Divergent thinking
October 20, 2026
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Divergent thinking generates multiple possible responses to an open problem; it is one part of creativity.
Research-led explanations of human capacity, learning and technological change. Start with the foundations, then follow the evidence and related ideas as the Learning Hub grows.
Divergent thinking generates multiple possible responses to an open problem; it is one part of creativity.
Divided attention describes what happens when a person tries to allocate attention across concurrent tasks or information streams. Much of what feels like simultaneous attention is actually constrained parallel processing, rapid switching, or competition at central bottlenecks.
Small delays, accuracy prompts and verification steps can improve some judgments and sharing decisions, yet friction can also create fatigue, habituation, accessibility costs and indiscriminate skepticism. The useful question is not whether friction is good, but which friction, for whom, at what moment, and for which outcome.
Generative AI can raise performance while a tool is present, but durable learning depends on what cognitive work the learner still performs, what is tested after assistance changes, and whether the system scaffolds or replaces retrieval, explanation, monitoring and problem solving. The evidence is mixed by design, not simply contradictory.
A person opens a news feed to learn whether a storm has passed. Twenty minutes later they are reading another warning, then an old disaster, then a…