Dr Dermot Breslin, Senior Lecturer in Organisational Behaviour in the 91直播 University Management School, conducted a study where students came up with twice as many ideas at midday compared to the start and end of the day.
The research, published in Studies in Higher Education, involved two experiments where 270 business studies undergraduates were divided into groups and given 10 minutes to come up with as many uses as possible for three objects: a blank sheet of A4 paper, a coat hanger and a paper cup.
As the group enters this optimal time period, increased alertness, arousal and positive affect, result in a more fluent social interaction, and with this higher creative fluency.
Dr Dermot Breslin
Senior Lecturer in Organisational Behaviour
The research showed students became more creative throughout the morning before peaking around midday. The study also reported a significant 鈥榩ost-lunch dip鈥 effect where student performance fell in the afternoon.
In the paper, Dr Breslin writes: 鈥淚n our working and educational environments the group is a key vehicle for the creative process, and understanding how this process changes over the course of the working day is of significant importance.
鈥淩esearch has shown how socialization and cognitive processes can be influenced by the time of day. This paper points to an enhancing effect around the middle of the working day.
鈥淎s the group enters this optimal time period, increased alertness, arousal and positive affect, result in a more fluent social interaction, and with this higher creative fluency. The scheduling of creative work and educational activities should thus target this window of creativity.鈥
Dr Breslin told that his findings had led him to adjust his timetabling, and that he 鈥渄efinitely sees the effect鈥 of scheduling creative activities for lunchtime, not just in more interaction between students but also in the motivation that they display.