Innovative ideas desire earlier communication: Exploring reverse serial-order effect and liberating cognitive constraint for organizational problem-solving

IF 1.8 3区 心理学 Q3 PSYCHOLOGY, APPLIED
Paul Hangsan Ahn, Lyn M. Van Swol, Runzhi Mary Lu, Sang Jung Kim, Hyelin Park, Robert G. Moulder
{"title":"Innovative ideas desire earlier communication: Exploring reverse serial-order effect and liberating cognitive constraint for organizational problem-solving","authors":"Paul Hangsan Ahn,&nbsp;Lyn M. Van Swol,&nbsp;Runzhi Mary Lu,&nbsp;Sang Jung Kim,&nbsp;Hyelin Park,&nbsp;Robert G. Moulder","doi":"10.1002/bdm.2312","DOIUrl":null,"url":null,"abstract":"<p>The serial-order effect wherein originality increases over time is one of the most robust findings in modern psychology. This effect, found in <i>either</i> individual <i>or</i> group sessions, is based on associative and spreading activation mechanisms: Mental association takes place in temporal sequential order from commonly (closely) to unusually (distantly) related semantic concepts stored in long-term memory. Thus, data from previous studies might suggest that, in collective problem-solving, we endure long meetings and pay closer attention to ideas presented toward the end of the meeting. However, members in innovative organizations have been reported to typically generate ideas on their own before group brainstorming. We hypothesized that in the subsequent group brainstorming session members would state their most appealing ideas first due to impression management. Our results from the individual-then-group hybrid brainstorming paradigm show that idea quality during the group session peaks early and then decays, in terms of both the number of high-quality ideas produced and the proportion of ideas that are high-quality. This “reverse” serial-order effect implies that meeting for a reasonably brief time and looking into ideas shared early during the meeting may lead to better decisions—if individuals generated ideas prior to the meeting. We also found that flexibility (the rate at which new idea categories were introduced) dropped rapidly, but at a certain point of time, it stopped decreasing. This potentially suggests that extended group interaction after individual idea generation could bring greater idea diversity rather than higher overall quality. In addition, we found that the updated, cognitively constrained organizational norm for brainstorming, which likely narrows the scope of search, led to greater idea quantity (fluency), quality, and flexibility than the traditional, unconstrained norm. Our work challenges the traditional application of spreading activation theory to interpersonal, group, or organizational settings and calls for attention to the specific communicative processes of problem-solving and decision-making in question.</p>","PeriodicalId":48112,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Behavioral Decision Making","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":1.8000,"publicationDate":"2023-02-08","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/epdf/10.1002/bdm.2312","citationCount":"0","resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":null,"PeriodicalName":"Journal of Behavioral Decision Making","FirstCategoryId":"102","ListUrlMain":"https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/bdm.2312","RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"心理学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":null,"EPubDate":"","PubModel":"","JCR":"Q3","JCRName":"PSYCHOLOGY, APPLIED","Score":null,"Total":0}
引用次数: 0

Abstract

The serial-order effect wherein originality increases over time is one of the most robust findings in modern psychology. This effect, found in either individual or group sessions, is based on associative and spreading activation mechanisms: Mental association takes place in temporal sequential order from commonly (closely) to unusually (distantly) related semantic concepts stored in long-term memory. Thus, data from previous studies might suggest that, in collective problem-solving, we endure long meetings and pay closer attention to ideas presented toward the end of the meeting. However, members in innovative organizations have been reported to typically generate ideas on their own before group brainstorming. We hypothesized that in the subsequent group brainstorming session members would state their most appealing ideas first due to impression management. Our results from the individual-then-group hybrid brainstorming paradigm show that idea quality during the group session peaks early and then decays, in terms of both the number of high-quality ideas produced and the proportion of ideas that are high-quality. This “reverse” serial-order effect implies that meeting for a reasonably brief time and looking into ideas shared early during the meeting may lead to better decisions—if individuals generated ideas prior to the meeting. We also found that flexibility (the rate at which new idea categories were introduced) dropped rapidly, but at a certain point of time, it stopped decreasing. This potentially suggests that extended group interaction after individual idea generation could bring greater idea diversity rather than higher overall quality. In addition, we found that the updated, cognitively constrained organizational norm for brainstorming, which likely narrows the scope of search, led to greater idea quantity (fluency), quality, and flexibility than the traditional, unconstrained norm. Our work challenges the traditional application of spreading activation theory to interpersonal, group, or organizational settings and calls for attention to the specific communicative processes of problem-solving and decision-making in question.

Abstract Image

创新思想需要更早的沟通:探索反向序列-顺序效应,释放组织问题解决的认知约束
原创性随着时间的推移而增加的连续顺序效应是现代心理学中最有力的发现之一。这种效应在个人或小组会话中都可以发现,它是基于联想和扩散激活机制:心理联想是按照存储在长期记忆中的通常(密切)到异常(疏远)相关的语义概念的时间顺序发生的。因此,以前的研究数据可能表明,在集体解决问题时,我们会忍受长时间的会议,并更加关注会议结束时提出的想法。然而,据报道,创新型组织的成员在集体头脑风暴之前通常会自己产生想法。我们假设在随后的小组头脑风暴会议中,由于印象管理,成员会首先陈述他们最吸引人的想法。我们从个人-团队混合头脑风暴模式中得出的结果表明,在小组会议期间,从产生的高质量想法的数量和高质量想法的比例来看,想法的质量在早期达到顶峰,然后下降。这种“反向”的顺序效应意味着,如果每个人在会议之前都有自己的想法,那么开会时间相对较短,并在会议早期研究大家分享的想法,可能会导致更好的决策。我们还发现,灵活性(引入新想法类别的速度)迅速下降,但在某个时间点,它停止下降。这可能表明,在个人想法产生之后,扩大群体互动可能带来更大的想法多样性,而不是更高的整体质量。此外,我们发现,更新的、认知约束的头脑风暴组织规范可能缩小了搜索范围,比传统的、不受约束的规范带来了更多的想法数量(流畅性)、质量和灵活性。我们的工作挑战了传播激活理论在人际、群体或组织环境中的传统应用,并呼吁关注问题解决和决策的具体沟通过程。
本文章由计算机程序翻译,如有差异,请以英文原文为准。
求助全文
约1分钟内获得全文 求助全文
来源期刊
CiteScore
4.40
自引率
5.00%
发文量
40
期刊介绍: The Journal of Behavioral Decision Making is a multidisciplinary journal with a broad base of content and style. It publishes original empirical reports, critical review papers, theoretical analyses and methodological contributions. The Journal also features book, software and decision aiding technique reviews, abstracts of important articles published elsewhere and teaching suggestions. The objective of the Journal is to present and stimulate behavioral research on decision making and to provide a forum for the evaluation of complementary, contrasting and conflicting perspectives. These perspectives include psychology, management science, sociology, political science and economics. Studies of behavioral decision making in naturalistic and applied settings are encouraged.
×
引用
GB/T 7714-2015
复制
MLA
复制
APA
复制
导出至
BibTeX EndNote RefMan NoteFirst NoteExpress
×
提示
您的信息不完整,为了账户安全,请先补充。
现在去补充
×
提示
您因"违规操作"
具体请查看互助需知
我知道了
×
提示
确定
请完成安全验证×
copy
已复制链接
快去分享给好友吧!
我知道了
右上角分享
点击右上角分享
0
联系我们:info@booksci.cn Book学术提供免费学术资源搜索服务,方便国内外学者检索中英文文献。致力于提供最便捷和优质的服务体验。 Copyright © 2023 布克学术 All rights reserved.
京ICP备2023020795号-1
ghs 京公网安备 11010802042870号
Book学术文献互助
Book学术文献互助群
群 号:481959085
Book学术官方微信