Effects of Reduced Stimulation on Divergent and Convergent Thinking

Drastic stimulus reduction has been shown to improve performance on easy, simple, cognitive tasks. Its effects on tasks that are higher in either difficulty or complexity are less well known. In the current study, ten volunteers spent 24 hours in a dark, silent chamber while ten others were confined without stimulus reduction. At the end of 24 hours, the subjects were given five of Guilford's Tests of Divergent Thinking, and two measures of performance on convergent but difficult problems. Compared to the control group, the restricted subjects showed some performance deterioration on the divergent tasks, although the impairment did not reach the dramatic levels reported in the early sensory deprivation literature. The pattern of results indicated that the effects of stimulus reduction on cognitive processes are mediated by task complexity rather than task difficulty.