Journal article
Neurocognitive feedback: a prospective approach to sustain idea generation during design brainstorming
International journal of design creativity and innovation, v 10(1), pp 31-50
02 Jan 2022
Abstract
Ideation is a key phase in engineering design and brainstorming is an established method for ideation. A limitation of the brainstorming process is idea production tends to peak at the beginning and quickly decreases with time. In this exploratory study, we tested an innovative technique to sustain ideation by providing designers feedback about their neurocognition. We used a neuroimaging technique (fNIRS) to monitor students' neurocognitive activations during a brainstorming task. Half received real-time feedback about their neurocognitive activation in their prefrontal cortex, a brain region associated with working memory and cognitive flexibility. Students who received the neurocognitive feedback maintained higher cortical activation and longer sustained peak activation. Students receiving the neurocognitive feedback demonstrated a higher percentage of right-hemispheric dominance, a region associated to creative processing, compared to the students without neurocognitive feedback. The increase in right-hemispheric dominance positively correlated with an increase in the number of solutions during concept generation and a higher design idea fluency. These results demonstrate the prospective use of neurocognitive feedback to sustain the cognitive activations necessary for idea generation during brainstorming. Future research should explore the effect of neurocognitive feedback with a more robust sample of designers and compare neurocognitive feedback with other types of interventions to sustain ideation.
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Details
- Title
- Neurocognitive feedback: a prospective approach to sustain idea generation during design brainstorming
- Creators
- Mo Hu - Virginia TechTripp Shealy - Virginia TechJulie Milovanovic - Virginia TechJohn Gero - University of North Carolina at Charlotte
- Publication Details
- International journal of design creativity and innovation, v 10(1), pp 31-50
- Publisher
- Taylor & Francis
- Number of pages
- 20
- Grant note
- EEC-1929892; EEC-1929896 / National Science Foundation; National Science Foundation (NSF)
- Resource Type
- Journal article
- Language
- English
- Academic Unit
- Psychological and Brain Sciences (Psychology)
- Web of Science ID
- WOS:000693927300001
- Scopus ID
- 2-s2.0-85114607450
- Other Identifier
- 991022156306104721