Do Constraints Facilitate or Inhibit Creative Problem Solving: A Theoretical Explanation of Two Seemingly Contradictory Experimental Studies

Authors

Karen Villaverde, New Mexico State University - Main CampusFollow
Olga Kosheleva, The University of Texas at El PasoFollow
Martine Ceberio, The University of Texas at El PasoFollow

Publication Date

2-2012

Comments

Technical Report: UTEP-CS-12-07

Published in Proceedings of the 2012 Annual Conference of the North American Fuzzy Information Processing Society NAFIPS'2012, Berkeley, California, August 6--8, 2012.

Abstract

Do constraints facilitate or inhibit creative problem solving? Recently, two experimental studies appeared, one showing that removing constraints may enhance creativity, another showing that adding constraints can facilitate creative problem solving. In this paper, we provide a theoretical explanation of these two seemingly contradictory experimental results.