*This work applies the use of episodic specificity induction (ESI) towards more creative* *alternate* *uses of objects, and specifically wind-turbine blades that are preemptively retired.*

*Study participants were 38 engineering undergraduate students enrolled in a fourth-year design course. The two study conditions were 1: episodic specificity induction (ESI) and 2: impression control induction. All participants underwent both conditions, each of which involved an Alternate Uses Task (AUT) and a wind-turbine-blade repurposing task (WRT).*

*A paired-samples t-test revealed that participant-identified uses on the AUT were significantly higher for the ESI than control condition on flexibility (t(33)=2.083, p=0.045) and elaboration (t(33)=2.126, p=0.041). However, AUT fluency scores were not significantly different between conditions (t(33)=1.692, p=0.205),* *possibly due to time allotted for AUT.*

*Wind-turbine-blade repurposing task (WRT) results were analyzed using either a paired-samples t-test or a* *Wilcoxon signed-rank test depending on the normality of the data.* *Scores for appropriate fluency (z=2.603, p=0.009) and feasible fluency (t(32)= 2.57, p=0.015) were significantly higher for the ESI than the control condition.*

*Other results include a borderline significant increase in appropriate concept generation with respect to feasibility for the WRT after ESI. Results also showed an inverse relationship between AUT fluency and elaboration, supporting the possibility that not enough time was allocated to the AUT.*


Memory and Idea Generation Applied to Product Repurposing

Division / Sponsors: 
Design Engineering Division and Computers & Information In Engineering Division


Paper Proceedings: https://asmedigitalcollection.asme.org/IDETC-CIE/IDETC-CIE2020/volume/83907

IDETC2020 - Virtual Conference

Supporting the need among researchers worldwide for additional online and multimedia content, ASME now offers the ASME Conference Video Collection. This platform will collect and provide long-term access to conference presentation videos, encompassing all technology areas within ASME's technical conference and events program. About 30,000-40,000 engineers across all mechanical engineering and related disciplines participate in ASME conferences each year. This includes authors of approximately 6,000 to 8,000 technical papers published by ASME, the majority of whom also submit video presentations for our virtual conferences. The video collection will be available as an add-on to existing product packages or as a separate subscription.