Critical feedback impacts creative ideation and brain oscillations

Abstract

Creative thinking is a vital skill for engineers. Prior work suggests that social dynamics—such as critical feedback from a high-authority figure—can influence the ideation process. Yet little is known about the neurocognitive mechanisms through which feedback shapes creative thinking. In this study, engineering students completed a creative ideation task while EEG was recorded. Midway through the experiment, a professor gave the participant either supportive or unsupportive critical feedback on their performance. Supportive feedback was expected to positively influence creativity compared to unsupportive feedback: participants in the supportive feedback condition were predicted to show greater idea originality and fluency after receiving feedback, as well as a greater EEG power increase in the alpha frequency band (8–12 Hz) that is robustly associated with creativity. We found that after receiving feedback—whether supportive or unsupportive—participants produced fewer but more highly original responses and showed increased alpha power. These results indicate that feedback can cause engineers to generate fewer but more original ideas by driving alpha-band activity in the brain. In further analyses, we found decreased beta-band activity before feedback only in the unsupportive condition, possibly reflecting increased cognitive stress and internally directed attention required to adjust performance in the post-feedback phase.