Creative Minds
Experiments on creativity and coming up with ideas, read for what was measured and whether the results have held up.
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Creative Minds
Does Brainstorming Work? In a Review, Groups Had Fewer Ideas
A 2018 review reports that talking brainstorming groups produce fewer ideas than the same number of people working alone. What was read, and what it covers.
Published 2026-11-06
Picture credit
Illustration: Feedback & Forgetting. Generated schematic illustration — not a photograph or historical record. © Feedback & Forgetting, all rights reserved.
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Creative Minds
Incubation Effect: The Classic Stages Came From Self-Reports
Wallas built his four stages of creativity from Helmholtz's and Poincaré's own accounts. What lab tests of the incubation effect found, read as an abstract.
Published 2026-11-06
Picture credit
"Henri Poincaré" by Manuel (photograph); Ch. Wittmann (printer) — https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Henri_Poincar%C3%A9,_PA03199.jpg — Public domain (Print inscribed “Cliché Manuel” (photograph) and “Imp. Ch. Wittmann” (printer); KU Leuven catalogue dates the printer as active 1891–1907, so the print was published by 1907. US: published before 1931, public domain. EU: photographer counted as Henri Manuel, head of the Manuel studio, d. 1947, so public domain since 2018 (70 years). Not verified: the studio was run by Henri Manuel with his brother Gaston, and the individual photographer is not named; no sign that the Mort pour la France extension applies (Henri Manuel died in 1947, after the war), not checked case by case. Year 1907 is the latest possible date, not a known date. Scan: KU Leuven Libraries print collection, PA03199, uploaded to Commons); modifications: cropped, resized
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Creative Minds
Functional Fixedness: The Candle Problem Turns on the Box
Functional fixedness in the candle problem: the answer uses the tack box as a shelf. Classic studies were readable here only as citations; a 2021 test, in full.
Published 2026-11-06
Picture credit
Illustration: Feedback & Forgetting. Generated schematic illustration — not a photograph or historical record. © Feedback & Forgetting, all rights reserved.