Creativity differences between open-ended and well-defined tasks in a virtual environment

Fan, Yue

Permalink

https://hdl.handle.net/2142/101026 Copy

Description

Title

Creativity differences between open-ended and well-defined tasks in a virtual environment

Author(s)

Fan, Yue

Issue Date

2018-04-19

Director of Research (if dissertation) or Advisor (if thesis)

Lane, H. Chad

Committee Member(s)

• Lindgren, Robb
• Paquette, Luc
• Delialioğlu, Ömer

Department of Study

Educational Psychology

Discipline

Educational Psychology

Degree Granting Institution

University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

Degree Name

M.S.

Degree Level

Thesis

Keyword(s)

Minecraft, Creativity, problem-solving mindset, divergent thinking, Lego

Abstract

With recent growing attention to the potential benefits of educational games, Minecraft has emerged as a tool for students to learn multiple subjects and cognitive skills, including creative thinking. Recent studies on creativity have implications for the proper deployment of Minecraft-based instruction. For example, manipulation of different problem-solving spaces can induce different problem-solving mindsets (well-defined vs. open-ended). This work has shown that mindsets formed in an initial task would carry over and have significant influence in the subsequent problem-solving tasks. The study reported here investigates creativity and its relationship between problem-solving mindsets and problem-solving spaces. It attempts to replicate previous research with Legos, but in Minecraft. Creativity is assessed using common approaches, including the alternative uses test (AUT) and the Consensual Assessment Technique (CAT). The findings of this study suggest a partial replication in Minecraft of the original Lego study. Specifically, the study concludes (1) participants in an open-ended task receive significantly higher creativity scores than the well-defined problem-solving group, and that well-defined tasks diminish creative performance in a free-play task. (2) the presence of explicit instructions have no significant influence on the creativity score of the following free-play tasks. And (3) Among variables like the level of skill/experience, interest, and material used in Minecraft, only interest level proves to be significant to the creativity score in the free-play (open-ended) task.

Graduation Semester

2018-05

Type of Resource

text

Permalink

http://hdl.handle.net/2142/101026

Copyright and License Information

Copyright 2018 Yue Fan

Owning Collections