An Experimental Study of the Creative Process in Writing

The aim of this study was to implement an experimental manipulation of the creative process in a writing task and to test which patterns of specific subprocesses led to higher creativity. The subprocesses were Generation (idea production and association) and Selection (idea evaluation and formalization). Participants were asked to follow different patterns of the subprocesses according to the experimental condition to which they were assigned. Creativity was judged on the Originality and Quality of the final product; these dimensions were measured using several items and raters. Potential confounds, such as verbal abilities and creative writing habits, were also assessed. The results showed that optimal patterns for creativity were an increasing or constant high level of Selection and a decreasing level of Generation. Control variables also had a significant impact: verbal fluency was positively related to the Quality of the text and creative writing habits were positively related to Originality.