Creativity And Creativity

Becka Lee

Creativity: Using Background Noise and Drumming to Tap into Creative Thinking

Creativity is commonly thought of something as something that people either possess, or they don’t. However, creativity can often be altered - past research showed that moderate levels of noise improve creativity; thus, suggesting that the environment can influence creativity (Mehta, Zhu, Cheema, 2013). Additional research suggests that “happy music” is related to divergent thinking – being able to create new perspectives and ideas (Ritter & Ferguson, 2017). Our study aims to study the effect between the environment, noise, and creative thinking. Creativity is defined as the generation of ideas that are both useful and original (Ritter & Ferguson, 2017). Creativity is tested through the measurements of two different types of thinking – divergent and convergent (Ritter & Ferguson, 2017). Divergent thinking is being able to generate new ideas and perspectives; it is measured through the Unusual Uses test in which subjects are given an object and must list all uses, even unusual ones, for an object (Ritter & Ferguson, 2017). The Unusual Uses test in a no noise condition is commonly used to create a baseline for assessing individual creative potential (Toplyn & Maguire, 1991). Convergent thinking is the ability to

We tested creativity through the Unusual Uses test and a variation of the RAT known as the Compound Remote Associates Test (CRAP). Unlike other studies, we administered the creativity tests under three sound conditions: coffeeshop sounds, repetitive drumming, and a no noise condition. We predicted that subjects will perform better on creative tasks where sound is involved; but, that there will be little difference in the results of subjects between the coffeeshop sounds and the repetitive