Fixation to Pictorial Examples in Design Problem Solving: The Impact of Learning Preferences, Perceptual Differences, and Cognitive Control

Design fixation entails the tendency to replicate pictorial examples during problem solving. Using behavioral measures, we examined whether individual differences in learning tendencies, perception, and cognitive control may contribute to the likelihood of experiencing fixation during problem solving. Exemplar—relative to abstraction—learners may be more susceptible to fixation.