse than typical American college samples; (b) participation is affected by compensation rate and task length, but participants can still be recruited rapidly and inexpensively; (c) realistic compensation rates do not affect data quality; and (d) the data obtained are at least as reliable as those obtained via traditional methods. Overall, MTurk can be used to obtain high-quality data inexpensively and rapidly.
© The Author(s) 2011.
Based on research showing that easing task demands improves prospective memory, we examined the effects of breaks and task switches on prospective memory. The first experiment suggested that people tend not to take advantage of breaks to improve prospective memory unless specifically instructed to do so. The next two experiments showed that both breaks and task switches interfered with prospective memory. The results indicate that work settings with frequent breaks and task switches may be especially susceptible to prospective memory failure. Copyright © 2006 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
THE EFFECTS OF MULTITASKING IN THE CLASSROOM were investigated in students in an upper level Communications course. Two groups
of students heard the same exact lecture and tested immediately following the lecture. One group of students was allowed to
use their laptops to engage in browsing, search, and/or social computing behaviors during the lecture. Students in the second
condition were asked to keep their laptops closed for the duration of the lecture. Students in the open laptop condition suffered
decrements on traditional measures of memory for lecture content. A second experiment replicated the results of the first.
Data were further analyzed by “browsing style.” Results are discussed from Lang’s Limited Process Capacity model in an attempt
to better understand the mechanisms involved in the decrement.
This article provides a current review of research examining contextual factors that can either foster or hinder employee creativity at the individual, job, group, and organizational level. Specifically, we examine the role of leadership and the use of different human resource practices for developing a work context that is supportive of creativity. Finally, based on our review, we discuss practical implications for managers, propose areas that need further research attention, and highlight possible new directions for future research.