Journal
PSYCHOLOGY OF AESTHETICS CREATIVITY AND THE ARTS
Volume 15, Issue 4, Pages 584-595Publisher
EDUCATIONAL PUBLISHING FOUNDATION-AMERICAN PSYCHOLOGICAL ASSOC
DOI: 10.1037/aca0000373
Keywords
mind wandering; task-unrelated thought; creativity; incubation
Funding
- German research foundation (Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft) [RU1996/1-1]
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The study aimed to test the positive effects of mind wandering during incubation phases on subsequent divergent-thinking performance, and to investigate the impact of online thought probes on incubation thought processes. Results showed that participants reported fewer task-related thoughts in the condition with thought probes, but divergent thinking performance did not significantly differ between the different incubation conditions.
The present study was designed to conceptually replicate and to further test previous findings that have shown a beneficial influence of mind wandering during incubation phases on postincubation divergent-thinking performance. Additionally, online thought probes and the effects their occurrence might have on incubation thought processes were investigated. Participants worked on verbal and figural divergent-thinking tasks. In one condition, their thoughts were probed during an incubation interval, possibly interrupting and/or making aware creative thought processes. Participants in this condition retrospectively reported fewer thoughts concerning the divergent-thinking tasks compared to two other incubation conditions: that is, one without interruption and one interrupted by trivia questions. Divergent thinking did not differ between these three incubation conditions and all three incubation conditions achieved a similar performance as a no-incubation control condition. These results add to the ongoing discussion regarding the relationship between mind wandering and creativity by challenging the idea of mind-wandering states contributing to a creative-incubation process in divergent-thinking tasks.
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