Does Visual Fixation Affect Idea Fixation?

Divergent thinking, an aspect of creativity, is often studied by measuring performance on the Alternative Uses Test (AUT). There is, however, a gap in creativity research concerning how visual stimuli on the AUT are perceived. Memory and attention researchers have used eye-tracking studies to reveal insights into how people think and how they perceive visual stimuli. Thus, the current work uses eye tracking to study how eye movements are related to creativity. Participants orally listed alternative uses for twelve objects, each visually presented for 2 min in four different views. Using eye tracking, we specifically explored where and for how long participants fixate their eyes at visual presentations of objects during the AUT. Eye movements before and while naming alternative uses were analyzed. Results revealed that naming new instances and categories of alternative uses correlated more strongly with visual fixation toward multiple views than toward single views of objects. Alternative uses in new, previously unnamed categories were also more likely named following increased visual fixation toward blank space. These and other findings reveal the cognitive-thinking styles and eye-movement behaviors associated with naming new ideas. Such findings may be applied to enhance divergent thinking during design.