Creative flexibility and creative persistence: Evaluating the effects of instructed vs autonomous choices to shift vs. dwell on divergent and convergent thinking

• Published in: Consciousness and cognition 2022-10, Vol.105, p.103417-103417, Article 103417
• Main Authors: Wu, Yihan, Koutstaal, Wilma
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Attention; Context adaptivity; Convergent thinking; Creativity; Divergent thinking; Dual pathway to creativity; Humans; Retrospective Studies; Task item switching; Thinking
• ISSN: 1053-8100; 1090-2376
• DOI: 10.1016/j.concog.2022.103417

•Explored how prompts to shift regularly vs to dwell longer shape creative ideation.•Required shifting did not boost idea originality compared to being free to choose.•Cognitive costs and benefits of shifting vs dwelling may differ by task domain.•Studies should control for preexisting group differences in divergent thinking.•Metacognitive reports showed positive experiential effects of being free to choose. To creatively solve complex problems both flexibility and persistence are needed. Recent studies have suggested that creativity is improved by instructing participants to switch more frequently between two task items. However, “switch costs” are a well-documented phenomenon. To assess how creative performance is affected by prompts that promote flexibility (shifting) versus persistence (dwelling), participants were assigned to one of three conditions: asked-to-stay, free-to-choose, or required regular-switch. The results from two different divergent-thinking tasks showed that the required regular shifting condition did not achieve higher originality than did the free-to-choose condition. Participants’ retrospective metacognition reports also showed positive experiential effects of being free to choose, highlighting the importance of autonomy in effort-allocation decisions. Collectively with previous studies on task-scheduling and creativity, dynamic creativity relies not only on transitions that yield new perceptual/conceptual input, but also on phases of dwelling or persistence that allow the emergence of still-forming, novel incipient ideas.