How do Creativity Levels and Stimulus Types Matter? A Preliminary Investigation of Designer Visual Association

Abstract

This study aimed to examine the brain activations of designers during visual association and identify the differences in brain activations caused by distinct visual stimulus types among designers with different creativity levels. Twenty-one professional production designers were recruited and divided into three groups. The top third and bottom third of the participants (7 for each) were divided into high creativity (HC) and low creativity (LC) groups for neural comparison analyses. The derived results are outlined as follows: (i) The brain activations of the production designers notably increased in the prefrontal and parietal regions during visual association; (ii) the spectral power of most HC designers was lower than that of the LC designers; (iii) realist art stimulation evoked strong activation in the anterior ventral regions, whereas abstract art stimulation primarily activated the posterior regions; (iv) the differences in brain activations between the HC and LC designers resulting from realist art stimulation were generally larger than were those resulting from abstract art stimulation; and (v) the brain activations of the HC designers resulting from abstract art stimulation were stronger than were those resulting from realist art stimulation, whereas an opposite trend was observed in the LC designers. Few studies to date have empirically explored the relationship between the creativity levels of designers and their visual association. Enhancing the creative performance of designers should feature among the primary goals of the design industry and design education. This study elucidates a novel approach in this critical research area, although further studies are necessary.

Effect of musical stimuli on design thinking: Differences between expert and student designers

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Comparison of the brain activations of experienced and novice designers engaged in initiating imagination

“…The right prefrontal cortex is in charge of empathy and regulating emotional responses [30,31], as well as visual association and insightful problem-finding processes [32], thereby implying that emotional regulation and empathy facilitate creative association and performance in designers. The left temporal cortex controls low-level perception, extending to verbal memory and comprehension.…”

Brain Electrical Activity of Film Directors Engaging in Initiating Imagination: Comparisons between Different Levels of Creativity

“…The visual stimuli used for imagination stimulation in this study were paintings of two internationally prominent artists (Picasso and Miró). The artworks were selected because of robust evidence of the effects of abstract images on design creativity (Cila et al, 2014;Liu, Yang, & Liang, 2017). Four pieces from each artist were selected and randomly assembled into four groups.…”

“…The largest power differences (HC > LC) in the right temporal cortex appeared in the beta and gamma bands. An increase in the beta and gamma power in the right temporal cortex can be understood as an indicator of conscious attention to nonverbal information processing (Wisniewski et al, 2012), which is also associated with creative idea generation (Benedek, Jauk et al, 2014;Liu et al, 2017). Additionally, the largest power differences (HC > LC) in the right frontal cortex also appeared in the beta and gamma bands.…”