Production blocking and idea generation: Does blocking interfere with cognitive processes?

Production blocking (group members must take turns expressing their ideas) is an important cause of productivity loss in brainstorming groups. However, it is not yet clear why production blocking has this detrimental effect. We hypothesized that delays between the generation and articulation of ideas, arising when group members wait for their turns, interfere with the cognitive process of generating ideas. In three experiments, production blocking was simulated for individuals working at computer terminals. Production blocking interfered with idea generation in two ways. First, it disrupted the organization of idea generation when delays were relatively long. Second, it reduced the flexibility of idea generation when delays were unpredictable. Implications for group information processing are discussed.     

The Suicidal Narrative and Its Relationship to the Suicide Crisis Syndrome and Recent Suicidal Behavior

In this study, we introduce the construct of the suicidal narrative, a hypothetical personal narrative linked to imminent suicide, and explore its relationship to near‐term suicidal risk and the suicide crisis syndrome (SCS). Psychiatric outpatients (N = 289) were administered the Columbia Suicide‐Severity Rating Scale (C‐SSRS), Suicide Crisis Inventory (SCI), and Suicide Narrative Inventory (SNI), a novel instrument combining the documented risk factors of Thwarted Belongingness, Perceived Burdensomeness, Humiliation, Social Defeat, Goal Disengagement, and Goal Reengagement. Dimensional measures of past month, lifetime, and past suicidal phenomena, incorporating ideation and behavior, were calculated from the C‐SSRS. Structural equation modeling was used to explore the interaction among variables. Factor analysis of the SNI yielded two orthogonal factors, termed Interpersonal and Goal Orientation. The former factor was comprised of Perceived Burdensomeness, Social Defeat, Humiliation, and Thwarted Belongingness, the latter of Goal Disengagement and Goal Reengagement. The Interpersonal factor correlated with both SCS severity and suicidal phenomena in each time frame and the Goal Orientation factor with no other variable. As hypothesized, the proposed model was significant for the past month only. Our findings support the construct of the suicidal narrative and its function as a near‐term suicidal risk factor.