Effect of Feedback on Creativity in Social Learning Contexts

Social learning enables learners to interact with one another, which is a critical way to foster creativity. Although online social networking technologies have been widely adopted, few empirical studies have been conducted to illustrate the effect of online social interactions on creativity in the context of learning. In this research-in-progress, we attempt to fill this gap by investigating how feedback from others in an online social learning context affects learners´ creativity. Different from previous studies on the direct effect of feedback on creative performance, we go a step further to explore the underlying mechanism in an online social learning context and propose that feedback sign affects creative performance through the learners´ perception of feedback accuracy and intrinsic motivation. Moreover, we examine the characteristics of feedback providers and recipients that influence learners´ mental reactions to feedback sign. Our study is based on the stimulus-organism-response model and the feedback process model. A lab experiment will be used based on an online social learning platform. Undergraduate students will be recruited as participants.