The Creative Team Member: A Study of the Influence of AI Integration Timing on Brainstorming and Ideation
11 juli 2026 bijgewerkt door: Mohit Bhandari, McMaster University
The Effect of Artificial Intelligence Integration Timing on Group Brainstorming and Ideation in Undergraduate Students: A Randomized Controlled Trial
This study aims to examine how the timing of artificial intelligence (AI) integration during group brainstorming activities affects the creativity and ideation of participants.
Undergraduate student participants will be randomly allocated into teams of four to complete a structured 12-minute brainstorming task.
The study utilizes a three-group experimental design to compare three conditions: no AI access, AI access from the outset of the session, and AI access introduced halfway through the session.
The standardized generative AI tool used is ChatGPT Pro.
The creative output produced by each group will be evaluated by a panel of independent expert judges using the Consensual Assessment Technique (CAT).
Studie Overzicht
Toestand
Nog niet aan het werven
Conditie
Gedetailleerde beschrijving
Artificial intelligence (AI) tools are increasingly used in academic and professional environments, yet little is known about how the timing of AI's introduction during a collaborative brainstorming process shapes the creativity of the ideas produced. While recent literature suggests that human-AI collaboration can increase the likelihood of successful idea generation when AI is present throughout an entire session, the specific effect of integration timing remains a gap in the literature. This study aims to provide early data on whether AI functions more effectively as an early collaborator, a later resource, or whether its absence supports more creative thinking.
The study recruits undergraduate students enrolled in a summer research program, who are then randomly assigned to teams of four using a digital randomizer. Over the course of nine sessions, these teams participate in structured, 12-minute collaborative brainstorming tasks focused on designing strategies to address common university student challenges. To mitigate the influence of individual baseline characteristics on the group output, participants are re-randomized into new teams for each separate session.
To standardize the technological intervention and eliminate technical confounders, the study utilizes ChatGPT Pro (GPT-4o architecture) on pre-set devices. At the conclusion of the timed task, a designated team scribe submits the group's collaboratively generated idea list and their selected best idea via a secure, digital case report form.
Following data collection, all session outputs are immediately de-identified and assigned neutral identifiers. A panel of independent expert judges, blinded to the condition assignments, evaluate the output of each group.
Studietype
Ingrijpend
Inschrijving (Geschat)
16
Fase
- Niet toepasbaar
Contacten en locaties
In dit gedeelte vindt u de contactgegevens van degenen die het onderzoek uitvoeren en informatie over waar dit onderzoek wordt uitgevoerd.
Studiecontact
- Naam: Alexandra Leone, BSc
- Telefoonnummer: 44490 905-527-4322
- E-mail: leonea5@mcmaster.ca
Studie Contact Back-up
- Naam: Kaya Bhandari
- E-mail: bhandk5@mcmaster.ca
Studie Locaties
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Ontario
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Hamilton, Ontario, Canada, L8S 4L8
- McMaster University
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Contact:
- Kaya Bhandari
- E-mail: bhandk5@mcmaster.ca
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Contact:
- Alexandra Leone, BSc.
- Telefoonnummer: 44490 905-527-4322
- E-mail: leonea5@mcmaster.ca
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Onderonderzoeker:
- Kaya Bhandari
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Onderonderzoeker:
- Alexandra Leone, BSc
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Hoofdonderzoeker:
- Mohit Bhandari, MD, PhD, FRCSC
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Deelname Criteria
Onderzoekers zoeken naar mensen die aan een bepaalde beschrijving voldoen, de zogenaamde geschiktheidscriteria. Enkele voorbeelden van deze criteria zijn iemands algemene gezondheidstoestand of eerdere behandelingen.
Geschiktheidscriteria
Leeftijden die in aanmerking komen voor studie
- Kind
- Volwassen
- Oudere volwassene
Accepteert gezonde vrijwilligers
Ja
Beschrijving
Inclusion Criteria:
- Enrolled as a student in the designated summer research program
- Able to provide voluntary informed consent
- Proficient in reading and communicating in English (required to engage with the scenarios and the artificial intelligence tool)
Exclusion Criteria:
-Not enrolled as an undergraduate student
Studie plan
Dit gedeelte bevat details van het studieplan, inclusief hoe de studie is opgezet en wat de studie meet.
Hoe is de studie opgezet?
Ontwerpdetails
- Primair doel: Ander
- Toewijzing: Gerandomiseerd
- Interventioneel model: Parallelle opdracht
- Masker: Enkel
Wapens en interventies
Deelnemersgroep / Arm |
Interventie / Behandeling |
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Geen tussenkomst: No Artificial Intelligence Tools (Control)
Across nine separate sessions, teams of four participants will complete all nine distinct student-struggle scenarios (one scenario per 12-minute session).
In each session, participants engage in a structured collaborative brainstorming task entirely without access to artificial intelligence tools for the full 12 minutes.
At the conclusion of each session, the team must evaluate their generated list and select their single best idea to solve that specific scenario.
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Experimenteel: Artificial Intelligence First (Early Integration)
Across nine separate sessions, teams of four participants will complete all nine distinct student-struggle scenarios (one scenario per 12-minute session).
In each session, at minute 0, participants input the scenario prompt into ChatGPT Pro (GPT-4o architecture).
The team receives a single initial output of ideas and does not engage in further back-and-forth dialogue with the tool.
Participants use this initial artificial intelligence response as a baseline to continue human brainstorming and ideation for the remainder of the 12 minutes, ultimately selecting and submitting their single best idea for that specific scenario.
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The introduction of ChatGPT Pro (GPT-4o architecture) at the beginning (minute 0) of a 12-minute group brainstorming session.
A single prompt containing the scenario is submitted to generate an initial set of ideas, with no further back-and-forth dialogue permitted.
This single artificial intelligence output serves as the baseline for the team's subsequent human ideation.
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Experimenteel: Artificial Intelligence Last (Late Integration)
Across nine separate sessions, teams of four participants will complete all nine distinct student-struggle scenarios (one scenario per 12-minute session).
In each session, participants brainstorm independently without technology for the first 6 minutes.
At minute 6, the team inputs the scenario prompt along with their already-generated human ideas into ChatGPT Pro (GPT-4o architecture).
Receiving a single output with no further back-and-forth dialogue, the team uses the artificial intelligence response to continue ideating for the final 6 minutes, ultimately selecting and submitting their single best idea for that specific scenario.
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The introduction of ChatGPT Pro (GPT-4o architecture) at the midpoint (minute 6) of a 12-minute group brainstorming session.
A single prompt containing both the scenario and the team's already-generated human ideas is submitted, with no further back-and-forth dialogue permitted.
This single artificial intelligence output is used to guide the team's human ideation for the remaining 6 minutes.
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Wat meet het onderzoek?
Primaire uitkomstmaten
Uitkomstmaat |
Maatregel Beschrijving |
Tijdsspanne |
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Creativity Score of the Selected Best Idea
Tijdsspanne: Evaluated cross-sectionally upon the conclusion of each 12-minute session, across the 9 study sessions.
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The primary outcome is the mean expert creativity rating assigned to each team's top idea, across each of the 9 sessions, as assessed by independent judges using the Consensual Assessment Technique (CAT).
Higher average scores denote a more creative output, while lower scores denote a less creative output.
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Evaluated cross-sectionally upon the conclusion of each 12-minute session, across the 9 study sessions.
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Secundaire uitkomstmaten
Uitkomstmaat |
Maatregel Beschrijving |
Tijdsspanne |
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Overall Creativity Score of Full Idea List
Tijdsspanne: Evaluated cross-sectionally upon the conclusion of each 12-minute session, across the 9 study sessions.
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The collective creative quality of the entire list of ideas generated by the team during the session, evaluated by independent expert judges using the Consensual Assessment Technique (CAT).
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Evaluated cross-sectionally upon the conclusion of each 12-minute session, across the 9 study sessions.
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Number of Ideas Generated During the 12-Minute Session
Tijdsspanne: Evaluated cross-sectionally upon the conclusion of each 12-minute session, across the 9 study sessions.
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The total number of ideas generated (fluency) will be reported with the explicit methodological limitation that AI generation speed inherently outpaces human typing speed.
Fluency will be analysed purely observationally, as the 12-minute constraint does not control for the mechanical advantage of the AI tool.
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Evaluated cross-sectionally upon the conclusion of each 12-minute session, across the 9 study sessions.
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Qualitative Resemblance of the Team's Output to Typical AI-Generated Responses
Tijdsspanne: Evaluated cross-sectionally upon the conclusion of each 12-minute session, across the 9 study sessions.
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This will be subjectively assessed by the expert judges on a 1-5 scale (anchored from 'strongly AI-typical' to 'strongly human'), independent of the CAT creativity evaluation.
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Evaluated cross-sectionally upon the conclusion of each 12-minute session, across the 9 study sessions.
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Medewerkers en onderzoekers
Hier vindt u mensen en organisaties die betrokken zijn bij dit onderzoek.
Sponsor
Onderzoekers
- Hoofdonderzoeker: Mohit Bhandari, MD, PhD, FRCSC, McMaster University
Publicaties en nuttige links
De persoon die verantwoordelijk is voor het invoeren van informatie over het onderzoek stelt deze publicaties vrijwillig ter beschikking. Dit kan gaan over alles wat met het onderzoek te maken heeft.
Algemene publicaties
- Koo TK, Li MY. A Guideline of Selecting and Reporting Intraclass Correlation Coefficients for Reliability Research. J Chiropr Med. 2016 Jun;15(2):155-63. doi: 10.1016/j.jcm.2016.02.012. Epub 2016 Mar 31.
- Çelik, T. İ., & Akay, C. (2025). The Impact of Brainstorming Technique on Academic Achievement and Creative Thinking: A Meta-Analysis Study. Sage Open, 15(3). 62
- Muller, M., Houde, S., Gonzalez, G., Brimijoin, K., Ross, S. I., Silva Moran, D. A., & Weisz, J. D. (2024). Group brainstorming with an AI agent: Creating and selecting ideas. Proceedings of the 15th International Conference on Computational Creativity (ICCC 2024). https://computationalcreativity.net/iccc24/papers/ICCC24_paper_18.pdf
- Amabile, Teresa. (1982). Social psychology of creativity: A consensual assessment technique. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology. 43. 997-1013. 10.1037/0022-3514.43.5.997
- Zhang C, Shao Y, Yuan Y, Shen W. Artificial Intelligence Reshapes Creativity: A Multidimensional Evaluation. Psych J. 2025 Dec;14(6):831-840. doi: 10.1002/pchj.70042. Epub 2025 Aug 5.
- Lee BC, Chung JJ. An empirical investigation of the impact of ChatGPT on creativity. Nat Hum Behav. 2024 Oct;8(10):1906-1914. doi: 10.1038/s41562-024-01953-1. Epub 2024 Aug 12.
Studie record data
Deze datums volgen de voortgang van het onderzoeksdossier en de samenvatting van de ingediende resultaten bij ClinicalTrials.gov. Studieverslagen en gerapporteerde resultaten worden beoordeeld door de National Library of Medicine (NLM) om er zeker van te zijn dat ze voldoen aan specifieke kwaliteitscontrolenormen voordat ze op de openbare website worden geplaatst.
Bestudeer belangrijke data
Studie start (Geschat)
20 juli 2026
Primaire voltooiing (Geschat)
15 augustus 2026
Studie voltooiing (Geschat)
15 september 2026
Studieregistratiedata
Eerst ingediend
5 juli 2026
Eerst ingediend dat voldeed aan de QC-criteria
5 juli 2026
Eerst geplaatst (Werkelijk)
9 juli 2026
Updates van studierecords
Laatste update geplaatst (Werkelijk)
14 juli 2026
Laatste update ingediend die voldeed aan QC-criteria
11 juli 2026
Laatst geverifieerd
1 juli 2026
Meer informatie
Termen gerelateerd aan deze studie
Trefwoorden
Andere studie-ID-nummers
- 20358
Plan Individuele Deelnemersgegevens (IPD)
Bent u van plan om gegevens van individuele deelnemers (IPD) te delen?
NEE
Beschrijving IPD-plan
Individual participant data (IPD) will not be shared publicly due to an elevated risk of deductive re-identification.
While numeric outcomes could be anonymized, the primary data consists of raw qualitative text (transcribed group brainstorming ideas and solutions) generated by a highly specific, geographically localized cohort of undergraduate students enrolled in the 2026 summer research program.
Because the 2026 cohort size is small and the context is unique, sharing raw textual transcripts poses a risk of accidentally exposing the identities of the participants through specific phrasing, examples, or contextual clues, despite de-identification efforts.
Therefore, to ensure participant confidentiality in accordance with institutional ethics guidelines, the raw data will remain confidential within the primary research team.
Informatie over medicijnen en apparaten, studiedocumenten
Bestudeert een door de Amerikaanse FDA gereguleerd geneesmiddel
Nee
Bestudeert een door de Amerikaanse FDA gereguleerd apparaatproduct
Nee
Deze informatie is zonder wijzigingen rechtstreeks van de website clinicaltrials.gov gehaald. Als u verzoeken heeft om uw onderzoeksgegevens te wijzigen, te verwijderen of bij te werken, neem dan contact op met register@clinicaltrials.gov. Zodra er een wijziging wordt doorgevoerd op clinicaltrials.gov, wordt deze ook automatisch bijgewerkt op onze website .