Are Two Heads Better Than One? Investigating the Influence of Collaboration on Creative Problem Solving Using the Remote Associates Task (RAT)

Creativity and collaboration are considered fundamental skills for student success in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics education (Karimi & Pina, 2021) and consistently among the top-ranked skills for employers (Flaherty, 2021). The Remote Association Task (RAT) is an increasingly used tool to measure creative problem solving (Wu et al., 2020). However, no research has systematically investigated the effectiveness of working collaboratively versus individually using the RAT. The current research collected data between 2022 and 2023 on collaborative versus individual problem solving using the RAT. Participants worked collaboratively or individually to solve 20 RAT problems (Experiments 1 and 2) and completed a later individual test that involved the same 20 RAT problems and 20 novel RAT problems (Experiment 2). Outcomes suggest collaboration provides no benefits during initial problem solving but may benefit later individual problem solving. Evaluating how best to support creative processes in the context of collaboration has implications for supporting student success and helping them develop highly applicable skills.