A study of cognitive factor sequences and relations to creativity quality levels

Abstract Cognitive factors such as association, memory, and combination have been verified to be related to the creative design process. However, limited research has considered the effects of cognitive factors and their interaction on creative processes in practical creative design processes. This study aimed to detect the interactive effects of cognitive factors on creative processes in a practical creative design process. In particular, how the sequence of cognitive factors affects creativity quality levels of the creative solutions was investigated. Seventy-one participants were recruited to undertake a design task using the think-aloud method. The results of this study are as follows. (i) The sequences of cognitive factors can contribute to different creativity quality levels of solutions. The sequence of semantic memory, common association, remote association, episodic memory, remote combination, idea expression, and idea evaluation is more likely to lead to a higher creativity quality level of solutions. (ii) The repetition of the same cognitive factor in a creative design process, especially semantic memory, does not necessarily contribute to a high-creativity-quality-level solution. (iii) Creativity quality levels of solutions are related to how many cognitive factors categories are involved in the creative design process. The more cognitive factors included, the higher the creativity quality of the solutions will be.