Ideational Productivity, Focus of Attention, and Context

A series of 4 experiments were conducted to investigate ideational productivity. Experiments 1, 2, and 3 were carried out under controlled conditions and involved a test of ideational productivity based on producing different interpretations of a diagram. In the first experiment, the pattern of ideational produc- tivity of adult volunteer participants was studied over 30 min of thinking time. Experiment 2 investigated whether, as predicted by Mednick (1962), a negative correlation exists between the rate of change of pro- ductivity and the overall productivity of adult partici- pants. Results confirmed a significant correlation, providing further support for the connectionist model of creativity put forward by Martindale (1995). Ex- periment 3 measured the effect of a strategy that en- couraged adult volunteers to defocus their thinking before attempting to find another new interpretation of the diagram. On returning to the problem, the aver- age time taken to produce a new interpretation was significantly reduced. These results are discussed in terms of Martindale's connectionist model and the role of context. Based on these findings, an instruc- tional strategy was devised that might support the ideational productivity of children. In Experiment 4, the effectiveness of such a strategy was investigated within the classroom environment for children aged 8 to 10 years, and was shown to be effective in raising their ideational productivity. A creative idea is generally considered to possess two

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