CREATIVITY UNDER PRESSURE: USING DISTANT SEMANTIC FIELDS FOR FAST ACTIVATION OF DIVERGENT THINKING IN ENGINEERING STUDENTS
DS 92: Proceedings of the DESIGN 2018 15th International Design Conference
Year: 2018
Editor: Marjanović D., Štorga M., Škec S., Bojčetić N., Pavković N.
Author: Beghelli, Alejandra; Prieto, Pablo
Series: DESIGN
Section: DESIGN EDUCATION
Page(s): 2391-2402
DOI number: https://doi.org/10.21278/idc.2018.0261
Abstract
Creativity is one of the most valued professional skills. However, creativity-training opportunities are scarce in engineering programs. In this paper we present an interventional study for fast activation of divergent thinking in non-trained people. Based on the associative creativity theory, we force the participants to connect semantically distant concepts to generate divergent ideas in a short time. The effect was evaluated using a pre-post test (n=27). We found a significant increase in the number of creative ideas generated after a 2.5-hour intervention.
Keywords: divergent thinking, design creativity, associative creativity theory, human behaviour, design methods