Making Group Brainstorming More Effective: Recommendations From an Associative Memory Perspective

Much literature on group brainstorming has found it to be less effective than individual brainstorming. However, a cognitive perspective suggests that group brainstorming could be an effective technique for generating creative ideas. Computer simulations of an associative memory model of idea generation in groups suggest that groups have the potential to generate ideas that individuals brainstorming alone are less likely to generate. Exchanging ideas by means of writing or computers, alternating solitary and group brainstorming, and using heterogeneous groups appear to be useful approaches for enhancing group brainstorming.     

Toward More Creative and Innovative Group Idea Generation: A Cognitive-Social-Motivational Perspective of Brainstorming

In many meetings and work sessions, group members exchange ideas in order to come up with novel, creative solutions for problems and to generate ideas for future innovations. This type of group idea generation or brainstorming process has been studied in detail, and we have discovered much about the cognitive and social processes that underlie group idea generation. It appears that the brainstorming performance of groups is often hindered by various social and cognitive influences, but under the appropriate conditions, group idea exchange can be quite effective. In this article, we summarize the present state of knowledge, point out some significant gaps in our knowledge, and suggest a cognitive-social-motivational perspective to integrate the major findings and to guide future research in the area of group creativity and group idea generation.     

Group Judgments in the Fields of Lifted Weights and Visual Discrimination

Six groups of fourth graders (N = 122) from three private schools seated in formal classroom settings were given an unusual-uses problem, and for a 10-minute period they either brainstormed as a total group or brainstormed individually. In the second phase of the experiment, all groups brainstormed individually for five minutes. In two schools (four groups), those who had engaged in group brainstorming in the first phase made significantly more responses and demonstrated a higher level of creativity than those who had brainstormed individually in both phases. Differences for the third school were not significant. Results for these two schools with their traditional classrooms are consistent with the results of experiments with adults showing that brainstorming in small, informal groups tends to facilitate creativity in subsequent problem-solving sessions. Additional research is needed to determine the extent to which such factors as general arousal, normative effect, imitation, or reinforcement contribute to the enhancement of creative responses in group brainstorming situations.     

The liberating role of conflict in group creativity: A study in two countries

Researchers of group creativity have noted problems such as social loafing, production blocking, and especially, evaluation apprehension. Thus, brainstorming techniques have specifically admonished people ‘not to criticize’ their own and others' ideas, a tenet that has gone unexamined. In contrast, there is research showing that dissent, debate and competing views have positive value, stimulating divergent and creative thought. Perhaps more importantly, we suggest that the permission to criticize and debate may encourage an atmosphere conducive to idea generation. In this experimental study, traditional brainstorming instructions, including the advice of not criticizing, were compared with instructions encouraging people to debate—even criticize. A third condition served as a control. This study was conducted both in the United States and in France. Results show the value of both types of instruction, but, in general, debate instructions were superior to traditional brainstorming instructions. Further, these findings hold across both cultures. Results are discussed in terms of the potential positive value of encouraging debate and controversy for idea generation. Copyright © 2004 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Performance and Perceptions of Brainstormers in an Organizational Setting

Employees of a corporation who had undergone considerable training for effective teamwork were asked to brainstorm about a job-relevant issue in groups of four or alone. One half of the groups brainstormed alone first, and the other half brainstormed as a group before brainstorming alone. Participants were also asked to rate their performance and indicate whether they would perform better in groups or alone on a brainstorming task. Consistent with past laboratory research, groups generated only about half as many ideas as a similar number of individuals (nominal group), and group brainstorming led to more favorable perceptions of individual performance. Participants also believed that they would brainstorm more effectively in a group than alone. These results indicate that productivity losses in brainstorming groups are not restricted to laboratory groups. Such losses occur even in groups who work together on a daily basis, have considerable training in group dynamics, and are dealing with a job-relevant issue. The sequence of alone to group brainstorming did not influence overall productivity. The relation of this research to that of facilitated and electronic brainstorming is discussed.     

Group Composition,Creative Synergy,and Group Performance

Organizations use groups to improve performance on tasks that require problem solving. Is this belief in the problem solving benefits of groups misplaced given the process-losses often experienced by brainstorming groups? This study of 94 intact autonomous work groups performing multi-part tasks revealed that group creative performance increased multiplicatively (exponentially) with the number of highly creative group members composing the group. However, this occurred only when Team Creativity-Relevant Processes (TCRP) within the group were relatively high. When TCRP were relatively low, group creative performance decreased multiplicatively with the number of highly creative group members within it. When TCRP were about average for the sample, group performance increased only linearly with the number of highly creative members within a group.     

Perceptions of Brainstorming in Groups: The Quality Over Quantity Hypothesis

Our research focused on the implicit beliefs of potential brainstormers about the possible outcomes of brainstorming. We conducted four studies to assess the relative importance of quality and quantity as goals of brainstorming. In Study 1, we found evidence for a quality over quantity hypothesis: participants indicated that it was more important to produce creative, original, and high quality ideas than to generate a large number of ideas. In Studies 2 and 3, participants displayed support for the quality over quantity hypothesis by showing in group favoritism for a quality dimension but not a quantity dimension. Study 4 showed that participants believed brain-storming would enhance the quality of others' ideas more than one's own ideas, but they did not display a similar bias about idea quantity.     

Good Versus Creative Solutions: A Comparison of Brainstorming,Hierarchical, and Perspective-Changing Heuristics

It is not clear what heuristics are best for generating solutions to ill-structured problems. This research examined 3 heuristics (brainstorming, the hierarchical technique, and changing perspectives) to determine which produced the most solutions, the best solutions, and the most creative solutions. Ninety-two participants generated as many solutions as they could to 1 ill-structured problem concerning a drug-dealing roommate. Participants were then randomly assigned to 1 kind of training. After training, participants returned to generate solutions to the roommate problem. Results indicate that the hierarchical method produced the most solutions and the highest proportion of participants who judged their best solution as occurring after training. Those trained in brainstorming were most likely to judge their most creative solution as occurring after training. The changing perspectives technique was found to be relatively less helpful in terms of best and most creative solutions.     

Group Creativity and Technology

Despite the popularity of brainstorming, research has shown that verbal brainstorming is not always effective in increasing group creativity. On the other hand, its electronic counterpart, electronic brainstorming, appears to produce much better results. Is technology the panacea for group idea generation? This paper first reviews the theory of group creativity and then examines the characteristics of electronic brainstorming that makes it more effective than verbal brainstorming. From the success of electronic brainstorming, it then argues that the use of technology might be the key to overcome the space and time constraints that are commonly faced by creativity groups.     

Reintroduction of Odor Combined with Cognitive Stimulation Supports Creative Ideation via Memory Retrieval Mechanisms

Brainstorming is a widely used method for generating creative ideas. There is an interest in various techniques contributing to it; nevertheless, research examining the influence of an aromatic odor as a facilitator has been scarce. Two experiments were conducted for this purpose. In Experiment I, a mandarin odor was presented with either stimulating (relevant) or non-stimulating (irrelevant) words prior to the brainstorming session, then re-presented during it. The findings showed that re-presenting the odor during brainstorming increased flexible and unique ideas through retrieval of stimulating words from memory. Flexibility also played a mediator role between mandarin odor and unique ideas. In Experiment II, odor presentation times were changed. It was presented prior to brainstorming, during it or both. The first odor presentation enhanced idea generation only when there was a second odor presentation. The findings suggested that it was the combination of the odors, presented before (and alongside a list of stimulating words) and during brainstorming, that contributed to the use of stimulating words during brainstorming. These two experiments revealed the role of mandarin odor on flexible thinking and idea generation via memory retrieval. Moreover, the odor increased recalling performance, even when the stimuli were given implicitly and recently learned.     

Brainstorming and task performance in groups constrained by evidence

Group brainstorming is usually considered a task of divergent thinking, and the ideas produced in most research on brainstorming are counted and scored for creativity but put to no further use. We studied brainstorming by embedding it in a rule induction task that initially requires divergent thinking but increasingly requires convergent thinking as evidence accumulates across trials. We also tested whether brainstorming facilitated performance on the induction task itself. The experimental design was a 2 (nominal or interacting groups) × 3 (brainstorming early in the task, late in the task, or none) factorial. For brainstorming performance, nominal groups of 4 individuals outperformed face-to-face groups of 4 individuals. But as predicted from an analysis of the effects of constraining hypotheses by evidence, the advantage for nominal groups declined when brainstorming took place late in the task where there was a large amount of accumulated evidence to consider. Brainstorming did not generally affect performance on the induction task, although early group brainstorming resulted in more correct hypotheses than late group brainstorming. Group brainstorming was perceived as more effective than individual brainstorming by both interacting and nominal group members, a finding that extends the illusion of group productivity in brainstorming to tasks of convergent thinking.     

Cognitive stimulation in brainstorming

Research on group brainstorming has demonstrated that it is less effective for generating large numbers of ideas than individual brainstorming, yet various scholars have presumed that group idea sharing should enhance cognitive stimulation and idea production. Three experiments examined the potential of cognitive stimulation in brainstorming. Experiments 1 and 2 used a paradigm in which individuals were exposed to ideas on audiotape as they were brainstorming, and Experiment 3 used the electronic brainstorming paradigm. Evidence was obtained for enhanced idea generation both during and after idea exposure. The attentional set of the participant and the content of the exposure manipulation (number of ideas, presence of irrelevant information) influenced this effect. These results are consistent with a cognitive perspective on group brainstorming.     

面对面和计算机群体决策在观点产生上的比较

以144名被试组成32个群体,通过实验室模拟实验,对群体规模、群体类型和交流方式等3个变量在观点产生的数量和质量等指标上进行了比较。结果表明：（1）在所有实验条件下,CM（以计算机为中介的）决策群体都比FTF（面对面的）决策群体产生了更多数量的有效观点;CM名义群体比FTF名义群体产生了更多数量的有效观点。有效观点和创新观点产生的数量,主要受产生式障碍和评价恐怖的影响。（2）交流方式影响群体创新观点的数量,但对观点产生的深度和广度没有影响。群体规模和群体类型影响观点产生的深度和广度。名义群体比互动群体产生范围更广的观点。一般来说,名义群体比互动群体产生的观点深度高。匿名性和平行沟通是促进群体成员产生大量创新观点的主要原因。（3）相对于传统的FTF头脑风暴法,运用电子头脑风暴法的群体成员对自己或群体所产生的观点用于解决实际问题的信心不足。     

Thinking Outside the Clocks: The Effect of Layered‐Task Time on the Creative Climate of Meetings

The turbulence of the new economy puts demands on organizations to respond rapidly, flexibly and creatively to changing environments. Meetings are one of the organizational sites in which organizational actors “do” creativity; interaction in groups can be an important site for generating creative ideas and brainstorming. Additionally, Blount (2004) demonstrated the importance of organizational temporalities for group performance. We draw on both of these literatures and examine how temporal structures influence the climate for creativity, or the extent to which creativity is fostered, within groups. Specifically, we develop a hypothesis linking organization‐ and job‐level temporal structures to the extent to which managers structure meetings with a climate supportive of creativity. Our results demonstrate that a nuanced relationship exists between temporal structures and creative climate such that certain temporal structures appear to either enhance or decrease the creative climate of meetings. We end with a discussion of the implications of the findings for management.     

Conceptual Combinations and Subsequent Creativity

Conceptual combination has been advocated as an important component of creativity, but relatively little research has investigated its importance. Two experiments were designed to extend previous research on the relationship between performance on conceptual combination tasks and subsequent performance on creativity tasks. Both experiments involved the generation of category exemplars and manipulated the type of conceptual combination experience and whether the items presented were related or unrelated to one another. In the first experiment, this was followed by a brainstorming task (divergent thinking) and in the second experiment by a creative problem solving task (convergent thinking). Contrary to expectations, the condition that required conceptual combinations did not enhance the generation of the number and originality of exemplars. As predicted, exposure to unrelated items led to more original products than related ones. The conceptual combination task with related items was predictive of performance on the creative problem solving task but not the divergent thinking task. Performance on the divergent task was related to the generation of exemplars for unrelated items. These results suggest that the conceptual combination task taps creative problem solving rather than divergent creativity.     

Beyond Brainstorming: Effects of Different Group Procedures on Selection of Ideas and Satisfaction with the Process

Although previous research indicates that nominal groups generally outperform interactive groups at brainstorming tasks, companies still favor group interaction because of its presumed benefits beyond the brainstorming task. This study assesses the effectiveness of both types of groups in two domains that follow idea generation: selection of ideas and satisfaction with the process. Results indicate no superiority of interactive over nominal groups in these two domains. In addition, this study compares group effectiveness for groups selecting from their own sets of ideas and groups selecting ideas generated by another group.     

Nurturing and Enhancing Creativity of Nursing Students in Taiwan: A Quasi-Experimental Study

Creativity and innovation are considered important measures of core competence in Taiwan for students of all levels, including nursing students. Integrating creativity with interdisciplinary teaching modules could increase creativity for nursing students; however, this has not been empirically determined. The purpose of this study was to determine if incorporating interdisciplinary teaching into a teaching for creativity module (TCM) could enhance creative thinking and creative abilities of nursing students. Students enrolled in a capstone nursing course for the development of healthcare-related products were divided into 2 groups. Both groups participated in the 18-week course; however, one group received creativity training with interdisciplinary teaching during the course, which was taught by nursing faculty who completed a TCM workshop. Students who received the interdisciplinary TCM intervention scored significantly higher than controls on measures of creative thinking. Our findings suggest a TCM program, which incorporates interdisciplinary teaching, and instruction in techniques for creativity, such as brainstorming, attribute listing, assessment matrix, and paired comparison, can stimulate divergent thinking abilities of nursing students.     

Divergent and Convergent Group Creativity in an Asynchronous Online Environment

This study examined the influence of various group diversity dimensions on collaborative creativity related to the healthcare system. Research findings on the association between diversity and brainstorming performance has been mixed. Diversity that increases cognitive stimulation or promotes elaboration has been shown to increase group performance. Participants exchanged ideas, replied, and elaborated using an electronic discussion board in an asynchronous fashion in groups of five over a period of 4 weeks. The groups varied in diversity of ethnicity, gender, age, and political orientation, but participants were not made aware of this diversity. Age and gender diversity were related to lower levels of replying to ideas and lower idea novelty but political diversity was related to increased replies and novelty. If a topic engages people with different perspectives to actively respond to others’ ideas, this can increase the creative potential of idea sharing in groups. Political or value-based diversity has the potential for creative solutions if the other participants’ political or value-based identities are not made salient.