The Role of Mind Wandering During Incubation in Divergent and Convergent Creative Thinking
Abstract
:1. Introduction
1.1. Mind Wandering and Divergent Thinking
1.2. Mind Wandering and Convergent Thinking
1.3. The Relationship Between Divergent and Convergent Thinking
1.4. The Current Study
2. Materials and Methods
2.1. Participants
2.2. Materials
2.2.1. Divergent Thinking
2.2.2. Convergent Thinking
2.2.3. Incubation
2.2.4. Thought Probes
2.3. Procedure
2.4. Analysis Plan
3. Results
3.1. Preliminary Analyses
3.2. Divergent Thinking Task
3.3. Convergent Thinking Task
3.4. Comparisons Between the Divergent and Convergent Tasks
3.5. Mind Wandering and Improvement on the UUT Task
3.6. Mind Wandering and Improvement on the CRA Task
4. Discussion
4.1. Factors Contributing to Lack of Effects in Divergent Thinking
4.2. Effects on Convergent Thinking
4.3. Differences Between Divergent and Convergent Thinking
4.4. Limitations
5. Conclusions
Author Contributions
Funding
Institutional Review Board Statement
Informed Consent Statement
Data Availability Statement
Conflicts of Interest
References
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Pre-Incubation | Post-Incubation | Improvement | |||
---|---|---|---|---|---|
Baseline | Repeated | Novel | Repeated | Novel | |
Fluency | 7.71 (2.76) | 10.46 (3.89) | 9.28 (4.07) | 2.75 (2.66) | 1.58 (3.34) |
Originality | 6.55 (2.09) | 8.36 (2.55) | 7.88 (2.99) | 1.81 (1.64) | 1.33 (2.59) |
Difficulty Level | Baseline Scores | Post-Incubation Scores | Improvement | ||
---|---|---|---|---|---|
Repeated Exposure | Novel Exposure | Repeated Exposure | Novel Exposure | ||
Overall | 1.61 (1.22) | 2.13 (1.56) | 2.06 (1.49) | 0.52 (0.85) | 0.45 (1.60) |
Low difficulty | 0.84 (0.72) | 0.93 (0.74) | 0.58 (0.70) | 0.09 (0.33) | −0.26 (1.03) |
Moderate difficulty | 0.62 (0.72) | 0.86 (0.90) | 1.29 (0.92) | 0.24 (0.50) | 0.67 (0.93) |
High difficulty | 0.15 (0.36) | 0.33 (0.56) | 0.25 (0.55) | 0.18 (0.41) | 0.09 (0.63) |
Mind Wandering | Mind Wandering with Awareness | Mind Wandering Without Awareness | |
---|---|---|---|
Divergent section | 0.13 (0.19) | 0.09 (0.14) | 0.04 (0.09) |
Convergent section | 0.16 (0.23) | 0.11 (0.17) | 0.05 (0.11) |
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Du, Q.; Gordon, R.; Tolmie, A. The Role of Mind Wandering During Incubation in Divergent and Convergent Creative Thinking. Brain Sci. 2025, 15, 595. https://doi.org/10.3390/brainsci15060595
Du Q, Gordon R, Tolmie A. The Role of Mind Wandering During Incubation in Divergent and Convergent Creative Thinking. Brain Sciences. 2025; 15(6):595. https://doi.org/10.3390/brainsci15060595
Chicago/Turabian StyleDu, Qiuyu, Rebecca Gordon, and Andrew Tolmie. 2025. "The Role of Mind Wandering During Incubation in Divergent and Convergent Creative Thinking" Brain Sciences 15, no. 6: 595. https://doi.org/10.3390/brainsci15060595
APA StyleDu, Q., Gordon, R., & Tolmie, A. (2025). The Role of Mind Wandering During Incubation in Divergent and Convergent Creative Thinking. Brain Sciences, 15(6), 595. https://doi.org/10.3390/brainsci15060595