Percolating ideas: The effects of caffeine on creative thinking and problem solving
Related Experiment Video
Updated: Dec 28, 2025

Task Interruption and Resumption Paradigm for Testing the Activation and Pursuit of an Abstract Thinking Goal
Published on: April 18, 2017
Darya L Zabelina1, Paul J Silvia2
1University of Arkansas, 480 Campus Drive, Fayetteville, AR 72701, USA.
Abstract:
Caffeine is the most widely consumed psychotropic drug in the world, with numerous studies documenting the effects of caffeine on people's alertness, vigilance, mood, concentration, and attentional focus. The effects of caffeine on creative thinking, however, remain unknown. In a randomized placebo-controlled between-subject double-blind design the present study investigated the effect of moderate caffeine consumption on creative problem solving (i.e., convergent thinking) and creative idea generation (i.e., divergent thinking). We found that participants who consumed 200 mg of caffeine (approximately one 12 oz cup of coffee, n = 44), compared to those in the placebo condition (n = 44), showed significantly enhanced problem-solving abilities. Caffeine had no significant effects on creative generation or on working memory. The effects remained after controlling for participants' caffeine expectancies, whether they believed they consumed caffeine or a placebo, and changes in mood. Possible mechanisms and future directions are discussed.
Related Concept Videos
Creative Thinking
Divergent thinking is the...
The Influence of Affect on Cognition
Experimental Designs
Cognitive Learning
E. C. Tolman's theory of purposive behavior emphasizes that much behavior is goal-directed. He argued that to understand behavior, we must look at the entire sequence of actions leading to a goal. For instance, high school students study hard, not just due to past reinforcement but also to achieve the goal of getting into a good college.
Tolman introduced the idea that behavior is influenced by...
Cognitive Enhancers: Cholinesterase Inhibitors and NMDA Receptor Antagonists
High-Level and Low-Level Awareness

