The study investigated the effects of examples’ timing and quality on divergent thinking (DT). In study 1, participants received two novel or common examples in the early or late stage of the realistic presented problem task. Results revealed higher fluency and flexibility in the late stage than that in the early stage. Moreover, originality was higher in the novel-example condition than that in the common-example condition. In study 2, participants solved alternative uses task (AUT) and received examples as in study 1. Results replicated beneficial effects of timing and quality on DT in study 1. Furthermore, in the late stage, fluency and flexibility were higher in the novel-example condition than that in the common one. These findings indicate that timing and quality affect example effect on DT, with late or novel examples facilitating DT. More importantly, in AUT, examples quality moderates the role of timing in DT’s fluency and flexibility.

该研究调查了示例的时间和质量对发散思维 (DT) 的影响。在研究 1 中，参与者在现实提出的问题任务的早期或后期收到了两个新颖或常见的例子。结果显示后期的流畅性和灵活性高于早期。此外，新颖示例条件下的原创性高于常见示例条件下的原创性。在研究 2 中，参与者解决了替代使用任务 (AUT) 并获得了研究 1 中的示例。结果复制了研究 1 中时间和质量对 DT 的有益影响。此外，在后期，小说的流畅性和灵活性更高——示例条件比常见的条件。这些发现表明，时间和质量会影响示例对 DT 的影响，晚的或新的示例会促进 DT。