Publication Date

Summer 2025

Degree Type

Thesis

Degree Name

Master of Arts (MA)

Department

Psychology

Advisor

Valerie Carr; Arlene Asuncion; Greg Feist; Patrick Cravalho

Abstract

Divergent thinking involves producing a multitude of unique and diverse ideas. The ability to “color outside the lines” is crucial to business, education, and social domains. The flexibility, originality, and fluency dimensions of divergent thinking are commonly assessed using the Alternative Uses Task, which involves generating uses for common objects. Prior research suggests that high identification (first-person perspective) with schema-inconsistent experiences increases flexibility, while semantic density (degree of conceptual associations) impacts originality and fluency inversely. However, their combined effects across multiple divergent thinking dimensions remain unexplored. The present research investigated the interactive effects of identification (high, low), schema consistency (consistent, inconsistent), and semantic density (rich, sparse) across measures of flexibility, originality, and fluency in young adults (N = 149, mean age = 19.01). Under low or high identification, participants viewed a schema -consistent or -inconsistent video, then completed Alternative Uses Tasks for rich and sparse cues. Results revealed a significant main effect of semantic density on all measures, with rich outperforming sparse cues, and a significant three-way interaction on originality, such that the low-identification schema-consistent and high-identification schema-inconsistent conditions produced more original responses for sparse cues. These findings suggest that semantically rich prompts can lead to greater divergent thinking overall, and mentally engaging in diversified experiences can support novel ideation, offering potential targeted strategies for innovation in industry, education, and bias reduction.

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