Sio, U.N., Lortie-Forgues, H. and Marsh, J.E. (2024) Effects of task characteristics and task-switching on remote associates test problem solving. Journal of Cognitive Psychology, 36 (5). pp. 595-616. ISSN 2044-5911
Abstract
Creative problem solving is often viewed as a search process. However, little is known about the factors that impact this process. To address this question, we conducted two studies to examine whether task characteristics and task-switching influence performance on Remote Associates Test (RAT) problems – problems commonly used to measure creativity and study the creative search process. Consistent with prior research, we found that RAT problem-solving performance was positively associated with the relatedness between the answer and the problem. The association was strongest when the amount of competition within the initial search space was low. Moreover, this interaction was observed irrespective of the methods used to measure the task characteristics. By contrast, we did not replicate the positive effect of task-switching on RAT problem-solving accuracy found in previous studies. However, our findings suggest that task-switching may improve problem-solving speed and facilitate a broader search. Implications for future research are discussed.
Metadata
Item Type: | Article |
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Authors/Creators: |
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Copyright, Publisher and Additional Information: | © 2024 The Author(s). Published by Informa UK Limited, trading as Taylor & Francis Group This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. |
Keywords: | Remote associates test; creative problem solving; task characteristics; task switching |
Dates: |
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Institution: | The University of Sheffield |
Academic Units: | The University of Sheffield > Faculty of Social Sciences (Sheffield) > Management School (Sheffield) |
Funding Information: | Funder Grant number BRITISH ACADEMY (THE) SRG2021\210385 |
Depositing User: | Symplectic Sheffield |
Date Deposited: | 15 Apr 2024 10:29 |
Last Modified: | 08 Nov 2024 16:41 |
Status: | Published |
Publisher: | Informa UK Limited |
Refereed: | Yes |
Identification Number: | 10.1080/20445911.2024.2333580 |
Related URLs: | |
Open Archives Initiative ID (OAI ID): | oai:eprints.whiterose.ac.uk:211484 |