Effects of Room Size and Objects on Creativity in Virtual Reality

As VR becomes more prominent in professional environments as a new digital interface, enhancing creativity in virtual workspaces is increasingly relevant. McCoy & Events (2002) found that the Physical Environment can be used to foster creativity. Research shows that physical environments, particularly larger spaces, support creative thinking by fostering openness and exploration (Chan & Nokes-Malach, 2016). Furthermore, Guegen et al. (2017) found that the presence of objects has been shown to stimulate creativity by engaging cognitive processes. Despite these findings, the specific effects of room size on divergent thinking in VR remain underexplored, with prior studies often overlooking the isolated impact of spatial dimensions.

This thesis aims to investigate the influence of virtual room size and objects on creativity by using the Alternative Uses Task (AUT) in a small empty room, a large empty room, and these rooms with added objects. Therefore isolating the effects of room size but also analyzing possible influences of objects in the environment on creativity. The findings will help clarify the role of VR room size and object presence in enhancing creativity, such results could offer insights into the design of digital workspaces while also offering insights into real-life work environment design regarding creativity.

1. Creating and Implementing fitting VR environments
2. Pick and implement fitting creativity tests for the Study
3. Designing and conducting the study
4. Evaluating results of creativity tests

1. Knowledge in Unity
2. Knowledge in performing studies
3. Knowledge of creativity tests
4. Programming skills

1. McCoy, J. M., & Evans, G. W. (2002). The potential role of the physical environment in fostering creativity. Creativity Research Journal, 14(3-4), 409-426.
2. Guegan, J., Nelson, J., & Lubart, T. (2017). The relationship between contextual cues in virtual environments and creative processes. Computers in Human Behavior, 67, 1-11.
3. Chan, J., & Nokes-Malach, T. J. (2016). Situative creativity: Larger physical spaces facilitate thinking of novel uses for everyday objects. The Journal of Problem Solving, 9(1), 3.