An Interaction Effect between Positive Reinforcement and Negative Reinforcement in Computer-Based Group Idea Generation

Guided by prior studies’ emphasis on the role of external factors, prior studies tested the effect of a real-time performance feedback on ideation productivity. The outcome showed that the strength of the feedback mechanism attenuated as the ideation session progressed, unabling to control the occurrences of frivolous comments. This study incorporated a means of punishment (strong junk filtering in particular) into the existing reinforcement system (i.e., performance feedback) in an effort to reduce the frequency of frivolous comments and to increase the productivity of idea generation at the same time. The results showed that whereas the quantity of ideas is almost constant across all treatments, the quality scores of ideas is increased with the combined means of reinforcement and punishment. The findings consistently demonstrated that the mere provision of junk filtering can significantly improve performance. Theoretical and practice implications of these findings are discussed.