Overcoming cognitive fixation through unconscious processing to enhance creativity.

ABSTRACT AI is transforming design education, yet its role in packaging redesign remains underexplored. This study investigates three questions: how AI-driven tools influence creative ideation and prototyping; what ethical and sustainability dimensions arise; and to what extent Kolb’s experiential learning cycle and Cross’s designerly ways of knowing enhance student outcomes. Grounded in these frameworks, a qualitative study was conducted with 21 undergraduate design students. Through a three-phase process – problem identification, AI-assisted ideation, and physical prototyping – six representative projects were selected via maximum-variation sampling. Data from expert review sessions, ethnographic observations, and reflective journals show that AI accelerates iterative prototyping, improves structural integrity and aesthetics, and promotes sustainability and digital literacy, while surfacing concerns about algorithmic bias and data privacy. These results offer practitioners actionable guidelines for integrating AI into packaging design curricula, bridging theory and practice and preparing students to address real-world design challenges. They inform future curriculum development fostering responsible, innovative designers.

ABSTRACT The Runco Ideational Behavior Scale (RIBS) is a widely used instrument for assessing students’ creative ideation; however, a reliable measure of ideational behavior has yet to be established in the Chinese context. This study aimed to validate a Chinese version of the RIBS with a sample of 1,331 students, comprising 719 fourth-graders and 612 eighth-graders. Exploratory factor analysis showed that the original 23-item scale was not suitable for the Chinese sample, which resulted in a shorter 20-item version. Confirmatory factor analysis revealed a two-factor structure representing two types of creative ideation: constructive, goal-directed ideational behavior and intrusive, disorganized ideational flow. This adapted version demonstrated satisfactory internal consistency reliability and composite reliability. The scale also exhibited reasonable factorial, convergent, and discriminant validity. Furthermore, the measurement invariance across gender and grade level confirmed the applicability of the RIBS for both boys and girls, as well as primary and middle school students. This study provides robust evidence for the utility of the 20-item RIBS in the Chinese context, facilitating the assessment of students’ creative potential through the measurement of their ideational behavior.

The rapid smartization of the tourism industry, driven by generative artificial intelligence (AI), has redefined the competencies required for future technopreneurs, yet the mechanism through which digital preparedness translates into sustainable outcomes remains under-researched in vocational contexts. This study proposes and tests a serial mediation model examining the interplay between digital foundations (literacy and self-efficacy), AI-augmented Ideation, ethical awareness, and sustainable business model innovation (SBMI). Utilizing a quantitative approach, data were collected from 200 vocational tourism students in Indonesia and analyzed via Partial Least Squares Structural Equation Modeling (PLS-SEM). The results reveal that digital literacy and AI self-efficacy significantly drive technopreneurial readiness only when sequentially mediated by creative Ideation and strategic filters. Specifically, the path from AI-augmented Ideation to technopreneurship is optimized through the serial role of Ethical AI Awareness and SBMI, illustrating that technological efficiency must be balanced with normative responsibility and value reconfiguration. These findings have critical implications for vocational higher education, suggesting that curricula must move beyond technical training to foster the ethical and strategic capabilities necessary for a resilient, green hospitality ecosystem.

Experiences of absorption and smooth performance during flow are linked to different aspects of creative thinking.

Aims. This study investigates the effectiveness of Ethno-Project-Based Learning (E-PjBL) integrated with Cirebon Mask Dance (Tari Topeng Cirebon) as an ethnoscience context in enhancing students’ creative thinking skills and science process skills. Methods. Employing a quasi-experimental design with a pretest-posttest control group model, this research involved 72 junior secondary school students (Grade VIII) in Cirebon, West Java, Indonesia, divided into an experimental group (n = 36) receiving E-PjBL instruction and a control group (n = 36) receiving conventional inquiry-based learning. Data were collected using the validated Creative Thinking Skills Test (CTST), which assesses Torrance’s four dimensions (fluency, flexibility, originality, and elaboration), and the Science Process Skills Assessment (SPSA), which encompasses observing, classifying, predicting, hypothesizing, experimenting, and communicating. Statistical analyses using ANCOVA, N-gain scores, and effect size (Cohen’s d) revealed that the experimental group demonstrated significantly higher gains in creative thinking skills (ΔM = 18.73; p < .001; d = 1.42) and science process skills (ΔM = 21.46; p < .001; d = 1.67) compared to the control group. Result. Thematic qualitative analysis of student project artifacts and reflective journals further confirmed that the cultural symbolism embedded in the Cirebon Mask Dance, particularly its philosophical motifs that represent natural phenomena, served as authentic, meaningful stimuli for scientific inquiry and creative ideation. Conclusion. These findings establish E-PjBL as a culturally responsive pedagogical framework that bridges indigenous ecological knowledge with formal science education, offering a replicable model for ethnoscience integration in multicultural science classrooms.

Expectation and perceived performance during the creative ideation process: The interplay between cognitive, metacognitive, and motivational components

The Constrained Collaborative Environment (CCE) model introduces a structured framework for human-AI collaboration, leveraging predefined constraints to enhance creative ideation while preserving human agency. This paper evaluates CCE’s implementation through IdeasLand, a web application built with Golang, NuxtJS, and PostgreSQL, deployed on Google Cloud. A mixed-methods study with five participants in September 2024 assessed usability (SUS score: 72), creativity impacts (ratings: 3.6–3.8), and user experience, revealing strengths in AI-driven idea structuring and refinement, alongside challenges in interface reliability (e.g., “Journey” section errors) and design (e.g., dark palette critiques). The CCE’s Logic, Interface, and Instructions components effectively scaffold ideation, outperforming flexible models like MICI in efficiency, yet technical and usability gaps highlight refinement needs. Advanced features like AI-generated avatars and the Hero’s Journey tool showcase CCE’s potential, while qualitative feedback calls for brighter aesthetics and robust AI delivery. Future directions propose technical optimizations (e.g., real-time AI), interdisciplinary adaptability, and longitudinal validation to solidify CCE’s role in creative industries. This work contributes to HCI by demonstrating how structured AI partnerships can accelerate creativity, offering a scalable testbed for human-AI interaction design.

ABSTRACT As generative artificial intelligence (GAI) becomes embedded in educational practice, a central challenge for teacher education is no longer technical adoption but developing instructional readiness grounded in pedagogical reasoning and ethical judgment. Moving beyond outcome-oriented evaluations of technology competence, this study adopts a process-oriented perspective to examine how AI-integrated instructional activities shape pre-service teachers' learning processes and development of Intelligent-TPACK. Using a sequential explanatory mixed-methods design, pre-service teachers participated in a course integrating GAI into instructional design tasks. Quantitative results revealed uneven developmental patterns, while basic technological knowledge remained stable, substantial gains were observed in pedagogical integration, instructional coherence, and AI ethics literacy, indicating a shift in technological knowledge from a primary target to baseline. Qualitative findings showed that scaffolded human–AI interaction supported creative ideation, reduced cognitive barriers in lesson planning, and fostered reflective judgment. Persistent challenges in content evaluation and anticipated school constraints highlight the need for sustained pedagogical scaffolding. Rather than modeling psychological constructs as causal mechanisms, this study reconceptualizes instructional confidence and innovation readiness as outcomes of experience-based learning. By foregrounding learning trajectories and structural differentiation in knowledge development, this research offers design-oriented insights for AI-enhanced teacher education emphasizing authentic tasks, reflection, and ethical awareness.

In today’s rapidly evolving world, fostering creativity within educational settings is essential to prepare individuals for complex global challenges. This study explores the dynamic interplay between individuals and their environments in nurturing creative potential. The research focuses on the influence of participants’ experiences of challenge, comfort, destabilization, support, connection, engagement, and emotions on developing students’ creative potential throughout a creative dance intervention. Ninety-three university students (62 men and 35 women; Mean age: 20.5) participated in 36 creative dance classes over four months. Creative self-efficacy, tolerance for ambiguity, emotional creativity, and ideational behaviors were assessed before and after the intervention. After every class, a brief questionnaire assessing students’ experience of creative dance was filled out. A two-step approach, firstly estimating a mixed effect location scale model and secondly following a simpler linear regression model, was applied to assess how variations in the students’ experience of the creative dance program impact creativity-related variables. Contrary to the common belief that discomfort and stepping out of one’s comfort zone are necessary for creative growth, the findings suggest a more nuanced relationship. While challenges and destabilizing activities can stimulate creativity by preventing routine responses, the study found that comfort, support, and positive emotional experiences were significantly associated with creative self-efficacy and emotional creativity. Social support and connection emerged as critical factors in nurturing creativity. Environments characterized by psychological safety, where individuals feel secure to take risks without fear of negative consequences, seemed to be associated with creative engagement. The formation of group synergies through shared goals and mutual trust were associated with innovative outcomes and individual creative development. The study also highlighted the importance of consistent engagement and positive emotional experiences in fostering tolerance for ambiguity and ideational behaviors. While consistent support and engagement were linked to a greater ability to tolerate ambiguity, variability in peer connection and emotional responses during collaborative processes seemed to be associated with creative ideation. In conclusion, the research emphasizes the significance of person-environment interactions in creative development interventions. Supportive and comfortable environments that foster positive connections and emotional well-being were more consistently associated with favourable creativity-related outcomes than environments centred primarily on challenge. Integrating creativity and emotional awareness into educational practices, particularly in movement-based activities like dance and physical education, can unlock the full potential of these disciplines and better prepare individuals for the complexities of the modern world.

The dynamic entanglement of bodily and cognitive aspects of skill: Assimilation or processual coalescence?

Evaluating AI-assisted creative ideation: A crossover study in higher education

This study proposes an AI-Integrated Makeup Design Education Model (AI-MDEM) to address the changing demands of the beauty industry in the era of virtual beauty technologies and generative artificial intelligence. The model integrates Text-AI and Image-AI into a design thinking framework to enhance creative ideation, visual experimentation, and digital literacy in makeup design education. The research was conducted through literature analysis, model construction, and expert validation. As a result, a five-stage structure—Exploration, Conceptualization, Simulation, Production, and Communication—was developed, enabling learners to engage in user-centered analysis, concept development, visual testing, practical execution, and presentation. Expert evaluation confirmed the model’s educational feasibility and potential to reinforce industry-relevant competencies. While this conceptual model highlights AI’s role as a co-creative partner that supports innovation and iterative design processes, further empirical studies are required to measure learning effectiveness and address issues related to AI literacy, ethics, and copyright.

Communication modality modulates dynamic switching between neural coupling and decoupling during group creative ideation.

BackgroundThis study investigated the impact of aging on creative problem solving, focusing on the ability to resist fixation and generate original ideas. Previous research has suggested that creativity peaks in middle adulthood, followed by a decline that is linked to reduced executive functions. However, emerging evidence challenges this view, highlighting that older adults may utilize broader associative networks and prior knowledge to maintain their creativity.MethodYoung adults, middle-aged adults, and older adults completed a creative task requiring them to generate solutions to a problem while resisting fixation. The participants also rated the creativity of their ideas, and their executive functioning was assessed.ResultsThe results revealed that older adults generated more original and expansive responses than younger and middle-aged adults did, particularly during initial responses. This advantage appears to be linked to leveraging distant associations rather than superior executive control. Temporal analysis revealed that older adults performed better in generating original ideas early in the task but did not sustain this advantage as the task progressed.ConclusionThese findings suggest that while aging is associated with some types of cognitive decline, it also fosters unique cognitive strengths that can enhance certain aspects of creativity. The findings of the current study underscore the need to reconsider stereotypes about aging and creativity and highlights the interplay of executive and associative processes in creative ideation.

Critical feedback impacts creative ideation and brain oscillations.

Group creative ideation, the capacity of group to produce novel and useful ideas, is essential for navigating challenges and embracing opportunities. Despite its significance, research to decode its neurocognitive underpinnings utilizing interpersonal neuroscience paradigm has just commenced, linking group creative ideation to interpersonal neural coupling. In this perspective, we propose an interpersonal neural coupling in group creative ideation framework, which suggests that group creative ideation is supported by interpersonal neural coupling within three interrelated systems: cognitive, affective, and physical alignments. The cognitive alignment system is considered as the core system that determines the outcome of group creative ideation. Variations in cognitive alignment spanning shared intention, joint attention, shared comprehension, and idea convergence interact with an individual decision making in selecting any of three creative ideation pathways, including flexibility, persistence, and convergence, which collectively determine the final creative performance. The interpersonal neural coupling in group creative ideation framework enhances our understanding of the neurocognitive underpinnings of group creative ideation and outlines promising avenues for future research. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2026 APA, all rights reserved).

In data-driven storytelling contexts such as data journalism and data videos, data visualizations are often presented alongside real-world imagery to support narrative context. However, these visualizations and contextual images typically remain separated, limiting their combined narrative expressiveness and engagement. Achieving this is challenging due to the need for fine-grained alignment and creative ideation. To address this, we present SceneLoom, a Vision-Language Model (VLM)-powered system that facilitates the coordination of data visualization with real-world imagery based on narrative intents. Through a formative study, we investigated the design space of coordination relationships between data visualization and real-world scenes from the perspectives of visual alignment and semantic coherence. Guided by the derived design considerations, SceneLoom leverages VLMs to extract visual and semantic features from scene images and data visualization, and perform design mapping through a reasoning process that incorporates spatial organization, shape similarity, layout consistency, and semantic binding. The system generates a set of contextually expressive, image-driven design alternatives that achieve coherent alignments across visual, semantic, and data dimensions. Users can explore these alternatives, select preferred mappings, and further refine the design through interactive adjustments and animated transitions to support expressive data communication. A user study and an example gallery validate SceneLoom's effectiveness in inspiring creative design and facilitating design externalization.

This research investigated the acceptance of the artificial intelligence (AI) art tool, Midjourney, among 970 Chinese artists and designers using the Extended Unified Theory of Acceptance and Use of Technology (UTAUT2) model and incorporating person-centered work motivation and engagement profiles. Path analysis of the entire sample showed strong explanatory power, accounting for over 60% of the variance in usage intention and behavior. Latent profile analysis of intrinsic and extrinsic motivations and engagement revealed two subgroups: the majority “Interested and Engaged”, and the minority “Disinterested and Disengaged”. As evidenced by multigroup comparison, the former exhibited significantly greater acceptance, recognizing Midjourney’s value in enhancing creative ideation, while the latter relied more on AI’s external utility for minimizing effort and providing pure hedonic satisfaction when establishing their acceptance attitudes and usage behaviors. The study advances AI-technology adoption theory in artistic contexts, introduces a novel methodology for multigroup UTAUT2 modeling with person-centered moderators, and provides practical insights for strategic collaboration between humans and AI to augment creativity.

该评述聚焦首都师范大学罗劲教授团队与北京师范大学秦绍正教授团队发表于《Nature Communications》的创造性高阶学习神经机制研究，系统梳理核心发现：创造性范例学习能特异性促进后续创新，且存在 “模仿 - 创新权衡” 效应；左海马体通过低维压缩提取范例核心特征，与前额叶的强功能连接实现抽象信息迁移，二者构成创造性高阶学习的特异性神经通路，该机制与普通记忆编码存在本质区别。评述点明研究通过多阶段范式、跨模态验证构建严谨证据链，其 “弱学习更利于创造力激发” 的结论既获神经科学支撑，又与传统 “得意忘言” 理念契合，为理解创意生成机制及相关教育实践提供了重要启发。