The effects of variety and number of visual stimulus on creativity in brainstorming

Creativity, which is related to producing something new or product, has become a very important concept today. Many techniques have been developed with the aim of making maximum use of creativity. One of the techniques for increasing creativity that is related to producing as much original ideas as possible is the brainstorming technique. Although many different methods and techniques have been used to increase idea generation in the brainstorming, a limited number of studies have been conducted for explaining and interpreting the effects of visual stimuli and the underlying factors behind their effects. For this purpose, the effects of the type of visual stimuli that were either original or ordinary and the effect of the number of these stimuli on creativity have been examined during the brainstorming. In the first study, the participants were exposed to 3 original and 5 visual stimuli. Whether the original stimuli were originally perceived, interesting, creative, and etc. was measured by a means of scale and it was found that the participants rated these stimuli as original. They then were allowed to generate ideas about how a house's interior decorations could be made more interesting. The participants who were exposed to a large number of stimuli generated more original ideas those with a low number of stimuli. In addition, the participants who were exposed to original and numerous stimuli generated more flexible ideas than their counterparts. In the second study, unlike the first, the participants were exposed to original or ordinary but with 1 and 3 stimuli. In this study the participants were brainstormed about different topic, improving children parks. Participants who were exposed to original stimuli generated more original ideas than those exposed to ordinary stimuli. In addition, high stimulus condition led to the generation of more unique ideas than low stimulus conditions. At the same time, the participants with original and many stimulus conditions generated more flexible ideas than their counterparts. In addition, flexibility played a mediator role between amount of stimuli and creativity. These findings indicate that the presence of various stimuli in the amount of stimuli triggers flexibility. In conclusion, both studies have shown that the high amount of stimuli and their originality lead to more original and flexible idea generation. These findings are explained in the context of theories of Cognitive Stimulation and Search for Ideas in Associative memory.