Abstract
1. Introduction
2. Literature review and related work
3. The development of an EEG feedback system connected to virtual reality
4. The design of the main experiment
5. Results
6. Discussions
7. Limitations, suggestions for future research, and conclusion
References
Abstract
The purpose of this study is to investigate whether the feedback designed based on EEG (electroencephalography) signals contributes to an individual’s creative performance in an immersive virtual reality setting. Two specific forms of feedback were used. The first one was “reminder feedback,” given when brainwaves indicated the participant’s attention was not concentrated. The second one was “encouraging feedback,” given when brainwaves indicated that the participant’s attention was very concentrated. Sixty high school students were randomly assigned to participate in an open-ended design challenge in an immersive virtual reality setting. Twenty (N = 20) participants received no feedback; twenty (N = 20) participants received reminder feedback; and another twenty (N = 20) participants received encouraging feedback. Findings showed that the participants who received reminder feedback had higher-quality creative products than those in a group with no feedback or encouraging feedback. In addition, EEG feedback also had an impact on the participant’s attention and flow state. These findings are discussed in terms of feedback impacts, study limitations, and future research directions.
Introduction
Emerging technologies are redefining human work, and the workplace is changing into a hybrid space of virtual and actual realities (Thorsteinsson & Page, 2007). With all the newer technology potentials and challenges, educators around the world are paying more attention to developing students’ creativity (Fasko, 2001). Creativity is studied in a wide range of fields, including individual traits, neurology, cognitive science, and the social environment (Amabile & Pillemer, 2012). In this study, we pay attention to ways to facilitate creativity in individual creative processes. Previous studies have shown that an individual’s attention and mental state in activities affect their creative performance (Silvia et al., 2014). Studies have shown that attention is closely related to flow state (Connolly & Tenenbaum, 2010). Previous studies also found that the higher the attention, the easier it is to enter the state of flow, and the better the individual’s creativity will be (Yang, Lin, et al., 2018). The question is, can individual attention in activities be influenced by feedback, thereby improving an individual’s state of flow and the individual’s creative performance? Studies have shown that EEG (electroencephalography) feedback can improve the attention of a participant in the reading process, and can affect the individual’s reading performance (Lin, Lai, Lin, & Wu, 2014). Relevant research has shown that positive and negative feedback are given according to the levels of attention of the participants, which help the participants to achieve better learning results in English learning (Chen & Huang, 2014; Kuo, Chu, & Tsai, 2017). However, can different EEG feedback methods affect the processes of individual creativity? An immersive virtual reality setting can provide a new entry point for researchers to study social science issues (Fox, Arena, & Bailenson, 2009).