Percolating ideas: The effects of caffeine on creative thinking and problem solving

Abstract

Caffeine is the most widely consumed psychotropic drug in the world, with numerous studies documenting the effects of caffeine on people's alertness, vigilance, mood, concentration, and attentional focus. The effects of caffeine on creative thinking, however, remain unknown. In a randomized placebo-controlled between-subject double-blind design the present study investigated the effect of moderate caffeine consumption on creative problem solving (i.e., convergent thinking) and creative idea generation (i.e., divergent thinking). We found that participants who consumed 200 mg of caffeine (approximately one 12 oz cup of coffee, n = 44), compared to those in the placebo condition (n = 44), showed significantly enhanced problemsolving abilities. Caffeine had no significant effects on creative generation or on working memory. The effects remained after controlling for participants' caffeine expectancies, whether they believed they consumed caffeine or a placebo, or for changes in mood. Possible mechanisms and future directions are discussed.

Leveraging STARA competencies and green creativity to boost green organisational innovative evidence: A praxis for sustainable development

“…Green intellectual competence that is relevant for exploring novel pathways for generating green creative ideas to solve problems associated with green initiatives (Mack & Landau, 2015;Zabelina & Silvia, 2020) Green expertise The combination of green factual knowledge, technical aptitudes, and talents of a team (Chang & Chang, 2017;Tabesh et al, 2019) Green task motivation A strong interest inspired by strong challenge or satisfaction, curiosity or intention to accomplish fixed goals for green oriented tasks (Amabile, 1997;Birdi et al, 2016).…”

The Neurophysiology of Caffeine as a Central Nervous System Stimulant and the Resultant Effects on Cognitive Function

“…The Caffeine Research VAS displayed significant main effects in “alert” (p = 0.0005), “tired” (p = 0.0356), and “jittery” (p = 0.0044). Individuals who consumed Red Bull showed significant increases over baseline in “alert” and “jittery” and a significant decrease under baseline for “tired.” This pattern suggested that the consumption of energy drinks, such as Red Bull, may increase energetic arousal and may be correlated with decreased sadness shown in the study performed by Zabelina et al [ 19 ].…”

“…A more recent study by Zabelina et al evaluated the effects of caffeine on working memory and mood [ 19 ]. A total of 88 participants (60 females, 28 males; mean age = 21.6 years) were recruited into a randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled study.…”

“…These results suggested that low-to-moderate caffeine consumption on a chronic basis was not associated with improvements in long-term or short-term phonological memory. Zabelina et al evaluated the effects of caffeine on convergent and divergent thinking and working memory [ 19 ]. A total of 88 participants (60 females, 28 males) were asked to participate in the Keep Track task to assess working memory [ 28 ].…”

Can Eating Make Us More Creative? A Multisensory Perspective

“…Beyond depressants, caffeinated beverages have been suggested to improve creativity based on the link between caffeine and cognition [76]. Zabelina and Silvia [66] investigated the effect of moderate caffeine consumption on different measures of creativity (convergent and divergent thinking). The authors found that participants who took a 200 mg caffeine capsule had higher performance in a convergent thinking task (The Compound Remote Associates (CRA)), but no effect in a divergent thinking test was found (The Abbreviated Torrance Test for Adults (ATTA)).…”