Method for Quantification of the Process of Collaborative Creativity: Visualization of the Dynamics by C2RQA

This study proposes an analytical method to visualize and quantify the process of collaborative creativity. While many studies have theoretically emphasized the importance of process in creativity, its complex nature—characterized by emergence and revisitability, representation and embodiment, and conscious and unconscious aspects—has made it difficult to quantify in a standardized way. We introduce an extended version of cross-recurrence quantification analysis, C2RQA, as a suitable method. C2RQA is applicable to various data types, including continuous, categorical, and binary, and can visualize correspondences between two time series, thereby revealing interaction dynamics. We applied C2RQA to two creative activities: an idea generation task and an insight problem. The results suggest that C2RQA effectively captures broad dynamic transitions in ideas and the underlying subconscious processes involved in collaborative creativity.