Computer Aided Cognition and Creativity: a Three Year Monitoring Exercise

Abstract

This paper tracked the progress of 24 students who were ‘intensive’ users of CAD and 26 ‘occasional’ CAD users over a 3 year period. At the end of each year, student attitudes toward creativity dimensions were monitored, using questionnaires and semi-structured interviews. The collected data was analyzed with the Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS). The statistical tests displayed a significant difference between both groups in terms of ideation fluency and ideation flexibility (P<0.05). Within the intensive CAD group the tests also yielded significant differences between years (P<0.05). Ideation fluency correlated positively with years of study and was influenced by CAD and design maturity both as a ‘main effect’ and as an ‘interaction’. The cognitive preference for complexity as a design trait in the intensive group also correlated with the increased complexity of the digital tools used; preference for low complexity correlated with the use of direct CAD tools whereas higher levels of complexity correlated with the deployment of parametric and generative tools.