Don’t Wait to Incubate: Immediate v. Delayed Incubation in Divergent Thinking.

Previous evidence for the effectiveness of Immediate Incubation in divergent creative tasks has been weak with earlier studies exhibiting a range of methodological problems. The issue is theoretically important as a demonstration of Immediate Incubation effects would strengthen the case for the involvement of unconscious work in incubation effects. The present experiment used a creative divergent thinking task (Alternative Uses) and separate experimental groups had incubation periods which were either Delayed or Immediate and consisted of either spatial or verbal tasks. Control groups were tested without incubation periods. Checks were carried out for intermittent conscious work on the target task during the incubation periods. Significant incubation effects were found and were stronger for Immediate Incubation than for Delayed Incubation. Performance was not different between verbal and spatial incubation conditions. No evidence for intermittent conscious working was found. The results supported a role for unconscious work in creative divergent thinking, particularly in the case of Immediate Incubation