Does scope of attention affect creativity? Testing the attentional priming hypothesis

Sisi LIU, Ming PENG

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlespeer-review

7 Citations (Scopus)

Abstract

Creativity is linked to broad scope of attention, a state or trait that allocates attentional resources over a wide range of perceptual stimuli. According to the attentional priming hypothesis, a mechanism underlying the creativity–attention link is that broad perceptual attention scope primes broad conceptual attention scope—the activation of a wide range of memory contents—which therefore facilitates creative ideation. This study aimed to test the hypothesis in three experiments using three manipulations and two creativity tasks. Experiment 1 used the Navon letter task to prime attention to global patterns or local details of composite stimuli and measured creativity via the task to generate alternative uses of daily objects. Experiment 2 modified a cue‐size procedure in which participants repeatedly attended to large or small visual cues before a target stimulus appeared. Experiment 3 devised a manipulation that required participants to view and visualize images associated with broad or narrow attention and adopted the alternative uses task and the task to invent alien creatures. Across the experiments, although the results were in the predicted direction, they were non‐significant. This study found no evidence that broadness of perceptual attention affects creativity. Copyright © 2018 Creative Education Foundation.
Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)423-435
JournalThe Journal of Creative Behavior
Volume54
Issue number2
Early online dateSept 2018
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - Jun 2020

Citation

Liu, S., & Peng, M. (2020). Does scope of attention affect creativity? Testing the attentional priming hypothesis. The Journal of Creative Behavior, 54(2), 423-435. doi: 10.1002/jocb.378

Keywords

  • Creative cognition
  • Breadth of attention
  • Divergent thinking
  • Remote association

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