The effects of the mood and the cognitive variables on creativity in the brainstorming

Brainstorming, one of the creativity techniques, is a popular research area both in theoretical and applied fields. Although a number of studies showed that the positive mood enhanced creativity (e.g., Isen, 1985), there are some findings advocating that the negative mood enhanced creativity in specific conditions (e.g., Gasper, 2003). Despite the fact that the relationship between mood and creativity has been examined in a detailed way, there has still been unanswered question about the nature of this relationship. For this reason, the effects of the music inducted mood and the cognitive stimulation to the creativity were examined in Experiment 1. The university students brainstormed about a hypothetical thumb in the individual settings. An interaction effect showed that positive and negative mood enhanced idea generation in low activation, but neutral mood led to a high number of ideas in the high activation condition. We speculate that the music has not only an arousing effect on mood; it has but also some additional stimulatory features. Experiment 2, which had a very similar procedure, examined whether or not the carryover effects of positive and negative mood via some cues is evident in the idea generation processes. Brainstorming problem was about extra thumb again. The participants who have listened positive or negative music in either low or high stimulation conditions were led to see different colors. Here, some participants received these colors as words that were relevant to their mood, and the rest of them received those that were unrelated to their mood during the brainstorming session. Results showed no significant differences in stimulation frequency, mood and cue presentation. Experiment 3, which had a different modality rather than Experiment 1 and 2 was aimed to investigate whether or not the effects of induction of the positive and negative mood (which was inducted by imagination and recall) in the middle of the session had an effect on idea generation in the both nominal and interactive groups by means of a brain-writing paradigm (i.e., idea sharing by paper slips; Paulus & Yang, 2000) Nominal groups wrote their ideas down one paper; on the other hand, interactive groups, who consisted of 3 people, saw each other's ideas. Session was interrupted in the middle of the session, and after mood manipulation, the session continued. In the positive mood induction, the participants imagined a positive event and then recalled their pleasant memories; whereas, those in the negative mood condition imagined a negative event and then recalled their unpleasant memories in the 4 minutes session. Brainstorming problem was about improving the student life quality in the city. The positive mood condition had less production loss over time than the negative mood condition. Interactive groups experienced less production loss than nominal groups. The results have discussed in the lights of mood and cognitive stimulation theories. Keywords: Mood, Creativity, Brainstorming, Cognitive Stimulation, Music.