Relational reasoning as predictor for engineering ideation success using TRIZ

Abstract

With the particular technological challenges facing our twenty-first-century society, it is crucial that design engineers continue to foster the innovative potential of students, as well as identify the underlying cognitive abilities which support the innovative process. In this investigation, we examine the predictive link from an individual's analogical and relational reasoning ability to their success using the TRIZ (from the Russian acronym for ‘Teoriya Resheniya Izobretatelskikh Zadatch’ meaning theory of inventive problem-solving) ideation method. TRIZ instruction was shown to significantly increase the novelty of participant's generated solutions to an engineering design problem. Moreover, the degree of the increase in the novelty of a participant's generated ideas was linked to their relational reasoning ability. Specifically, those participants with greater ability to reason relationally experienced a greater increase in ideation success when using the TRIZ method. These empirical findings support existing theoretical accounts of the TRIZ method as an implicitly analogically driven design method. Implications for engineering practice and education, such as the potential to identify individuals most likely to have success in design innovation using tests of relational reasoning, as well as the potential for systematically supporting relational reasoning ability in all students, are discussed.