Matti Perttula

The idea exposure paradigm in design idea generation

This paper presents a design experiment that was conducted to study the effects of idea exposure in design idea generation. Earlier studies have shown that idea exposure can stimulate and interfere with cognitive processes relating to succeeding idea generation, which in turn results in either process gains or losses concerning design outcome. However, fairly little is known about the network and interplay between supplementary effects of idea exposure. Perhaps the most relevant form of cognitive interference in creative design problem-solving is design fixation. Designers may become influenced by presented solutions, so that they reproduce features or principles instead of finding new ways to fulfil functional requirements. In the experiment, subjects were exposed to different amounts and types of examples prior to idea generation. Idea generation performance was measured by the amount of new concepts produced by each subject. The results showed that positive design outcome was correlated with the commonality of examples presented, whereas the amount of examples did not show a respective effect. Fixating effects were measured by analysing genealogical links between examples and generated solutions using a weighted link density metric, also presented in this paper. Presenting common instead of unusual examples led to a higher genealogical linkage between examples and generated ideas; this indicates that common examples cause more fixation than novel ones.

Inspiring design idea generation: insights from a memory-search perspective

Recently, several investigators have begun to conceptualise idea generation (IG), the process by which new designs are deliberately produced, as a predominantly memory-based activity. In this paper, we consider how psychological, memory-based IG models can help us to understand design IG. We introduce one such model with modifications for experimentation in conceptual product design. In this model, the IG process is divided into two phases: memory sampling succeeded by idea production. We utilise this model to explicate stimulation and fixation effects in design IG. We evaluated empirically two predictions derived from the model that are relevant to design IG – the effect of contextual cueing on memory sampling, and the effect of verbal stimulation on idea production. These questions were investigated in an experiment involving 50 engineering students working individually. The analysis of generated ideas showed that the manipulations affected the ideas, and the contextual cues especially, were an influential part of the design assignments. We also showed that the absence of context information can activate a contextual defaulting strategy. We reflect on the implications of these findings for design practice and education in the conclusions of this paper.

Structural tendencies and exposure effects in design idea generation

All new creations must be based on one’s previously acquired knowledge. In this view, the way in which prior knowledge is organized, accessed, and exploited is fundamental for understanding constructive thought involved in generative tasks. Fixation is often cited as a significant obstacle to solving design problems productively. However, an understanding on the ways that fixation affects idea generation is still relatively limited. This paper presents two design experiments that were designed to evaluate the occurrence and effects of fixation in design idea generation. The first experiment showed that idea generation has a characteristic temporal nature. Designers began by generating ideas from the most common categories, and as these categories were explored they moved on to generate ideas from more novel categories. The second experiment was focused on the use of pictorial examples to stimulate design. The results showed that the timing of idea exposure affected performance in a comparative sense, whereas exposure effects were mostly independent of the commonality of the stimulus ideas. This research highlights a number of factors that influence idea generation performance in design, including sampling probability, time-cycle, and exposure effects.Copyright

Does idea exchange promote productivity in design idea generation

Past research has demonstrated that there are several factors that oppose group efficiency in idea generation. However, recent developments in theory suggest that individuals may become socially and cognitively facilitated as a result of idea exchange with group members. A design experiment was performed to study whether idea-exchanging individuals outperform those who work independently, in conditions found beneficial based on theoretical implications. We developed a scheme in which designers exchanged ideas with others momentarily during the idea generation process, and compared their performance to designers that worked without any interaction. The study demonstrated that although idea-exchanging individuals generated more ideas, their performance was not enhanced in terms of the diversity of idea production. The results are interpreted in terms of a dual influence model of idea exchange.

CONTEXTUAL CUEING AND VERBAL STIMULI IN DESIGN IDEA GENERATION

This paper presents an initial empirical test of a cognitive model of memory search in idea generation. In the experiment, we The study shows that these manipulations change the categorical frequencies of generated ideas. The results are generally inline with central assumptions of the model.