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Cognitive fixation is one of the phenomena most often studied with the field of creative cognition in psychology. Cognitive fixation has been described with different terminologies such as functional fixedness, design fixation, and mental set. However, all these terms fall into three types of cognitive fixation: semantic, priming, and expertise fixation.
When cognitive fixation is discussed with respect to the use of objects, it is commonly referred to as functional fixedness. Functional fixedness occurs when a person is unable to use an object in an original way to solve a problem but continues to see it used only in its traditional way. This happens as we have preconceived notions in the use of objects that hinder us from discovering nontraditional and creative uses. Since it is the meaning of the object that causes fixation, this type of fixation may be labelled semantic fixation (Perry et al. 2014; Adamson 1952).
Priming...
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References
Adamson RE. Functional fixedness as related to problem solving: A repetition of three experiments. Journal of experimental psychology, 1952;44(4):288–291.
Dane E. Reconsidering the trade-off between expertise and flexibility: A cognitive entrenchment perspective. Academy of Management Review, 2010;35(4):579–603.
Luchins AS. Mechanization in problem solving: The effect of Einstellung. Psychological monographs, 1942;54(6):i.
Perry GT, Fragoso SD, Cardoso E, Cattani A. Creativity and problem solving: an experiment with Design students. Blucher Design Proceedings, 2014;1(4):1591–1602.
Smith SM, Ward TB, Schumacher JS. Constraining effects of examples in a creative generation task. Memory & cognition, 1993;21(6):837–845.
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Ramos, H. (2017). Cognitive Fixation and Creativity. In: Encyclopedia of Creativity, Invention, Innovation and Entrepreneurship. Springer, New York, NY. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4614-6616-1_200052-1
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4614-6616-1_200052-1
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