The effect of stimulus modes and associative distance in individual creativity support systems

A laboratory experiment was conducted in order to explore the role of stimulus modes and associative distance in individual creativity support systems. Pictorial and lexical stimuli were used to elicit ideas in response to a specific task. These stimuli were either mediated or remotely associated with the problem task. The creativity, quality, an total number of ideas were analyzed. Differing stimulus modes did not result in significant findings. However, the use of both mediated and remote stimuli did lead to a greater number of ideas than the use of no stimuli.