The impact of attentional interruptions on creative problem solving

Elliott, Samantha

The impact of attentional interruptions on creative problem solving

dc.contributor.advisor	Day, Eric
dc.contributor.author	Elliott, Samantha
dc.contributor.committeeMember	Snyder, Lori
dc.contributor.committeeMember	Jorge, Mendoza
dc.contributor.committeeMember	Ryan, Bisel
dc.date.accessioned	2021-07-21T17:02:13Z
dc.date.available	2021-07-21T17:02:13Z
dc.date.issued	2021-07
dc.date.manuscript	2021-07
dc.description.abstract	Some scholars have found that a broad breadth of attention facilitates creative performance, whereas other researchers have found that it is best to have flexible attention based on the situation at hand and stage of the creative process one is in. These research discrepancies ultimately point to the inconclusiveness of findings within this scholarly literature. Moreover, many of the studies are fraught with methodological limitations, including unrealistic creativity tasks and constrained operationalizations of creative performance. The purpose of the present study was to address these issues by examining how different aspects of attentional interruptions impact creative problem-solving performance. Using a 2 × 2 × 2 between-subjects design with an additional control group, 216 undergraduate participants completed a creative problem-solving marketing task. Participants were asked to assume the role of a new marketing consultant at a failing soda company. Three email interruption manipulations (i.e., interruption timing, interruption amount, and interruption relevance) were embedded into the task and creative performance was measured by the quality, originality, and elegance of final marketing plans. Although none of the hypotheses were supported, exploratory findings point to the benefits of receiving a low number (e.g., two) of interruptions for creative problem-solving performance. The findings are discussed in terms of the need for future research that examines the interplay between attentional interruptions, cognitive load, and creative performance.	en_US
dc.identifier.uri	https://hdl.handle.net/11244/330149
dc.language	en_US	en_US
dc.subject	Creativity	en_US
dc.subject	Innovation	en_US
dc.subject	Attention	en_US
dc.subject	Interruptions	en_US
dc.thesis.degree	Ph.D.	en_US
dc.title	The impact of attentional interruptions on creative problem solving	en_US
ou.group	College of Arts and Sciences::Department of Psychology	en_US
shareok.orcid	https://orcid.org/0000-0001-8724-9324	en_US