Investigating the effects of bimanual multitouch interaction on creativity

Abstract

Creativity is an important but difficult cognitive process to study. Recent findings from cognitive neuroscience suggest that inter-hemispheric interaction (the interaction of opposite brain hemispheres facilitated by the corpus callosum) is an important factor influencing creative output. We propose that bi-manual multitouch interaction may improve creative output because manipulating digital objects (an integral part of computer-supported creativity tasks) with two hands may facilitate inter-hemispheric interaction. This paper briefly describes the development of a computerized form of the Alternate Uses Task, a standardized creativity assessment tool, used in an exploratory study (n=65) investigating this theory.