Comparing entropy measures of idea links in design protocols

This paper uses Shannon's entropy of information to measure linkographs of twelve design sessions which involved six architects in two separate design processes. In one they were not allowed to sketch (blindfolded condition), and in the other they were allowed to sketch. A previous study showed that the architects' overall cognitive activity in the blindfolded condition dropped below their activity in the sketching condition, after 20 approximately minutes during the timeline of the design sessions. This study uses entropy measures as a quantitative tool to study this phenomenon. Assuming that moves in a linkograph are the manifestation of ideas and entropy indicates the idea development potential, we tested whether entropy of idea links would also drop after 20 minutes during the blindfolded sessions. The results show that the visuo-spatial working memory load does not have negative effects on idea development. © 2006 Springer. Printed in the Netherlands.