The Facilitative Effects of Ambiguous Figures on Creative Solution

Abstract

Empirical studies of creativity emphasize the importance of ambiguity advantage in idea generation and creative problem‐solving. This study examined whether ambiguous figures could directly induce a mind‐set that would transfer to the creative problem‐solving. In Experiment 1, we examined whether presentation of ambiguous figures would influence participants' performance in alternative uses tasks, and the results showed that prior exposure to ambiguous figures significantly enhanced participants' performance in the dimension of fluency, flexibility, and originality than those exposed to non‐ambiguous figures; in general uses tasks, there were no significant difference in the reaction time and originality between the ambiguous figure condition and non‐ambiguous figure condition. In Experiment 2, the facilitative effect of ambiguous figures on creative thinking was further examined with creative story generation tasks that demand more mental effort and increased cognitive load. Results showed that creativity of stories generated in ambiguous figure condition was scored significantly higher than those in non‐ambiguous figure condition. The current research extends our understanding of the facilitative effect of ambiguous figures on creative problem‐solving.

‘‘Close, and ye shall find’’: eye closure during thinking enhances creativity

“…Although the previous studies have found several ways to raise creative thinking (Baas et al, 2011;Davis, 2009;Hao et al, 2017;Isen et al, 1987;Oppezzo and Schwartz, 2014;Wu et al, 2016;Yamada and Nagai, 2015), the present study revealed that one of the simplest ways, eye closure, improves creativity. This finding of the present study is possibly applied in the field of education or business in the future.…”

“…In the present study, participants closed or opened their eyes while they thought about new names for rice and tea and this action influenced the quality of the ideas. Considering the present findings in relation to the four-stage process (Wallas, 1926), the eye-closure effect possibly involves the preparation stage. Thus, we speculate that allocating ample cognitive recourses to a thought process during the preparation stage is important for the generation of creative ideas.…”

“…Wallas (1926) proposed a four-stage process of creative thinking: preparation, incubation, illumination, and verification. The preparation stage involves analyzing, defining, and setting up a problem.…”

“…A negative mood, particularly anger, also improves creativity (Baas et al, 2011). Additionally, certain body postures and physical action improve creative thinking (Hao et al, 2017;Oppezzo and Schwartz, 2014) and observing ambiguous figures that can be interpreted in two ways, such as Rubin's vase, enhances performance in creative tasks (Wu et al, 2016). Thus, as mentioned above, various ways to facilitate creative thinking exist.…”

Spectres of Ambiguity in Divergent Thinking and Perceptual Switching

“…The effect of ambiguous visual stimuli on divergent thinking was also investigated by Wu, Gu, and Zhang (2016) and Laukkonen and Tangen (2017). In both studies, ambiguous and non-ambiguous images were presented before a creativity task (i.e., an alternative uses task or insight problem, respectively).…”