This study investigated the effect of brainstorming experience on the ability of groups to subsequently select the best ideas for implementation. Participants generated ideas either alone or in interactive groups and with either the regular brainstorming rules or with additional rules designed to further increase the number of ideas generated. All participants subsequently were asked to select their top five ideas in a group evaluation phase.Groups of individuals generating ideas in isolation (nominal groups) generated more ideas and more original ideas and were more likely to select original ideas during the group decision phase than interactive group brainstormers. Additional rules increased idea generation but not idea originality or idea selection.

Experiment 1 examined the effects of additional brainstorming rules for groups and looked at whether the presence of a facilitator who actively enforced the rules of brainstorming was beneficial. Experiments 2 and 3 examined whether the additional rules and brief breaks were beneficial to individual brainwriters and electronic brainstormers working alone. Clear benefits of the additional rules were found under a variety of conditions. The presence of a facilitator to enforce the rules enhanced the efficiency of idea generation (number of words used to express ideas) but not the number of ideas generated. There appears to be a small benefit to taking breaks in brainwriting sessions, but the benefit of breaks is reduced or eliminated in electronic brainstorming sessions.

The creation of novel ideas often takes place in social contexts. Past research on brainstorming and other types of group tasks have shown that groups often perform poorly in comparison to conditions in which tasks are done individually. Past reviews have evaluated various factors that may be responsible for the production losses in group brainstorming (Diehl & Stroebe, 1987;Mullen, Johnson, & Salas, 1991;Stroebe & Diehl, 1994). We re-evaluate these factors in light of subsequent research in our laboratory and demonstrate conditions under which groups can perform quite well in comparison to similar groups of individuals (nominal groups). We present a comprehensive model for predicting production gains and losses. Research on cognitive and social factors that may enhance brainstorming in groups is summarized.

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