The (dis) pleasures of creativity: Spontaneous eye blink rate during divergent and convergent thinking depends on individual differences in positive and negative affect

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    Abstract

    Previous research has demonstrated that individual differences in affect and motivation predict divergent and convergent thinking performance, two thinking processes involved in creative idea generation. Individual differences in affect and motivation also predict spontaneous eye blink rate (sEBR) during divergent and convergent thinking; and sEBR predicts divergent and convergent thinking performance. The present study investigates experimentally whether the relationship between sEBR and divergent and convergent thinking depends on individual differences in affect and motivation. Eighty-two participants completed the Emotion/motivation-related Divergent and Convergent thinking styles Scale (EDICOS; Soroa et al., 2015), performed the alternative uses task (AUT; divergent thinking) or the remote associates task (RAT; convergent thinking), while their sEBR was captured with an eye-tracker. The results showed that individual differences in positive affect positively correlated with sEBR for the AUT, whereas individual differences in negative affect positively correlated with sEBR for the RAT. Furthermore, the interaction between individual differences in positive and negative affect predict divergent and convergent thinking performance. The contribution of our study is therefore that individual differences in positive and negative affect can both positively correlate with sEBR during divergent and convergent thinking; and that this predicts divergent and convergent thinking performance.
    Original languageEnglish
    Pages (from-to)436-452
    Number of pages17
    JournalThe Journal of Creative Behavior
    Volume54
    Issue number2
    Early online date2018
    DOIs
    Publication statusPublished - 2020

    Keywords

    • Affect
    • Divergent thinking
    • Convergent thinking
    • Individual differences
    • Creativity
    • Motivation
    • Eye blink rate
    • HEDONIC TONE
    • DUAL PATHWAY
    • DOPAMINE
    • MOOD
    • TASK
    • ACTIVATION
    • STRIATUM
    • INSIGHT
    • REWARD

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