Asynchronous Idea Generation

Abstract

The studies examined the role of providing review sessions during a brainstorming task. Participants were asked to generate ideas either as pair or individually. It was expected that participants who were provided time to review their own as well as their partners' ideas would generate more ideas than those who were not provided a separate review session. Additionally, it was expected that when the review session was provided, participants who generated ideas alone would perform better than those who generated ideas as a pair. Results of Study 1 supported these hypotheses. Study 2 was conducted to understand the factors that may have led to strong effects in Study 1. It was expected that participants who reviewed previously unseen ideas would generate more ideas than those who reviewed previously seen ideas. Again, it was expected that those who generated ideas alone would benefit the most when shown previously unseen ideas. None of the hypotheses were supported in Study 2, but the results were in the expected direction. Study 1 and 2 showed that providing a review session helped participants generate more ideas. It did not seem to matter whether these ideas were previously seen or unseen. Further research is needed on ways to best provide the review session.