The mediating effects of generative cognition on imagination stimulation

Abstract

This study, based in Taiwan, aims to explore what psychological factors influence imagination stimulation of education major students, and what the relationship is between these factors and imagination. Both principal component analysis and confirmatory factor analysis were employed to determine the most appropriate structure of the developed scales. The results of our study confirmed that imagination consists of nine characteristics: productivity, sensibility, intuition, transformation, novelty, exploration, crystallisation, effectiveness and elaboration. The psychological factors of imagination stimulation are composed of six factors: intrinsic motivation, self-efficacy, stress, inspiration through action, emotion and generative cognition. Our results also indicated that there was a significant relationship between imagination and the above psychological factors. The structural model of the present study shows that intrinsic motivation, self-efficacy and emotion factors have significant and indirect effects on imagination stimulation; and that the generative cognition factor plays a mediating role between psychological factors and imagination.

Keywords:

• generative cognition
• imagination
• imagination stimulation
• mediating effect
• psychological factors

Acknowledgements

The present study is part of the research projects (NSC100-2511-S-155-006-MY2) supported by Taiwan’s National Science Council. The authors would like to extend their gratitude to the insightful suggestions of anonymous IETI reviewers.