Thinking Inside the Box: Data from an Online Alternative Uses Task with Visual Manipulation of the Survey Response Box

This study was designed to test whether responses to a divergent thinking task (the Alternative Uses Task, AUT; Guildford, 1967) could be influenced by visual design characteristics of the survey response box. We manipulated the type of response box (whether participants saw one large, essay style box - unsegmented - or whether they saw several small, list-style boxes - segmented; see variable "Segmented") and the size/number of boxes seen (5, 10, or 15 lines or boxes; see variable "Lines"). Participants were recruited from the United States between February and early May, 2014 from Amazon's Mechanical Turk (MTurk) and completed the task online. They were given two minutes to list as many uses for either a brick or a paperclip (randomized across participants; see variable "Item"), and then were automatically advanced to answer questions about their personality (the 44 item Big Five Inventory; John & Srivastava, 1991) and demographic information (Age, Sex, Education). Judges scored their responses for elaboration, flexibility, and originality.