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Chronobiology of pupil dilation in design students during idea generation

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  16 May 2024

Samuele Colombo ,
John S. Gero ,
Alessandro Mazza  and
Marco Cantamessa
Samuele Colombo*
Affiliation:
Politecnico di Torino, Italy
John S. Gero
Affiliation:
UNC Charlotte, United States of America
Alessandro Mazza
Affiliation:
University of Turin, Italy
Marco Cantamessa
Affiliation:
Politecnico di Torino, Italy
*
[email protected]

Abstract

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Chronobiology studies physiological variations due to the time of day, an unexplored factor in design research. This paper explores the effect of time of day on designers' physiological responses in idea generation. Convergent (CT) and divergent (DT) thinking, as building blocks of designing, are explored using pupil dilation as a proxy for cognitive load. Time of day and educational background are explored for engineering and industrial designers. Results show a larger pupil diameter in the afternoon than in the morning, especially for DT, with higher values for industrial designers.

Keywords

design cognitionidea generationchronobiologypupil dilationeducational background
Type
Human Behaviour and Design Creativity
Information
Proceedings of the Design Society , Volume 4: DESIGN 2024 , May 2024 , pp. 925 - 934
Creative Commons
Creative Common License - CCCreative Common License - BYCreative Common License - NCCreative Common License - ND
This is an Open Access article, distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives licence (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/), which permits non-commercial re-use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is unaltered and is properly cited. The written permission of Cambridge University Press must be obtained for commercial re-use or in order to create a derivative work.
Copyright
The Author(s), 2024.

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