The impact of age and training on creativity: a design-theory approach to study fixation effects

Marine Agogué (1, 2) , Nicolas Poirel (2) , Olivier Houde (2) , Arlette Pineau (2) , Mathieu Cassotti (2)

1 CGS i3 - Centre de Gestion Scientifique i3
2 LaPsyDÉ - UMR 8240 - Laboratoire de psychologie du développement et de l'éducation de l'enfant

Despite the existence of many studies about the different aspects of fixation in creativity and design reasoning, the underlying mechanisms of fixation, i.e., the processes that interfere during creative reasoning and lead one to become fixated on a small number of unvaried solutions, remain unclear. In this paper, we propose a theoretical framework to model fixation based on C-K design theory, which states that fixation is characterised as a set of restrictive heuristics activated in creative reasoning. We applied our framework in a set of experiments. We demonstrated how this framework makes sense of the varieties of fixation in design processes. We conclude by proposing three capabilities to understand fixation and overcome it: restrictive heuristics development, inhibitory control and expansion.

Domaines: Sciences de l'Homme et Société; Gestion et management

Marine Agogué, Nicolas Poirel, Olivier Houde, Arlette Pineau, Mathieu Cassotti. The impact of age and training on creativity: a design-theory approach to study fixation effects. Thinking Skills and Creativity, 2014, 11 (1), pp.33-41. ⟨hal-00825289⟩