The effect of incentives upon information gathering in diagnostic problem solving

Rewarding instructions vs brainstorming on creativity test scores of college students

86 junior college students were administered the Unusual Uses subtest of the Torrance Tests of Creative Thinking. Students from three intact classes received instructions for contingent and non-contingent rewards while a fourth group experienced a short “warm-up,” brainstorming activity. The fifth group served as a control. The reward instructions included an offer to remove a comprehensive final exam in an introductory psychology course. The Unusual Uses test yielded scores of fluency and originality for each subject. When pretest scores were statistically co-varied out, no significant differences were found between groups on any of the five creativity scores at posttest whereas differences in attitudes towards the task approached significance. Conclusions concerning the effects of the two strategies on different dimensions of creativity and attitudes were discussed. Implications and suggestions for future research were mentioned.