Effects of Early Strategic Hints on Sustained Variability Levels

Abstract

Creativity and the behaviors associated with it--fluency, flexibility, and originality--are characterized by high levels of variability. Recent experimental work has shown that habitual variability levels, high or low, are acquired early in learning and are dependent on acquisition procedures. This study compared the effects of different acquisition procedures on variability in playing a computer game. Five groups were given strategic hints; a sixth group received no hint. Three aspects of responding--number, location, and timing--were analyzed. Hints focusing on specific aspects generated the lowest variability levels in those aspects. Relative to these, hints that suggested varying in a specific aspect increased variability in that aspect. No hint at all and a general hint to vary produced the highest levels of variability in all aspects. Mechanisms via which hints affect variability--and by extension, creativity--are discussed.