Conceptual versus experimental creativity: Which works best on convergent and divergent thinking tasks?

David Galenson's research on creativity has identified two unique creative methods: conceptual and experimental. These methods have different processes, goals, and purposes. To determine whether (a) college students use one method more than the other, and (b) if one method is superior to the other, the authors randomly assigned 115 college students to use the conceptual creative method, the experimental creative method, or their own creative method (i.e., how they would solve a creative problem without instruction) while completing two types of convergent and divergent thinking tasks. Participants using the experimental creative method performed better than the other groups on both types of convergent thinking tasks, with most participants using the experimental creative method unaware of this increase in performance. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

The significance of task significance: Job performance effects, relational mechanisms, and boundary conditions.

Does task significance increase job performance? Correlational designs and confounded manipulations have prevented researchers from assessing the causal impact of task significance on job performance. To address this gap, 3 field experiments examined the performance effects, relational mechanisms, and boundary conditions of task significance. In Experiment 1, fundraising callers who received a task significance intervention increased their levels of job performance relative to callers in 2 other conditions and to their own prior performance. In Experiment 2, task significance increased the job dedication and helping behavior of lifeguards, and these effects were mediated by increases in perceptions of social impact and social worth. In Experiment 3, conscientiousness and prosocial values moderated the effects of task significance on the performance of new fundraising callers. The results provide fresh insights into the effects, relational mechanisms, and boundary conditions of task significance, offering noteworthy implications for theory, research, and practice on job design, social information processing, and work motivation and performance. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Mission possible? The performance of prosocially motivated employees depends on manager trustworthiness.

The authors propose that in mission-driven organizations, prosocially motivated employees are more likely to perform effectively when trust cues enhance their perceptions of task significance. The authors develop and test a model linking prosocial motivation, trust cues, task significance, and performance across 3 studies of fundraisers using 3 different objective performance measures. In Study 1, perceiving managers as trustworthy strengthened the relationship between employees’ prosocial motivation and performance, measured in terms of calls made. This moderated relationship was mediated by employees’ perceptions of task significance. Study 2 replicated the interaction of manager trustworthiness and prosocial motivation in predicting a new measure of performance: dollars raised. It also revealed 3-way interactions between prosocial motivation, manager trustworthiness, and dispositional trust propensity, such that high trust propensity compensated for low manager trustworthiness to strengthen the association between employees’ prosocial motivation and performance. Study 3 replicated all of the previous mediation and moderation findings in predicting initiative taken by professional fundraisers. Implications for work motivation, work design, and trust in organizations are discussed. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Majority and minority influence in group negotiation: The moderating effects of social motivation and decision rules.

In organizational groups, often a majority has aligned preferences that oppose those of a minority. Although such situations may give rise to majority coalitions that exclude the minority or to minorities blocking unfavorable agreements, structural and motivational factors may stimulate groups to engage in integrative negotiation, leading to collectively beneficial agreements. An experiment with 97 3-person groups was designed to test hypotheses about the interactions among decision rule, the majority's social motivation, and the minority's social motivation. Results showed that under unanimity rule, minority members block decisions, thus harming the group, but only when the minority has proself motivation. Under majority rule, majority members coalesce at the minority's expense, but only when the majority has a proself motivation. Implications for negotiation research and group decision making are discussed. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Motivated information processing, strategic choice, and the quality of negotiated agreement.

The authors tested a motivated information-processing model of negotiation: To reach high joint outcomes, negotiators need a deep understanding of the task, which requires them to exchange information and to process new information systematically. All this depends on social motivation, epistemic motivation (EM), and their interaction. Indeed, when EM (manipulated by holding negotiators process accountability or not) was high rather than low and prosocial rather than proself, negotiators recall more cooperative than competitive tactics (Experiment 1), had more trust, and reached higher joint outcomes (Experiment 2). Experiment 3 showed that under high EM, negotiators who received cooperative, rather than competitive, tactics reached higher joint outcomes because they engaged in more problem solving. Under low EM, negotiators made more concessions and reached low joint outcomes. Implications for negotiation theory and for future work in this area are discussed. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Group performance in a cognitive task.

On a cross-word puzzle task performed by 60 pairs of male Ss, correlations between group performance and performance of the individuals (independently determined) were calculated. 82% of the true group performance variance on the task could be predicted from the individual performance scores. "It is suggested that the nature of the task is important in studies of group performance, and that the existence of 'group' phenomena should be empirically demonstrated rather than assumed." (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Talking about time: Effects of temporal planning and time awareness norms on group coordination and performance.

Planning is often central to effective coordination and task performance in work groups. Although planning pertains to efforts aimed at establishing objectives, generating subtasks, and creating role or task assignments, it also encompasses discussions about time and temporal issues. This article highlights the importance of temporal planning in groups, especially as it relates to effective coordination and task performance. Specifically, the results of a survey study of 48 self-managing project groups revealed that higher levels of initial temporal planning contributed to the formation of group norms that emphasize awareness of and attention to time. These time awareness norms were found to mediate the effect of temporal planning on coordination and task performance. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Pride in group performance and group-task motivation.

This experiment tested the propositions that pride in one's group results from the members' perceptions of effective task performance of the group as a whole and is directly associated with high motivation toward the assigned task of the group. 25 3-man groups assigned to work on a simulated Air Defense task were distributed among 5 experimental conditions. The measure of task motivation was the amount of task-oriented discussion during a "break" period. "Evidence is cited supporting the hypothesis that the high group-task motivation results from a perception of interdependence among the group members with respect to the attainment of reward." (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Action coordination in groups and individuals: Learning anticipatory control.

When individuals act alone, they can internally coordinate the actions at hand. Such coordination is not feasible when individuals act together in a group. The present research examines to what extent groups encounter specific challenges when acting jointly and whether these challenges impede extending planning into the future. Individuals and groups carried out a tracking task that required learning a new anticipatory control strategy. The results show that groups face additional demands that are harder to overcome when planning needs to be extended into the future. Information about others' actions is a necessary condition for groups to effectively learn to extend their plans. Possible mechanisms for exerting and learning anticipatory control are discussed. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Expecting innovation: Psychoactive drug primes and the generation of creative solutions.

Many individuals expect that alcohol and drug consumption will enhance creativity. The present studies tested whether substance related primes would influence creative performance for individuals who possessed creativity-related substance expectancies. Participants (n = 566) were briefly exposed to stimuli related to psychoactive substances (alcohol, for Study 1, Sample 1, and Study 2; and marijuana, for Study 1, Sample 2) or neutral stimuli. Participants in Study 1 then completed a creative problem-solving task, while participants in Study 2 completed a divergent thinking task or a task unrelated to creative problem solving. The results of Study 1 revealed that exposure to the experimental stimuli enhanced performance on the creative problem-solving task for those who expected the corresponding substance would trigger creative functioning. In a conceptual replication, Study 2 showed that participants exposed to alcohol cues performed better on a divergent thinking task if they expected alcohol to enhance creativity. It is important to note that this same interaction did not influence performance on measures unrelated to creative problem solving, suggesting that the activation of creativity-related expectancies influenced creative performance, specifically. These findings highlight the importance of assessing expectancies when examining pharmacological effects of alcohol and marijuana. Future directions and implications for substance-related interventions are discussed. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2011 APA, all rights reserved)     

Interpersonal facilitation and job dedication as separate facets of contextual performance.

This study attempts to refine the construct of contextual performance by dividing it into 2 narrower constructs, interpersonal facilitation and job dedication. Supervisors rated 975 U.S. Air Force mechanics on at least 1 of 4 aspects of job performance (different supervisors rated each aspect of performance), and 515 of these mechanics also completed self-report individual difference measures. Correlations between performance ratings and individual difference variables support distinguishing task performance from interpersonal facilitation but not from job dedication. Thus this study suggests the need to redefine task performance to include motivational elements of job dedication. Then task performance would include task proficiency and motivation to perform one's own tasks effectively, and contextual performance would include interpersonal skills, the motivation to maintain good working relationships and help others perform their tasks. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Is There a Specific Executive Capacity for Dual Task Coordination? Evidence From Alzheimer's Disease.

Three experiments compared groups of Alzheimer's disease (AD) patients and healthy older and younger participants on visuospatial tracking and digit sequence recall, as single tasks and performed concurrently. In Experiment 1, tasks were performed concurrently with very low demand relative to span. Only the AD patients showed a dual task deficit. In Experiment 2, single task demand was manipulated on each task from below span to above span for each individual. All groups showed the same performance reductions with increasing demand. In Experiment 3, demand on 1 task was constant, whereas demand on the concurrent task was varied. AD patients showed a clear dual task deficit but were no more sensitive than control groups to varying demand. Results suggest an identifiable cognitive resource for dual task coordination within a multiple component working memory system. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Effects of work-group structure and certain task variables on group performance.

This investigation explored how team performance varies as a function of information processing demands and how the information-handling capacity of teams depends upon the requirements for internal transmission of information imposed by a communication structure. 3-man groups performed a simple "team" task under 2 different work structures, differing in the extent to which they required the transmission of information. "… the most difficult structure was that in which a larger proportion of information had to be relayed… from several different sources… . Errors for both structure conditions significantly increased when the rate of change of instrument readings increased." (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Aerobic fitness and cognitive development: Event-related brain potential and task performance indices of executive control in preadolescent children.

The relationship between aerobic fitness and executive control was assessed in 38 higher- and lower-fit children (Mage = 9.4 years), grouped according to their performance on a field test of aerobic capacity. Participants performed a flanker task requiring variable amounts of executive control while event-related brain potential responses and task performance were assessed. Results indicated that higher-fit children performed more accurately across conditions of the flanker task and following commission errors when compared to lower-fit children, whereas no group differences were observed for reaction time. Neuroelectric data indicated that P3 amplitude was larger for higher- compared to lower-fit children across conditions of the flanker task, and higher-fit children exhibited reduced error-related negativity amplitude and increased error positivity amplitude compared to lower-fit children. The data suggest that fitness is associated with better cognitive performance on an executive control task through increased cognitive control, resulting in greater allocation of attentional resources during stimulus encoding and a subsequent reduction in conflict during response selection. The findings differ from those observed in adult populations by indicating a general rather than a selective relationship between aerobic fitness and cognition. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Examining age differences in performance of a complex information search and retrieval task.

This study examined age differences in performance of a complex information search and retrieval task by using a simulated real-world task typical of those performed by customer service representatives. The study also investigated the influence of task experience and the relationships between cognitive abilities and task performance. One hundred seventeen participants from 3 age groups, younger (20–39 years), middle-aged (40–59 years), and older (60–75 years), performed the task for 3 days. Significant age differences were found for all measures of task performance with the exception of navigational efficiency and number of problems correctly navigated per attempt. There were also effects of task experience. The findings also indicated significant direct and indirect relations between component cognitive abilities and task performance. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Accuracy of self-assessment and task performance: Does it pay to know the truth?

An integration of conceptions about attributional antecedents with those of attributional consequences is applied to achievement behavior. The model assumes realistic attributions to be functional. It was tested with a paradigm in which task performance is conceptualized as the sum of the performances on various subtasks requiring different abilities. In Study 1, participants who were induced to make realistic attributions spent more time on tasks for which they had demonstrated high ability than on tasks for which they had demonstrated low ability. This preference for tasks out of areas for which one possesses high ability was correlated with overall performance. Study 2 replicated these results and revealed better posttest performance for individuals with realistic feedback than for individuals with unrealistic feedback. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Emotional arousal and task performance.

42 male Ss were exposed to either a hostility inducing or a neutral confederate and then tested on both stereotyped and nonstereotyped forms of a simple lever pressing task. As predicted, emotional arousal (hostility) had no effect on performance of the relatively stereotyped task but led to a considerable though transitory drop in performance after changeover to a nonstereotyped task requiring concentration. This result corroborates in a laboratory setting previous reports of research done in the field. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

The effect of goal setting on group performance: A meta-analysis.

Updating and extending the work of O'Leary-Kelly, Martocchio, and Frink (1994), with this meta-analysis on goal setting and group performance we show that specific difficult goals yield considerably higher group performance compared with nonspecific goals (d = 0.80 ± 0.35, k = 23 effect sizes). Moderately difficult and easy goals were also associated with performance benefits relative to nonspecific goals, but these effects were smaller. The overall effect size for all group goals was d = 0.56 ± 0.19 (k = 49). Unexpectedly, task interdependence, task complexity, and participation did not moderate the effect of group goals. Our inventory of multilevel goals in interdependent groups indicated that the effect of individual goals in groups on group performance was contingent upon the focus of the goal: “Egocentric” individual goals, aimed at maximizing individual performance, yielded a particularly negative group-performance effect (d = –1.75 ± 0.60, k = 6), whereas “groupcentric” goals, aimed at maximizing the individual contribution to the group's performance, showed a positive effect (d = 1.20 ± 1.03, k = 4). These findings demonstrate that group goals have a robust effect on group performance. Individual goals can also promote group performance but should be used with caution in interdependent groups. Future research might explore the role of multilevel goals for group performance in more detail. The striking lack of recent field studies in organizational settings that emerged from our brief review of trends in group goal-setting research should be taken into account when designing future studies in this domain. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2011 APA, all rights reserved)     

Predicting group task effectiveness from member characteristics.

Studies relating premeasures of member characteristics to small-group task performance are reviewed. The individual traits used to predict performance are grouped into 6 categories: ability, adjustment, extraversion, dominance, authoritarianism, and "other characteristics." 2 member characteristics have been used as predictors in a sufficient number of studies to permit a tentative conclusion, namely, that member ability (both specific and general) and member adjustment are significantly related to group effectiveness. It is less clear however, whether extraversion, dominance, and authoritarianism would be useful for predicting group task performance. Both the requirements of the situation and social structural constraints must be taken into account when predicting group effectiveness from member traits. Specifically the type of group task and the organization of the group are seen to have a decided influence on the relationship. (26 ref.) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Motivated information processing, social tuning, and group creativity.

The extent to which groups are creative has wide implications for their overall performance, including the quality of their problem solutions, judgments, and decisions. To further understanding of group creativity, we integrate the motivated information processing in groups model (De Dreu, Nijstad, & Van Knippenberg, 2008) with work on epistemic social tuning (Lunn, Sinclair, Whitchurch, & Glenn, 2007). Three propositions were advanced: (a) Groups produce more ideas when members have high rather than low epistemic motivation, especially when members also have a prosocial rather than pro-self motivation; (b) these ideas are more original, appropriate, or feasible when a group norm favors originality, appropriateness, or feasibility; and (c) originality is valued more in individualistic cultures (e.g., the Netherlands), whereas appropriateness is valued more in collectivist cultures (e.g., Korea). Four studies involving 3-person groups generating ideas supported these propositions: Epistemic motivation (mild vs. intense time pressure; presence vs. absence of process accountability) stimulated production and originality, especially when prosocial rather than pro-self motives were present and participants were Dutch or originality norms were experimentally primed. When appropriateness norms were primed or participants were Korean, epistemic motivation stimulated production and appropriateness, especially when prosocial rather than pro-self motives were present. We discuss implications for research on group processes and for work on culture and creativity. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)