透過智慧型手機檢驗創造力與環境的關係

Abstract

創造力推動人類的文明與進步，是人類重要的一種認知能力。多數探討創造力的研究將創造力視為特質，而有些研究則將其視為狀態，並探討其他狀態變項（如情緒、環境光/音）對於創造力的影響。然而，過去研究缺乏探討天氣和手機使用活動等生活會接觸到的變項與創造力的關係，且對於創造力狀態的操弄或觀察，若不是在實驗室做單次的狀態操弄，便是收集主觀的創造力狀態自我評估。因此，這些研究結論無法得知一般人在日常生活中的創造力客觀指標，是否會隨著時間變化以及是否會受到反覆出現但無害的環境因子影響。為了探索日常生活中的創造力是否為時間與環境因子的函數，本研究開發一款智慧型手機應用程式，並透過參與者的個人手機收集長達一週、每天三次的三類變項：近幾小時的手機使用活動、當下所處的環境狀態、發散性與聚斂性的創造力客觀評估。透過混合線性模型分析資料的結果發現：早中晚三個時間對於創造力表現的解釋力雖有統計上的顯著性但效果量極小，然而發散性創造力具個體差異。進一步在個體層次上的分析則顯示個體的創造力與部分環境因子及手機活動有不同程度的相關。例如，常處於低氣壓或常使用社群媒體主動發文的參與者有較高的發散性創造力。總結而言，本研究發現創造力在一天內不太會變化，而發散性創造力有可被手機內外環境因子預測的個體差異。這些相關性的發現可以幫助後續因果性研究進一步去探討特定環境因子是否會透過長期影響導致創造力的個體差異。

Creativity, an important cognitive ability for humans, pushes forward human civilization. Most of the research exploring creativity deems creativity a trait. But some of the research deems it a state and discusses the influence of other state variables (i.e., emotion, ambient light, and noise) on creativity. However, past research lacks examining the relationship between creativity and the factors that people would be exposed to in real life, such as weather and smartphone activities. Also, in terms of the manipulation or observation of state creativity, past research either manipulated the state once in the laboratory or collected self-reported creativity. Hence, based on the results of these investigations, we have no clue whether objectively measured creativity would change with time, or whether it would change with the harmless environmental factors that repeatedly appear in real life. To examine whether creativity in real life is a function of time and environmental factors, our research developed a smartphone application. Via participants’ mobiles, we collected three kinds of variables three times a day for a week, including smartphone activities, the environmental condition, objectively measured divergent thinking and convergent thinking. By mixed linear model, we found that the period in one day can significantly predict creativity, but the effect size is too small. We also found that there are individual differences in divergent thinking. We further investigated the relationships of divergent thinking with environmental factors and smartphone activities on a between-subject level and found that they are correlated. People who lived in a lower barometric pressure environment or people who spent more time actively expressing ideas on social media have better divergent thinking. In sum, our research found that creativity wouldn’t change within a day. And there are individual differences, which can be predicted by environmental factors inside or outside mobiles, in divergent thinking. These correlational findings can help causal research to explore whether specific environments would result in individual differences in creativity in the long term.