Janet Bavelas on Permitting Creativity in Science

In Bavelas’ paper, she discusses ways to be creative and curious when conducting research. One thing she mentions is to not dismiss hunches you might have about a topic. She mentions the “Zeigarnik effect” which occurs when interrupted tasks are remembered better than completed tasks. I did not know that this phenomenon had a name, as I have experienced it many times. One example of it could be in classrooms where students study/remember material for a test and forget everything after writing the test. As educators, we need to work towards creating lessons that are memorable and stay with students longer than just a few months. One way to do this could be to let them choose topics that interest them and conduct research on their own, or teach topics that are relevant to the world around them such as those in current events.

Bavelas (1987) suggests that researchers develop a schema or class when exploring one’s own thoughts and hunches. She says that, “once you begin to have a critical mass of examples of your vague idea, it will suddenly assault you from all sides; you will not be able to unsee it” (p. 318). This reminds me of solutions to optical illusions or puzzles; when you figure out the answer, you can no longer unsee it. For example, I remember first learning about the optical illusion with the women’s faces and how I could only see the older woman’s face. Now, I can immediately spot both. This can relate to my inquiry process; when I develop my inquiry question and follow it, I will eventually get to a point where all the pieces start falling together and I begin to notice information I did not see before. 

Figure 1: Optical illusion of two women

Bavelas presents an extended example towards the end of the paper. A graduate student named Jennifer is conducting a study observing people’s interactions with other people such as handshaking, greeting hello, and other physical contacts. It surprised me when the paper mentioned the “black brother” handshake as I thought that was a little racist. It was in reference to the handshake style typically displayed by male African Americans where the handshake has some flair to it and the two greeters wrap their left arm behind the other person like a small hug embrace. Another finding Jennifer noticed was that people respond to “How are you” questions with responses of similar syllables or sentence rhythms. Jennifer concludes that the degree of intimacy permitted among greets who converse need to cooperate in noninteraction; signal system must be quick, clear, and nonverbal (Bavelas, 1987, p. 326).

 

Reading:

Bavelas, J.B. (1987). Permitting Creativity in Science. Scientific excellence, Sage. Pp. 307-327