Utilizing EEG to Explore the Mental States Involved in the Occurrence of Different Levels Design Fixation

Design fixation, which is a form of cognitive bias, is commonly reported to unconsciously occur when designers take the path of least resistance during the fulfillment of a design task. It’s thought to be easy and effortless. Nonetheless, the mental states such as mental effort and mental fatigue that accompany the occurrence of different levels of design fixation are still unknown. In the present study, an experiment using electroencephalography (EEG) was conducted to examine the mental effort and mental fatigue involved in the occurrence of different levels of design fixation during creative idea generation. Fluency, flexibility, the degree of copying, and the time spent generating ideas were used to evaluate the design performance and fixation level of each participant, and the task-related power changes of theta, alpha, and beta bands of participants with higher and lower levels of fixation during creative idea generation process were compared and analyzed separately. The comparison results revealed that participants with higher levels of design fixation made the less mental effort and showed higher levels of mental fatigue during the ideation process compared to those with lower levels of design fixation. These results provide additional evidence for the mental states involved in the occurrence of design fixation and could contribute to a deeper understanding of design fixation from the neuroscience perspective.