Honors Theses
Date of Award
Spring 5-2-2021
Document Type
Undergraduate Thesis
Department
Chemistry and Biochemistry
First Advisor
Stephanie Miller
Second Advisor
Susan Pedigo
Relational Format
Dissertation/Thesis
Abstract
Research has suggested that original thought can be affected by movement. However, this research has primarily focused on children, with embodied creativity work lacking in adult populations. This study aimed to examine the impact of movement on the generation of original ideas within divergent thinking tasks in adults. To study this, participants first completed a baseline divergent thinking task asking participants to come up with as many novel uses for a common item. After baseline, participants were randomized into three different testing groups that were encouraged to engage in different types of movement during the divergent thinking task: 1) meaningful movement, 2) meaningless movement, or 3) restricted movement. Originality for participants’ responses at baseline and during the movement condition was scored. Overall, all participants marginally improved when movement conditions were added. However, the results suggested that meaningful movement did not significantly improve originality, and meaningless movement had the lowest original responses across baseline and the movement condition, suggesting that not all movement is beneficial to originality.
Recommended Citation
Fontenot, Molly B., "How Does Movement Impact Originality in a Divergent Thinking Task?" (2021). Honors Theses. 1647.
https://egrove.olemiss.edu/hon_thesis/1647
Accessibility Status
Searchable text
Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.