Abstract
Previous studies have shown that creativity is enhanced by a broad attentional scope, defined as an ability to utilize peripheral stimuli and process information globally. We propose that the reverse relationship also holds, and that breadth of attention also is a consequence of engaging in a creative activity. In Study 1, participants showed increased breadth of attention in a visual scanning task after performing a divergent thinking task as opposed to an analytic thinking task. In Study 2, participants recognized peripheral stimuli displayed during the task better after performing a divergent thinking task as compared to an analytic task, whereas recognition performance of participants performing a task that involves a mix of divergent and analytic thinking (the Remote Associates Test) fell in between. Additionally, in Study 2 (but not in Study 1), breadth of attention was positively correlated with performance in a divergent thinking task, but not with performance in an analytic thinking task. Our findings suggest that the adjustment of the cognitive system to task demands manifests at a very basic, perceptual level, through changes in the breadth of visual attention. This paper contributes a new, motivational perspective on attentional breadth and discusses it as a result of adjusting cognitive processing to the task requirements, which contributes to effective self-regulation.
Highlights
What is the temperature in the place you are currently in and what background sounds can you hear? Unless the environmental conditions are extreme, you probably did not register these peripheral, seemingly unimportant stimuli
We found a significant multivariate effect: participants who solved the divergent thinking task had broader attention (Mtotal = 962.43, MSD = 17.56) than participants who solved the analytic thinking task (Mtotal = 909.81, MSD = 16.07), F(2, 72) = 3.19, p = 0.047
The present research showed that engaging in creative idea generation, as compared with engaging in analytic thinking, broadens the scope of attention
Summary
What is the temperature in the place you are currently in and what background sounds can you hear? Unless the environmental conditions are extreme, you probably did not register these peripheral, seemingly unimportant stimuli. When generating creative ideas (ideas that are both novel and useful; Amabile, 1983), having a broad attentional scope and noticing peripheral stimuli can be beneficial. More recent studies found strong support for the beneficial effect of broad attention on creative idea generation: Creativity is enhanced by meditation techniques that broaden attention (Colzato et al, 2012, 2017; see Lebuda et al, 2016), as well as by experimental manipulations that increase attentional breadth (Friedman et al, 2003; Förster et al, 2004; Jia et al, 2009; Liu, 2016; Moraru et al, 2016). It has even been found that alcohol intake can facilitate creative problem solving, which is expected to be driven by reduced attentional control and higher sensitivity to peripheral information (Jarosz et al, 2012)
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