Journal article
Functional Fixedness in Creative Thinking Tasks Depends on Stimulus Modality
Psychology of aesthetics, creativity, and the arts, v 10(4), pp 425-435
01 Nov 2016
PMID: 28344724
Featured in Collection : UN Sustainable Development Goals @ Drexel
Abstract
Pictorial examples during creative thinking tasks can lead participants to fixate on these examples and reproduce their elements even when yielding suboptimal creative products. Semantic memory research may illuminate the cognitive processes underlying this effect. Here, we examined whether pictures and words differentially influence access to semantic knowledge for object concepts depending on whether the task is close- or open-ended. Participants viewed either names or pictures of everyday objects, or a combination of the 2, and generated common, secondary, or ad hoc uses for them. Stimulus modality effects were assessed quantitatively through reaction times and qualitatively through a novel coding system that classifies creative output on a continuum from top-down-driven to bottom-up-driven responses. Both analyses revealed differences across tasks. Importantly, for ad hoc uses, participants exposed to pictures generated more top-down-driven responses than did those exposed to object names. These findings have implications for accounts of functional fixedness in creative thinking, as well as theories of semantic memory for object concepts.
Metrics
Details
- Title
- Functional Fixedness in Creative Thinking Tasks Depends on Stimulus Modality
- Creators
- Evangelia G. Chrysikou - University of KansasKatharine Motyka - University of PennsylvaniaCristina Nigro - University of PennsylvaniaSong-I Yang - University of PennsylvaniaSharon L. Thompson-Schill - University of Pennsylvania
- Publication Details
- Psychology of aesthetics, creativity, and the arts, v 10(4), pp 425-435
- Publisher
- Educational Publishing Foundation-American Psychological Assoc
- Number of pages
- 11
- Grant note
- R01-DC009209 / National Institutes of Health; United States Department of Health & Human Services; National Institutes of Health (NIH) - USA R01EY021717 / NATIONAL EYE INSTITUTE; United States Department of Health & Human Services; National Institutes of Health (NIH) - USA; NIH National Eye Institute (NEI) R01DC009209 / NATIONAL INSTITUTE ON DEAFNESS AND OTHER COMMUNICATION DISORDERS; United States Department of Health & Human Services; National Institutes of Health (NIH) - USA; NIH National Institute on Deafness & Other Communication Disorders (NIDCD)
- Resource Type
- Journal article
- Language
- English
- Academic Unit
- College of Arts and Sciences
- Web of Science ID
- WOS:000387910900005
- Scopus ID
- 2-s2.0-84957624043
- Other Identifier
- 991019176802304721
UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs)
This publication has contributed to the advancement of the following goals:
InCites Highlights
Data related to this publication, from InCites Benchmarking & Analytics tool:
- Collaboration types
- Domestic collaboration
- Web of Science research areas
- Humanities, Multidisciplinary
- Psychology, Experimental