Influence of type of stimuli and presentation on creativity in brainstorming

Even though in the literature there have been some explanation (Cognitive Stimulation (Paulus, 2000)), Dual Coding (Paivio,1986,1991), Search for Ideas in Associative Memory (Nijstad et. al, 2010)) about the influence of stimuli types, these explanations are not enough to explain the effects of visual stimuli on creativity. In the first experiment; the visual, written, both visual and written information about some places (lakes, historical places and residence places) related to Bolu were given to the participants. Then they were allowed to brainstorm on the ways to attract tourists to Bolu city for 12 minutes period. The findings of the first experiment showed that the participants in picture-word condition and those in the picture condition generated more unique ideas than those in the written condition. However, there was no significant difference between the participants in the picture-word condition and those in the picture condition. Also, the type of the topic did not produce a significant effect. The second experiment investigated, holding topic type as constant, whether or not the influence of stimuli type was valid in other conditions. Being different from the first experiment; the second experiment also examined the influence of session effect (first session and second session). In other words, the effect of giving stimulants at the beginning of the session and in the middle of the session was also examined in this study. The participants at the beginning of the session did read the brainstorming instructions after reviewing the stimuli for 10 seconds and generate their ideas within a 12-minute period. The participants in the middle of the session were exposed to stimuli at the end of the 6th minute. The participants reviewed the stimuli for 10 seconds and then were allowed to continue the brainstorming for 6 minutes. The results of the experiment showed that participant in picture-word condition generated more unique ideas than those in the written condition. In addition, the participants seeing stimuli in the middle of the session condition generated more unique ideas than those participants seeing stimuli at the beginning of the session condition. Findings were discussed in lights of the current literature.