A flexible influence of affective feelings on creative and analytic performance.

Abstract

Considerable research shows that positive affect improves performance on creative tasks and negative affect improves performance on analytic tasks. The present research entertained the idea that affective feelings have flexible, rather than fixed, effects on cognitive performance. Consistent with the idea that positive and negative affect signal the value of accessible processing inclinations, the influence of affective feelings on performance on analytic or creative tasks was found to be flexibly responsive to the relative accessibility of different styles of processing (i.e., heuristic vs. systematic, global vs. local). When a global processing orientation was accessible happy participants generated more creative uses for a brick (Experiment 1), successfully solved more remote associates and insight problems (Experiment 2) and displayed broader categorization (Experiment 3) than those in sad moods. When a local processing orientation was accessible this pattern reversed. When a heuristic processing style was accessible happy participants were more likely to commit the conjunction fallacy (Experiment 3) and showed less pronounced anchoring effects (Experiment 4) than sad participants. When a systematic processing style was accessible this pattern reversed. Implications of these results for relevant affect-cognition models are discussed. (PsycINFO Database Record

Feeling and thinking: An affect‐as‐cognitive‐feedback account

“…In a second study, the same pattern of flexibility was observed for performance on a remote associates task and insight problems (Huntsinger & Ray, ; Experiment 2). Because these tasks have objectively correct answers, differences in the number of correct answers reflect differences in qualitative aspects of creativity.…”

“…No effect of affective feelings on quantitative performance was found (e.g., number of uses generated), which is consistent with past research that manipulated attentional orientation (Friedman, Fishbach, Förster, & Werth, ). Thus, this research provides evidence for a flexible link between affect and cognitive processing styles, independent of the effort put into a task (for a further discussion of this distinction, see Huntsinger & Ray, ).…”

“…Research that manipulated perceptual orientation and emotion (Huntsinger & Ray, ) found evidence for such flexibility, in contrast to the relatively fixed link between affect and objective creativity suggested by Hirt and colleagues' (, ) findings. Following these manipulations, participants were asked to generate creative uses for a brick.…”

“…This pattern reversed, however, when a local orientation was primed. Finally, a third study (Huntsinger & Ray, ) demonstrated that the tendency of happy people to form more inclusive categories than sad people is observed only when a global orientation is primed, and that when a local orientation is primed, happy people form less inclusive categories than sad people. Thus, these studies suggest that one can observe flexibility in the link between affect and creativity by manipulating the accessibility of particular perceptual orientations.…”

“…Percentage of participants committing the conjunction fallacy by primed processing style (heuristic vs. systematic) and induced mood (happy vs. sad). Adapted from Huntsinger and Ray (), Experiment 4…”