Publications
Publications
- 1995
- Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin
The Positive Impact of Creative Activity: Effects of Creative Task Engagement and Motivational Focus on College Student's Learning
By: R. Conti, T. M. Amabile and S. Pollack
Abstract
This study assessed the effectiveness of engaging students in a creative activity on a topic as a means of encouraging an active cognitive set toward learning that topic area. This technique was examined in three motivational contexts. Before reading a short instructional passage, subjects completed either, a creative or a noncreative pretask and heard one of three sets of directions: task focused (emphasizing intrinsic involvement), test focused (emphasizing external evaluation), or task/test focused (previous two combined). After reading the passage, subjects answered questions assessing immediate retention, wrote a creative essay, and responded to a questionnaire assessing intrinsic and extrinsic motivation. Long-term retention was assessed 5 days later with a phone quiz. Creative task engagement was found to be an effective means of enhancing creativity (in the absence of evaluation expectation), intrinsic motivation, and long-term retention.
Keywords
Citation
Conti, R., T. M. Amabile, and S. Pollack. "The Positive Impact of Creative Activity: Effects of Creative Task Engagement and Motivational Focus on College Student's Learning." Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin 21 (1995): 1107–1116.