Process-based measures of creative problem-solving skills .2. Information encoding

This study was concerned with the effects of information encoding on creative thought. More specifically, we tested whether differences in the kind of information people used in solving problems were related to performance on creative problem-solving tasks. The 137 undergraduate students participating in this study were asked to read through a set of cards providing different types of information, and the amount of time they spent reading through and reviewing each type of information was assessed Time spent reading through and reviewing certain types of information was correlated with performance on a series of creative problem-solving tasks. It was found that people who spent more time on factual information, discounted irrelevant information, and attended to inconsistent information tended to produce higher quality and more original problem solutions. Further time spent encoding certain types of information accounted for variance in performance that could not be attributed to abilities, such as reasoning and divergent thinking skills. The implications of these findings for understanding creative thought are discussed.