Thematic Ideation – Antecedents and Consequences of Individuals’ Thematic Similarity Recognition

Work on thematic thinking, an individual's preference for basing decisions and cognitive processes on thematic similarity, has been developed recently. These preferences also build the basis for idea generation (thematic ideation) and evaluation processes. Research results indicate that there are inter‐individual differences in these preferences. We apply these findings from the field of cognition to the business context and theoretically develop and empirically test a set of antecedents and consequences of thematic thinking. Results indicate that experience and positive affect are positively related to thematic thinking. The consequences that were examined, adaptation and creativity, showed relations which were reverse to the ones hypothesized based on related prior literature. Counter‐intuitively, adaptation is positively related to thematic thinking, while creativity is negatively related. We discuss theoretical and managerial implications and highlight avenues for future research on thematic thinking.     

Computer-assisted creativity: Emulation of cognitive processes on a multi-agent system

For creativity to be computed, it is paramount to understand the cognitive processes involved, which have been elucidated by either surveying creative people or discovering regions of the human brain that activate during creative endeavors. From this scattering, the author proposes a holistic framework to describe them and their interaction. Hence, creativity can be regarded as a meta process which coordinates autonomous cognitive processes such as planning or divergent thinking. To represent the interplay of cognitive processes around creativity, models are developed in the Agent Unified Modeling Language (AUML). Then, the execution of each process is delegated to autonomous agents and a global coordination protocol is devised. The implementation of the MAS is done on the JADE platform. Two modules of the resultant system are exemplified: opus planning and divergent exploration. The coordination protocol is also presented. The domain in which the software system is tested is the creation of musical pieces.     

Virtual reality application influences cognitive load-mediated creativity components and creative performance in engineering design

Virtual reality (VR) can promote design performance, and may generate a high cognitive load and affect creative design thinking as well. In order to examine the effect of VR application on cognitive load and engineering design creativity, this study recruited 81 eighth-grade students as participants and employed a non-equivalent-groups quasi-experimental design to examine how VR application influences creativity components and creative performance. A creativity component scale (creative motivation, creative thinking, and professional cognition), a measurement of creative performance, and a cognitive load scale were used to collect data. The study also investigated the ability of VR application to predict creativity components and creative performance, using cognitive load as the mediator. The conclusions are as follows: (1) VR application had marked effects on professional cognition and creative motivation but no effect on creative thinking skills. (2) VR application had marked effects on the novelty and usefulness aspects of creative performance, particularly with respect to usefulness. (3) VR application had marked effects on extraneous and germane cognitive load, but no influence on intrinsic cognitive load, and (4) Both VR application and cognitive load were able to predict creativity components and creative performance. Their abilities to predict creative performance approached an acceptable level. Nevertheless, VR application had no effect on general creative thinking skills; therefore, other teaching strategies are needed to strengthen creative thinking.     

认知演化算法

受人类创造性思维过程的启发,借鉴认知心理学和创新计算的研究成果,提出了一种模拟人类基于创造性思维的问题求解过程和行为的智能算法--认知演化算法.该算法以知识为核心,将问题求解看成一个基于知识的创造性思维过程,对发散思维、收敛思维、记忆、执行、学习和价值体系6个关键模块进行了建模,充分发挥了知识演化和基于知识的创造性思维技巧在问题求解中的作用.通过数值实验分析了CEA各参数对算法性能的影响,并以一个扩展的路径优化问题将CEA与经典的智能算法进行了比较.实验结果表明,针对知识密集型优化问题,该算法能够以较少的目标评价次数得到问题的较优解.     

Constraints that Help or Hinder Creative Performance: A Motivational Approach

Threatening situations, in which people fear negative outcomes or failure, evoke avoidance motivation. Avoidance motivation, in turn, evokes a focused, systematic and effortful way of information processing that has often been linked to reduced creativity. This harmful effect of avoidance motivation on creativity can be problematic in financially turbulent times when people fear for their jobs and financial security. However, particularly in such threatening times, creativity may be crucial to innovate, adapt to changing demands and stay ahead of competitors. Here, I propose a theoretical framework describing how different types of constraints in the workplace affect creative performance under approach and avoidance motivation. Specifically, under avoidance motivation, constraints that consume or occupy cognitive resources should undermine creativity, but constraints that channel cognitive resources should facilitate creativity. Understanding the impact of different types of constraints on creative performance is needed to develop strategies for maximizing creativity in the workplace.     

Attention! Cosmopolitans ahead – They may not be as creative as they think!

Research on cosmopolitanism and creativity has received significant attention in recent years; however, the connections between these constructs are still ill‐defined. This study uses the creative cognition model to explore the relationship between cosmopolitanism and creativity using both self‐report and expert ratings of a qualitative task. Quantitative data support the assertion that cosmopolitanism is significantly and positively related to self‐expectations of creativity and creative work involvement. However, creative performance on a productive solutions task coded by creativity experts failed to replicate the self‐reported findings. We describe the practical and theoretical implications of these results for future research into cosmopolitanism and creativity.     

A framework for understanding creativity in requirements engineering

Creativity is important in the discovery and analysis of user and business requirements to achieve innovative uses of information and communication technologies. This paper builds a theoretical framework for understanding creativity in requirements engineering. The framework provides a systematic means of understanding creativity in requirements engineering and comprises five elements (product, process, domain, people and socio-organisational context). The framework provides researchers with a sound basis for exploring how the five elements of creativity can be incorporated within RE methods and techniques to support creative requirements engineering. It provides practitioners with a systematic means of creating environments that nurture and develop creative people, cognitive and collaborative processes and products.     

广告创意教学过程中发散性思维的探讨

广告创意是广告设计教学中最为重要的一个部分。广告创意是一个创造性的思维活动过程,而创造力是推动设计不断进步的重要动力。在人的创造性思维运动过程中,起主导作用的就是发散性思维。训练学生的发散性思维对其广告创作有极大的帮助。     

How do Individual‐Level Factors Affect the Creative Solution Formation Process of Teams?

The generation of creative solutions involves nonlinear dynamic procedures that can only be achieved through the creativity of individual team members. Thus, it is important to understand how the formation of individual‐level creativity factors influence the creative solution formation process. The creative solution formation process can be divided into four phases: idea generation, idea screening, idea development and solution verification. Prior research suggests that the creative process may be affected by motivation (intrinsic and extrinsic), knowledge stock (explicit and tacit), individual creativity (intelligence and divergent thinking), and pressure (challenge and time). We tested the effects of these eight factors on performance in the idea generation and idea development phases by conducting an experiment. Our results indicate that intrinsic motivation, intelligence and divergent thinking have a significant positive effect on both idea generation and idea development. Tacit knowledge and challenge pressure have a significant positive effect on idea generation. Time pressure has a significant negative effect on idea development. We also show that both idea generation and idea development have a significant impact on the quality of the final creative solution.     

The Antecedents of Creativity Revisited: A Process Perspective

This study invokes a process view on employee creativity to uncover how the different stages of the creative process are associated with different antecedents. Specifically, we explore the role of five previously identified antecedents of organizational creativity in the different phases of the creative process within organizations: (1) personality; (2) rewards; (3) the role of co‐workers; (4) leadership; and (5) organizational resources. In an analysis of 22 case studies we found that antecedents of creativity indeed have different roles in different stages of the creative process and that antecedents that are helpful in one stage of the creative process, can be detrimental for another stage. Such results highlight the importance of conceptualizing creativity as a process, rather than as an outcome variable.     

形态创意思维的逻辑线索——从《立体构成》教学谈创意思维模式的建构

认知心理学的研究成果表明,创新思维是信息重组。现有的知识理论体系是人们思维的沉积和载体,它疏导着人们的思维方式,使人的思维流向更远更深。针对目前设计课程创意训练无序的现状,本文以构成艺术课堂教学为例,探索以现有知识框架为创意思维的线索和工具的可能性。     

Creativity of student information system projects: From the perspective of network embeddedness

Many companies have pursued innovation to obtain a competitive edge. Thus, educational reform focuses mainly on training creative students. This study adopted the concept of an affiliated network of projects to investigate how project embeddedness influences project team creativity. This work surveys 60 projects in a Management Information Systems Department of a University. Validity of the specific study hypotheses is tested by using moderate hierarchical regression analysis to determine how project embeddedness affects project team creativity and assess how the team innovation climate moderates the relationships between project embeddedness and project team creativity. Analytical results indicate a positive association between structural embeddedness and project team creativity, a negative relationship between positional embeddedness and project team creativity, and a positive influence of team innovation climate on the relationships between network embeddedness and project team creativity. An attempt is also made to understand the role of positional embeddedness by classifying the interactions based on the content of interactions. According to those results, positional embeddedness is positively related to project team creativity during problem–identification interaction; during solution–design interaction, positional embeddedness is negatively related to project team creativity. Results of this study explain the phenomena of divergent thinking and convergent thinking during creative development.     

Understanding design fundamentals: how synthesis and analysis drive creativity,resulting in emergence

This paper presents results of an ongoing interdisciplinary study to develop a computational theory of creativity for engineering design. Human design activities are surveyed, and popular computer-aided design methodologies are examined. It is argued that semiotics has the potential to merge and unite various design approaches into one fundamental theory that is naturally interpretable and so comprehensible in terms of computer use. Reviewing related work in philosophy, psychology, and cognitive science provides a general and encompassing vision of the creativity phenomenon. Basic notions of algebraic semiotics are given and explained in terms of design. This is to define a model of the design creative process, which is seen as a process of semiosis, where concepts and their attributes represented as signs organized into systems are evolved, blended, and analyzed, resulting in the development of new concepts. The model allows us to formally describe and investigate essential properties of the design process, namely its dynamics and non-determinism inherent in creative thinking. A stable pattern of creative thought — analogical and metaphorical reasoning — is specified to demonstrate the expressive power of the modeling approach; illustrative examples are given. The developed theory is applied to clarify the nature of emergence in design: it is shown that while emergent properties of a product may influence its creative value, emergence can simply be seen as a by-product of the creative process. Concluding remarks summarize the research, point to some unresolved issues, and outline directions for future work.     

Spaces for Creativity and Innovation in Two Established Organizations

Organizational work environments are increasingly strategically designed to support creativity and innovation processes, although a consistent theoretical frame for such an endeavour has not been developed yet. Creativity‐ and innovation‐oriented design of work environments requires an understanding of the principles of the underlying processes and their spatial implications. Both creativity and innovation processes are complex and display in different phases convergent and divergent characteristics. The processes are dependent on both individual and group effort. In this article these dimensions are discussed from a theoretical perspective and are used for evaluating the two cases presented here. The first case, the Interactive Creativity Landscape as integral part of the Fraunhofer Office Innovation Center in Germany has been designed interpreting the convergent and divergent phases of creative processes. The second case, the Learning Garden of a Scandinavian financial institution has been designed having de Bono's procedure in mind. The article concludes with the suggestion that increasingly organizations will offer diversity for spatially supporting creativity and innovation processes; solutions will be manifold but will follow certain principles – some of which are discussed here.     

A Design Thinking Rationality Framework: Framing and Solving Design Problems in Early Concept Generation

The concept of “Design Thinking” opens up debate regarding the prevalent human–computer interaction design practice. This article focuses specifically on the cognitive processes of designers during their early design activities. Two groups of designers—experts and novices—were asked to develop a fictitious vacuum cleaner. We then examined the different ways in which these groups manage their design thinking processes and how the groups choose design concepts. The empirical study revealed that expert designers are effective at framing design problems. They make quick decisions (through the use of the affect heuristic) but are more wedded to their own previously developed design concepts, which they do not change in subsequent design stages. In contrast, novice designers are less skilled in framing new design problems but better able to renounce their initial design concepts. These diverse design thinking approaches are linked to potential problems. We then discuss how to address these concerns in conjunction with empathy for the artifact (i.e., artifact empathy via the mediated self) or user (i.e., user empathy via the simulated self), problem framing with second-order semantic connotations, and irrationality when analyzing design solutions. Finally, we propose a design thinking rationality framework that can establish a designer's view of design activities and thereby assist designers educated in both creative and rational design decisions.     

How Individualism-Collectivism Moderates the Effects of Rewards on Creativity and Innovation: A Comparative Review of Practices in Japan and the US

Recent research has shown that the relationship between rewards and creative performance is complex: while rewards increase creativity in some situations, they are detrimental to creative performance in others. The present paper explores the role of cross-cultural differences in moderating some effects of rewards on creativity and innovation. I focus on individualism-collectivism and its related differences in motivation, cognition and emotion. I then propose five ways in which differences in I-C between Japan and the US moderate the effects of incentives on creative performance and innovation in these nations. Specifically, I claim that organizations in individualistic and collectivist cultures differ on: Effects of rewards on intrinsic motivation, effects of in-group versus out-group controlled rewards, effects of group vs. individual based incentives, reactions to in-group and out-group competition, and the effects of members’ identification with the organization on their innovation efforts. The notion of ‘congruence’ is offered as a theoretical framework for explaining the proposed ideas. Recommendations and implications of these prepositions for management of creativity in a cross-cultural work force are discussed.     

Creativity in Communication: A Theoretical Framework for Collaborative Product Creation

Most creative acts occur in a collaborative context. Recent research contributions see the relevance of collaborative creativity but they lack a theoretical basis. What exactly is understood by collaborative creativity and above all, how it is examined, appears not to be the focus of well‐founded analyses. The key objective of this paper is to present a new model characterizing collaborative product creation. This model describes theoretical essence needed for any creative collaboration. As a result, the phenomenon of communication is crystallized as the driving force for collaborative creativity. The article is divided into three sections. First, the paper focuses on creative collaboration in previous creativity research. It is shown that a different understanding of collaborative creativity exists. Second, four dimensions of the new model are presented: type of communication, course of performance, working style and the relation between the nature of problems and the implication of solutions. Lastly, the relevance of the observations for future research and creativity management is discussed briefly.     

From Creative Thinking to Organisational Learning via Systems Thinking? An Illustration of Critical Creativity

Many creativity programmes are designed and delivered with minimal attention paid to reflection. This paper shares experience of a programme in which reflection played an integral role; consciously adopting a critical approach to creativity ensured this was the case. The paper introduces Peter Senge’s “five disciplines” as a conceptual framework guiding the reflective process after the workshop, and which prompted deeper inquiry into the relationships between the processes of creative thinking, systems thinking and organisational learning.     

Development and Validation of Team Creativity Measures: A Complex Systems Perspective

Without formalizing the team creativity (TC) concept with reliable and valid measurement, it is difficult to conduct rigorous research to help teams generate creative ideas and problem solving at a high level, of good quality and great value. The one‐sidedness and lack of depth of existing research on team creativity leads to the limited reliability and validity of team creativity measurements. In order to solve these problems, we introduce the complex system theory and develop the TC Scale with nine items for team creativity from three dimensions: team creative thinking, team creative action and team creative outcome. The data is collected from three distinct positions of respondents (managers, team leaders and senior staff) in 183 creative teams. The results of reliability measures, exploratory factor analysis and confirmatory factor analysis strongly support our scale. Further, we test the correlation between team trust and team creativity to establish its predictive validity and make a further verification on the scale structure through second‐order confirmatory factor analysis. Finally, we discuss the implications for research and practice.     

Antecedents of Team Creativity: An Examination of Team Emotional Intelligence,Team Trust and Collaborative Culture

Teams represent a dominant approach to getting work done in a business environment. Creativity enables teams to solve problems and leverage opportunities through the integration of divergent thoughts and perspectives. Prior research indicates that a collaborative culture, which affects how team members interact and work together, is a critical antecedent of team creativity. This study explores other antecedents of team creativity, namely, team emotional intelligence and team trust, and investigates the relationships among these precursors to creative effort. Using a survey of 82 student teams at a large university in the northeast United States, our findings suggest that team emotional intelligence promotes team trust. Trust, in turn, fosters a collaborative culture which enhances the creativity of the team. Cognitive trust also moderates the relationship between collaborative culture and team creativity. Implications of these results for managers and academics are discussed.