The present study examines the cognitive effects of positive affect on breadth of attention and creative thinking in a context of a playing computer game based on interdisciplinary perspectives of education and neuropsychology. A less focused attention is suggested to benefit idea generation in creative thinking process in the Dual-State model of creative cognition (Howard-Jones, 2002). There are debates about whether positive affect broaden (e.g. Ashby et al., 1999, 2002; Dreisgach, 2006; Fredickson & Branigan, 2005; Hirt et al., 1996; Rebecca et al., 2004; Rowe et al., 2007) or focus (Mackie & Worth, 1989; Seibert & Ellis, 1991) the breadth of attention and whether positive affect helps or diminishes creativity. The present study aims at solving these conflicts. Gable & Harmon-Jones (2008) have suggested that positive affect which is high in approach motivation would actually reduce the breadth of attention relative to positive affect low in approach motivation (and more neutral emotional states). Post-goal or goal-irrelevant stimuli (i.e. watching humorous films or pictures, giving participants gifts) would evoke low approached-motivated positive affect in a general happy, relax mental state where attentional focus is broadened (Gable & Harmon-Jones, 2008). On the other hand, high approach-motivated positive affect induced by an attractive object that elicits strong desire or enthusiasm for a goal (e.g. viewing a “dessert” film or set of pictures) drives individuals to approach and pursue the goal by focusing attention on the goal. It is assumed that playing a computer game evokes a sense of desire to win in the game and triggers attentional focus for playing the game itself. Therefore, it is proposed that playing computer game may decrease creativity due to narrowing the attentional focus of the player. Two studies are conducted to examine the following questions: 1) Does playing a computer game evoke high approach-motivated positive affect? 2.) Does playing a computer game reduce the breadth of attention? 3) Does playing a computer game decrease creativity? The objective of Study 1 is to compare the effects of playing a computer shooter game with another type of pleasurable activity often used in previous studies of positive affect, watching a humorous film, in terms of cognitive effects on attentional focus and in terms of its approach-motivation positive affect. The objective of Study 2 is expanding the study of the cognitive effects of high approach-motivated positive affect by investigating predicted decrements in another cognitive ability, idea generation.

Two within-participant experiments are conducted with 24 participants in each study. In study 1, the effects of playing the game (G), viewing a humorous film (F,) and a neutral film (N,) on the performance of an attentional task (Navon’s letter task 1977) and the feelings evoked will be compared and examined. In study 2, the effects of playing the game (G) and viewing neutral films (N) on both attention (A) and idea generation (G) will be examined in which four conditions (G-A, G-Gt, N-A and N-Gt) are counterbalanced. The feelings experienced during playing the game, viewing films will be rated by using a scale ranging from 0 (no emotion) to 8(strongest feeling) (Ekman, Friesen & Ancoli, 1980) including amusement, anger, anxiety, contentment, desire, disgust, engagement, fear, happiness, interest, sadness and serenity (Gable & Harmon-Jones, 2008).

It is predicted that in study 1 playing the computer game, relative to viewing a humorous film, will narrow the breadth of attention and self-rated feelings after the game playing will also tend to be aligned more with the dimension of “desire” than “amusement”. After examining the nature of playing the specific computer game and its effects on the emotions evoked and attentional focus, it is also predicted that playing the computer game will reduce ideation rate due to the focused attention.