Semi-Automated Questions as a Cognitive Stimulus in Idea Generation

Creativity is the source for innovation and is responsible for ongoing and sustainable progress within companies. Over the years, different theories and practices have been established to enhance creativity and to produce innovative ideas. A number of creativity support systems have been designed, implemented and tested to foster and optimize creativity processes. However, the full potential of information technology has not yet been fully exhausted. For this research we have implemented an innovative creativity support system, which stimulates a user during the stage of idea generation. The system semi-automatically generates external stimuli in the form of questions that represent the core issues of a task. The experiment we conducted shows, that individuals, who are exposed to the semi-automated questions produce better and more versatile ideas than individuals that are not exposed to the semi-automated questions. Our findings endorse the use of novel algorithms for creativity support systems.