Fluctuating epistemic uncertainty in a design team as a metacognitive driver for creative cognitive processes

Abstract

Previous design research has demonstrated how epistemic uncertainty engenders localized, creative reasoning, including analogizing and mental simulation. We analyzed not just the short-term, localized effects of epistemic uncertainty on creative processing and information selection, but also its long-term impact on downstream creative processes. Our hypothesis was that heightened levels of uncertainty associated with a particular cognitive referent would engender: (1) immediate creative elaboration of that referent aimed at resolving uncertainty and determining information selection; and (2) subsequent attentive returns to that cognitive referent at later points in time, aimed at resolving lingering uncertainty and determining information selection. Findings: Firstcontrary to expectationswe observed that increased epistemic certainty (rather than increased epistemic uncertainty) in relation to cognitive referents triggered immediate, creative reasoning and information elaboration. Second, epistemic uncertainty was, as predicted, found to engender subsequent attentive returns to cognitive referents. Third, although epistemic uncertainty did not predict the selection of information, both immediate creative elaboration and subsequent attentive returns did predict information selection, with subsequent attentive returns being the stronger predictor. Our findings hold promise for identifying more global impacts of epistemic uncertainty on creative design cognition possibly mediated through the establishment of lasting associations with cognitive referents.

Co-Design with Myself: A Brain-Computer Interface Design Tool that Predicts Live Emotion to Enhance Metacognitive Monitoring of Designers

“…Indeed, being able to identify the strength and weaknesses of one's own ideas and be aware of the rationales behind their decision-making will improve better idea evaluation and selection [74]. Feelings of confidence about design decisions, named epistemic uncertainty by Ball and Christensen, is also closely related to design evaluation [11]. According to this outlook, fluctuations in epistemic uncertainty may be an important trigger that prompts designers to alter or reinforce their mental approach to a design challenge.…”

“…Too little uncertainty during the early stages of design may contribute to design fixation. Some epistemic uncertainty can lead to deliberate counterarguments, initiate creative reconsideration, and potentially push a design forward [11,70]. In theory, metacognitive monitoring plays a crucial role in modulating and keeping epistemic uncertainty within effective parameters, thereby avoiding the extremes of design fixation or creative paralysis [7,13,62].…”

Developing a Measure to Capture Middle School Students’ Interpretive Understanding of Engineering Design

“…Finally, again expanding on the ideas present in Atman, Kilgore, and McKenna [15] and using ideas considered in an earlier assessment of this type [28], we delimited the assessment task of "demonstrating ADE" as assessing those thinking behaviors that would contribute most to the process of modulating both novel and appropriate [24]-or innovative and efficient-uses of engineering design. To inform this aspect of our assessment model, we looked to the literature on innovation and creativity development in engineering education [30,31] and incorporated the idea of assessing creative elaboration of student responses [32,33].…”

Unleashing Entrepreneurial Education: Developing Entrepreneurial Mindsets, Competencies, and Long-Term Behavior

“…The strategies allow designers to learn from experimentation, to create hypotheses and to manage the epistemic uncertainty associated with ambiguous situations (Ball et al, 2010). Through metacognitive awareness of ongoing progress and challenges, expert designers selectively and adaptively engage in cognitive operations (Ball & Christensen, 2019;Christensen & Ball, 2018) and switch away from unproductive cognitive patterns through reflection with peers and more experienced designers (Schön, 1983).…”