EFFECTS OF SPATIAL ENVIRONMENT AND LAYOUT ON THE CREATIVITY AND PSYCHOLOGY OF BRAINSTORMING GROUPS

This study experimentally examined the effects of spatial environment and the layout of a conference room on creativity. It also provides the results of psychological evaluation of brainstorming groups with the aim of determining favorable characteristics of a conference room for brainstorming. The study included 30 subjects who were divided into six groups of five people each. Each group brainstormed in two rooms; the first room had a standard layout for all teams, and the second room had six different layouts, including the standard one, for each team. Three of the six groups (hereafter called, G I), started from Room 2, and the other three groups (G II) started from Room 1. After a ten-minute brainstorming session for each team, the subjects were evaluated psychologically. Three correlative psychological factors were determined for the brainstorming groups, and psychological evaluation showed different factor loadings and features in several evaluations for each room. It was found that the spatial environment and layout affect each factor, and a significant difference was found in the number of ideas generated for the standard layout between the two rooms because of the effects of spatial environment. In addition, the changes of personal space affected by physical environment contribute to opposing tendencies between G I and G II with regard to choice of favorable/unfavorable layout for brainstorming.