Arousal and Cognition: Creative Performance, Arousal and the Stimulation-Seeking Motive

Abstract

On an hypothesis that intermediate values of individual differences in arousal or stimulation-seeking would be associated with best performance in timed tests of originality and fluency, undergraduate volunteers were administered the Unusual Questions Test and stratified on the basis of two stimulation-seeking measures into high, intermediate and low stimulation-seeking groups of 21 subjects each. Planned comparisons showed that, although both originality and fluency were related to stimulation-seeking in the predicted curvilinear form, only where fluency was concerned was a significant difference noted. Intermediate stimulation-seeking subjects were significantly more fluent than subjects low in stimulation-seeking although the former were not significantly different from high stimulation-seeking subjects. It was concluded that the experimental hypothesis had received limited support; further avenues to the study of arousal and stimulation-seeking factors in creative performance were outlined.