The Impact of Secondary Task’s Perceived Value on Individuals' Creativity in Divergent Thinking Tasks

Abstract: With the rapid advancement of information technology, media multitasking—the simultaneous use of media devices (e.g., computers, smartphones) to perform multiple tasks—has become increasingly common in daily life. Existing studies have indicated that media multitasking affects individuals’ creativity. One limitation of the previous research is that most studies only focused on utilitarian tasks. However, in practical, multitaskers are often attracted by hedonic tasks.The perceived value of a task (hedonic vs. utilitarian) is defined as the extent to which an individual’s intrinsic and extrinsic motive are satisfied. In this study, we conducted an experiment to examine how the perceived value of a secondary task influences individuals’ creativity performance in completing a primary task. Specifically, the study hypothesizes that the perceived value of the task influences attention and emotional experience, thereby impacting on creativity through distinct pathways.Eighty-three participants were recruited for a laboratory experiment employing a single-factor, two-level design (perceived value of secondary tasks: hedonic vs. utilitarian), with participants randomly assigned to two groups. Participants were instructed to finish a primary creative writing task—listing as many new functions of a refrigerator as possible—and a secondary reading task within 20 minutes. The value type of the reading task was manipulated by setting the reading material as either learning material or entertainment news. Attention to the main task and the secondary task was measured using eye-tracking (Tobii Pro Spectrum). Participants’ emotional valence and arousal during the experiment were recorded through a facial expression analysis system—Noldus Facereader 9.0. Task-switching frequencies were recorded via backend program. After completing the tasks, participants filled out questionnaires to subjectively evaluate their attention and emotions.The findings reveal that the perceived value of secondary tasks significantly influences creativity performance in the primary task. Regarding attention, participants who conducted hedonic reading tasks had higher task-switching frequencies compared to those conducted utilitarian ones, resulting in greater performance in the fluency of divergent answers. However, the effect of perceived value on creativity through the path of emotions was not supported in this study.Focusing on everyday multitasking scenarios, our study examines whether creativity varies with the value of different tasks. It vividly replicates multitasking scenarios common among university students, such as completing coursework or writing papers while simultaneously handling other tasks or browsing the web for leisure, thus achieving relatively high ecological validity. The present study reveals how the perceived value of tasks influenced individuals’ creativity through the attentional mechanisms. These findings provide evidence of the positive side of media multitasking.

Keywords: media multitasking, perceived value, creativity, attention, emotion

DOI: 10.54941/ahfe1006243

Cite this paper:

​