Design Fixation Research Articles

The Obscure Features Hypothesis in design innovation

A new cognitive theory of innovation, the Obscure Features Hypothesis (OFH), is applied to the area of engineering design innovation. The OFH states that all innovative solutions are built upon at least one overlooked (i.e., obscure) feature of the problem at hand. In this paper, we first highlight the types of features that exist and the cognitive obstacles that hinder people's ability to notice the obscure members of various feature types. We then detail five innovation techniques we have developed to help designers search the obscure realms of the space of features. Each of these techniques counteracts a specific cognitive obstacle to innovation: design fixation, functional fixedness, narrow verb associations, assumption blindness, and analogy blindness. We compare our approach with other approaches to innovation in psychology (the representation change view and the distant association view) and engineering (theory of inventive problem solving and C–K theory). Finally, we show how the innovation techniques can be implemented in software to assist users in the design process.

A new strategy to reduce design fixation: Presenting partial photographs to designers

The occurrence of design fixation hinders designers from creating original designs. In this study, the authors investigate the effect of presenting partial photographs of product examples as a new strategy for reducing design fixation by testing its effect on designers' performance. Presenting partial photographs is intended to break the ‘path of least resistance,’ consequently promoting designers' creative thinking. The results show that designers who worked with partial photographs created more original designs than designers who worked with full photographs. It is also found that designers who were presented with partial photographs paid more attention to the details of the product and evaluated their designs more positively.

A study on the role of physical models in the mitigation of design fixation

Designers implement a variety of models and representations during the design process, yet little is known about the cognitive impacts of various representations. This study focuses on how physical models can assist novices in mitigating design fixation on undesirable features. During idea generation, designers tend to fixate on examples they encounter or on their own initial ideas. The first hypothesis states that designers tend to duplicate features of provided examples. The second hypothesis states that this fixation can be mitigated with appropriate warnings. The last hypothesis is that building and testing physical models can help designers in mitigating fixation. To investigate these theories, a quasi-experiment is conducted as part of a freshman class project. Students design, build and test stunt cars in three different experimental conditions, each receiving a different pictorial example: an effective example, a flawed example and a flawed example with warnings about the flaws. The results show that in all the conditions, designers duplicate undesirable features from their examples, even when they received warnings about the flawed features. Copying these flawed features creates more complicated and less effective designs. However, through the physical testing of their designs, participants identify and fix the design flaws. These results indicate that existing designs and experiences have the potential to limit innovation and that designers need to be trained with effective methods for mitigating design fixation. Building prototypes can help designers in identifying the flawed features and in reducing design fixation; hence, the use of physical models in engineering design needs to be encouraged.

The Usual and the Unusual: Solving Remote Associates Test Tasks Using Simple Statistical Natural Language Processing Based on Language Use

AbstractIn this study we show how complex creative relations can arise from fairly frequent semantic relations observed in everyday language. By doing this, we reflect on some key cognitive aspects of linguistic and general creativity. In our experimentation, we automated the process of solving a battery of Remote Associates Test tasks. By applying Statistical Natural Language Processing techniques to a large web‐based corpus, we perform a frequency and collocation analysis of the test items. Results show that 37% of the 68 tasks were automatically solved, whereas human accuracy reached 43%. Our method outperformed humans in the tasks rated as difficult: 38% and 32%, respectively. Highly relevant is that the novel and adequate relations established in order to solve the RAT were not previously present in the corpus. The frequency based approach pervades all stages of our method: during the divergent stage, highly frequent collocations are listed, while the convergent stage starts by matching each task's triads output, shrinking that list, and finalizing it by choosing the least frequent, therefore more informative and often correct, result. Finally, we discuss the implications of our model in overcoming functional fixedness and understanding cognitive salience in the creative process.

Facilitating representation change in insight problems through training.

Our aim in this article is to elaborate the role of training in representational change theory (RCT), particularly in terms of Ohlsson's (2011) spread of activation explanation (named redistribution theory), and to develop novel training manipulations that effect the re-encoding mechanism proposed by RCT (Ohlsson, 1992). Two experiments are reported that aim to help solve verbal insight problems and to enable some constraint to be relaxed. In Experiment 1, participants were trained to use heuristics to solve unseen problems from the same category that shared the same representational obstacle, namely, ambiguous word and ambiguous name problems. Concurrent verbal protocols were collected and analyzed in terms of the hypotheses proposed by participants. Training improved solution rate of unseen problems from the trained categories and, as expected, positive transfer was specific to the trained category of problem. Analysis of the incorrect hypotheses proposed during problem solving provided supplementary evidence of the effectiveness of training at inducing representation change. In Experiment 2, a similar approach to training was developed to help solve functional fixedness problems. Solution rate increased with training, although transfer was specific to the trained category of problem. Theoretical and methodological issues are discussed.

Role of Sunk Cost in Engineering Idea Generation: An Experimental Investigation

Researchers and design practitioners advocate building physical models of ideas at early stages of the design process. Still, the cognitive effects of physical models remain largely unknown. Some studies show that physical models possess the potential to facilitate the generation of high quality ideas. Conversely, other studies demonstrate that physical models can lead to design fixation. A prior controlled study by the authors failed to detect fixation due to early stage physical models. Based upon these conflicting results, this study hypothesizes that the fixation observed in prior studies can be explained by the Sunk Cost Effect. The Sunk Cost Effect pertains to an individual's reluctance to choose a different path of action once he/she invests a significant cost (money, time, or effort). According to this theory, as designers spend more time, money or effort in building physical models, they tend to generate ideas with lower novelty and variety. The prior observational studies use complicated design problems with higher costs compared to the controlled study, possibly explaining the difference in results. This study also hypothesizes that physical models supplement designers' erroneous mental models. The authors investigate these hypotheses through a controlled, between-subject experiment with five conditions: Sketching Only, Metal Building (low time cost), Plastic Building (high time cost), Metal Constrained Sketching, and Plastic Constrained Sketching. In each condition, subjects construct their ideas using materials specified by the name of the condition. The constrained sketching conditions assist in determining if participants tend to limit their ideas to only ones that can be built with given materials even though they are instructed to write down all ideas. The results confirm that the sunk cost of building plays a vital role in the observed fixation; thus, physical models do not inherently cause fixation. Moreover, results also show that physical models supplement designers' erroneous mental models, leading to higher quality ideas. To minimize sunk costs very early in the design process, models should be built with materials requiring minimal time, cost, and effort for the designers.

Endoprothetik der akuten Radiuskopffraktur

Radial head arthroplasty is the treatment of choice for non-reconstructble radial head fractures. Solid prostheses made of metal or pyocarbon can restore valgus stability of the elbow independent of design or stem fixation. Short-term and mid-term results show mostly good to excellent results without any evident differences between the different prosthesis philosophies. In order to obtain good results it is important to implant the prosthesis correctly without overfilling and to judge concomitant ligament injuries correctly. This article discusses the anatomical and biomechanical basis of radial head arthroplasty as well as the surgical technique and radiological diagnosis of overfilling.

Rapid Manufacturing of Shaped Die and Draw Punch Tools for Presses

Traditionally forming tools for a press are machined with a CNC-machine. This is quite time consuming - calculating tool tracks, selecting cutting tools, cutting blanks, design fixation and finally machining - especially for a small batch of parts. One alternative method is to cut a die and a draw punch tools from a blank sheet and bunching the plates. Clamping plates together is fast and easy to implement by using for example studs and bars with a certain tolerance to ensure alignment. A laser, a water jet or a plasma cutter can be used for cutting plates. Especially the laser and the water jet cutting are precise methods giving a fine surface quality without a need for fine-tuning. The method saves material compared with machining because a die and a punch could be cut at the same time from a blank sheet as compatible pair as well as the needed amount of plates could be estimated depending of the length of a pressed product. University of Oulu, Oulu Southern institute, Future Manufacturing Technology -group has manufactured several forming tools within this technique and found it extremely suitable for experimenting different solutions and options fast. Furthermore, the method is likely to help especially SMEs in their R&D-phase by lowering production costs in a cost-efficiency way.

Design Fixation and Its Mitigation: A Study on the Role of Expertise

Engineering idea generation plays a vital role in the development of novel products. Prior studies have shown that designers fixate to the features of example solutions and replicate these features in their ideas. This type of fixation acts as a major hindrance in idea generation, as it restricts the solution space where designers search for their ideas. Building upon the study by Linsey et al. [2010, “A Study of Design Fixation, Its Mitigation and Perception in Engineering Design Faculty,” ASME Trans. J. Mech. Des., 132, 041003], this study hypothesizes that designers fixate to example features and this fixation can be mitigated using certain defixation materials including alternate representations of the design problem. To investigate this, the experiment conducted by Linsey et al. [2010] with engineering design faculty is replicated with novice designers. Participants generate ideas for a design problem in three groups: one group working with a fixating example, a second group working with the same example along with alternate representations of the design problem and a control group. The obtained results show that both the novice designers and design faculty fixate to the same extent, whereas the defixation materials have differential effect on the two groups. This result indicates that design researchers need to be very careful in developing methods and guidelines that are formulated and tested with studies on novice designers. The effectiveness of such measures may vary with the level of expertise of the designer.

Examining design fixation in engineering idea generation: the role of example modality

Design fixation is a major concern in engineering idea generation because it restricts the solution space in which designers search for their ideas. For designers to be more creative, it is essential to mitigate their fixation. The majority of studies in the literature investigate the role of pictorial stimuli in design fixation; however, the role of examples presented in other formats, including physical prototypes, is largely unknown. This paper presents a study that compares design fixation, in novice designers, caused by pictorial and physical representations. The effects of defixating materials proposed by Linsey et al. (2010) are also investigated. The results show that physical formats cause a higher magnitude of fixation than pictorial formats; however, participants utilizing physical examples produce a greater quantity of nonredundant ideas. Consistent with prior studies, the results also indicate that the defixation materials may not facilitate mitigation of novice designers' fixation.

The Effects of Individual Differences in Working Memory Capacity and Design Environment on Design Fixation

The current study investigates how design fixation, a negative limitation in a designer’s creative output due to an overreliance on features of preexisting designs, is affected by a designer’s environment and his or her working memory capacity. Participants in this study were 29 undergraduate students (21 women, 8 men) enrolled at a large metropolitan university. Participants completed a computerized assessment of working memory capacity, viewed an example poster design intended to create design fixation, and then designed their own poster in either a quiet or noisy environment. The results of the study revealed a significant interaction between design environment, working memory capacity, and design fixation effects and a significant main effect of working memory capacity on fixation. The results are discussed as they relate to the design of products and systems with optimal human factors characteristics, and how designers might self-select optimal design environments on the basis of their working memory capacity.

Physical Models and Design Thinking: A Study of Functionality, Novelty and Variety of Ideas

Engineering idea generation is a crucial part of new product development, and physical modeling is a widely used tool. Despite the physical models’ popularity in the idea generation process, little is known about their effects on design cognition. The existing literature provides contradicting guidelines about their use in the design process. Product design firms call for the frequent use of physical models, but some studies suggest that physical models induce design fixation. The psychological literature indicates that physical representations, by supporting designers’ mental models of physical phenomena, might lead to more feasible designs. The advantages and disadvantages of physical models as idea generation tools need to be clarified to help designers decide when and where to implement them. Based on prior studies and anecdotal evidence, two hypotheses are tested: (1) physical models supplement designer’s mental models and (2) physical models induce design fixation. Two between-subject idea generation experiments with novice designers are conducted to evaluate these hypotheses. In the first pilot experiment, the participants generate ideas in three conditions: sketching only, building, and building and testing. This study is followed by a second experiment, in which a new condition called constrained sketching is added. In each condition, participants use the representation implied by the name of the condition. The percentage of ideas satisfying all design requirements indicates the physical models’ effect on the designers’ mental models. Novelty and variety are used as metrics for design fixation. The percentage of functional ideas quantified shows significant variation across the sketching and building conditions, whereas novelty and variety show no differences. These results support the argument that physical models supplement novice designer’s mental models. No evidence of fixation is observed, which contradicts the results of the prior observational studies. Hypothesized reasons for the apparently contradictory results are also presented.

The dual nature of tools and their makeover

Vaesen argues that functional knowledge differentiates humans from non-human primates. However, the rationale he provides for this position is open to question--with respect to both the underlying theoretical assumptions and inferences drawn from certain empirical studies. Indeed, there is some recent empirical work that suggests that functional fixedness is not necessarily uniquely human. I also question the central role of stable function representations in Vaesen's account of tool production and use.

Long-Range, Pattern-Dependent Contextual Effects in Early Human Visual Cortex

The standard view of neurons in early visual cortex is that they behave like localized feature detectors. Here we demonstrate that processing in early visual areas goes beyond feature detection by showing that neural responses are greater when a feature deviates from its context compared to when it does not deviate from its context. Using psychophysics, fMRI, and electroencephalography methodologies, we measured neural responses to an oriented Gabor ("target") embedded in various visual patterns as defined by the relative orientation of flanking stimuli. We first show using psychophysical contrast adaptation and fMRI that a target that differs from its context results in more neural activity compared to a target that is contained within an alternating sequence, suggesting that neurons in early visual cortex are sensitive to large-scale orientation patterns. Next, we use event-related potentials to show that orientation deviations affect the earliest sensory components of the target response. Finally, we use forced-choice classification of "noise" stimuli to show that we are more likely to "see" orientations that deviate from the context. Our results suggest that early visual cortex is sensitive to global patterns in images in a way that is markedly different from the predictions of standard models of cortical visual processing.

Innovation Relies on the Obscure

A recent analysis of real-world problems that led to historic inventions and insight problems that are used in psychology experiments suggests that during innovative problem solving, individuals discover at least one infrequently noticed or new (i.e., obscure) feature of the problem that can be used to reach a solution. This observation suggests that research uncovering aspects of the human semantic, perceptual, and motor systems that inhibit the noticing of obscure features would enable researchers to identify effective techniques to overcome those obstacles. As a critical step in this research program, this study showed that the generic-parts technique can help people unearth the types of obscure features that can be used to overcome functional fixedness, which is a classic inhibitor to problem solving. Subjects trained on this technique solved on average 67% more problems than a control group did. By devising techniques that facilitate the noticing of obscure features in order to overcome impediments to problem solving (e.g., design fixation), researchers can systematically create a tool kit of innovation-enhancing techniques.

Cementless Fixation in High Performance Knee Design

Cementless Fixation in High Performance Knee Design

On the Benefits and Pitfalls of Analogies for Innovative Design: Ideation Performance Based on Analogical Distance, Commonness, and Modality of Examples

Drawing inspiration from examples by analogy can be a powerful tool for innovative design during conceptual ideation but also carries the risk of negative design outcomes (e.g., design fixation), depending on key properties of examples. Understanding these properties is critical for effectively harnessing the power of analogy. The current research explores how variations in analogical distance, commonness, and representation modality influence the effects of examples on conceptual ideation. Senior-level engineering students generated solution concepts for an engineering design problem with or without provided examples drawn from the U.S. Patent database. Examples were crossed by analogical distance (near-field vs. far-field), commonness (more vs. less-common), and modality (picture vs. text). A control group that received no examples was included for comparison. Effects were examined on a mixture of ideation process and product variables. Our results show positive effects of far-field and less-common examples on novelty and variability in quality of solution concepts. These effects are not modulated by modality. However, detailed analyses of process variables suggest divergent inspiration pathways for far-field vs. less-common examples. Additionally, the combination of far-field, less-common examples resulted in more novel concepts than in the control group. These findings suggest guidelines for the effective design and implementation of design-by-analogy methods, particularly a focus on far-field, less-common examples during the ideation process.

Comparing the Performances of Apes (Gorilla gorilla, Pan troglodytes, Pongo pygmaeus) and Human Children (Homo sapiens) in the Floating Peanut Task

Recently, Mendes et al. [1] described the use of a liquid tool (water) in captive orangutans. Here, we tested chimpanzees and gorillas for the first time with the same “floating peanut task.” None of the subjects solved the task. In order to better understand the cognitive demands of the task, we further tested other populations of chimpanzees and orangutans with the variation of the peanut initially floating or not. Twenty percent of the chimpanzees but none of the orangutans were successful. Additional controls revealed that successful subjects added water only if it was necessary to obtain the nut. Another experiment was conducted to investigate the reason for the differences in performance between the unsuccessful (Experiment 1) and the successful (Experiment 2) chimpanzee populations. We found suggestive evidence for the view that functional fixedness might have impaired the chimpanzees' strategies in the first experiment. Finally, we tested how human children of different age classes perform in an analogous experimental setting. Within the oldest group (8 years), 58 percent of the children solved the problem, whereas in the youngest group (4 years), only 8 percent were able to find the solution.

Unfixing Design Fixation: From Cause to Computer Simulation

ABSTRACTThis paper argues that design fixation, in part, entails fixation at the level of meta‐representation, the representation of the relation between a representation and its reference. In this paper, we present a mathematical model that mimics the idea of how fixation can occur at the meta‐representation level. In this model, new abstract concepts derived from the meta‐representation are not simple combinations of the design ideas expressed in the primary representation. Instead, the process of meta‐representation corresponds to the abstraction of new features at a higher, hierarchically separated level of representation from an existing one. We show a computational process of pattern extraction from existing design representations that results in the crystallization of design ideas or ‘chunks’ at an abstract level. The relation between the representation and its referent is explicitly described in these ‘chunks’, yet the ‘chunks’ have different properties from the properties of the original representation.

The Influence of Different Pictorial Representations During Idea Generation

ABSTRACTDuring creative problem‐solving, designers frequently come across a variety of rich visual displays. While browsing for different sources of information, pictorial representations of existing concepts take prominence. However, once designers start generating new solution ideas to design problems, they often become too attached to some of the examples they encounter. Inadequate and excessive repetition of key attributes (e.g. object features, principles) from existing solutions has been termed design fixation. The study presented here investigates the influence that different pictorial representations of a particular solution had upon industrial design students during an ideation exercise. The findings demonstrate high levels of repetition of particular key attributes in the outcome generated by the treatment groups, when compared to a control condition. The results also show that such attribute repetition led to the occurrence of design fixation, with a visible detrimental impact for particular aspects of the ideas generated. Reasons for the occurrence of design fixation are discussed in light of its implications to design quality; and ultimately, to the use of different types of pictorial stimuli in design practice.