{
  "schema": "vedokrok.public-item.v1",
  "release_id": "MHC-RPUB-20260920-75ad787a",
  "url": "/knowledge/mark-the-example-features-you-must-not-inherit",
  "id": "MHC-D-RESEARCH-1265",
  "version": "0.1.0",
  "title": "Mark the example features you must not inherit",
  "summary": "If an example contains the wrong move, name the wrong move before it becomes a default.",
  "kind": "protocol",
  "body": "When example exposure is unavoidable, turn it into a defixation exercise. List the features that are informative and separately list features that must not be reproduced. Experimental design and idea-generation studies found that people copied problematic or visually salient example features, while explicit avoid instructions reduced fixation. Make the forbidden inheritance visible before generation starts.",
  "limits": [
    "Defixating instructions reduced example fixation in laboratory studies but did not eliminate it in every condition. Strong product conventions can also be valuable; reject a feature only for a reason."
  ],
  "topics": [
    "union-creative-defixation-and-structural-analogy"
  ],
  "intents": [],
  "source_ids": [
    "RS-E2949BDB296A73A6",
    "RS-E48C841AA4B2F8E8"
  ],
  "evidence": [
    {
      "claim": "A 2020 study found that visual example exposure reduced originality on a creative idea-generation task; explicit instructions to avoid the example helped mitigate this fixation, while verbal examples with avoid instructions increased originality in one experiment.",
      "source_id": "RS-E2949BDB296A73A6",
      "role": "supports",
      "note": "Effects depended on example modality and instruction; the study does not justify removing all examples from creative work.",
      "locator": "Abstract"
    },
    {
      "claim": "Earlier laboratory design experiments found that nonexperts tended to reproduce inappropriate elements from pictorial examples, and explicit defixating instructions reduced the effect.",
      "source_id": "RS-E48C841AA4B2F8E8",
      "role": "supports",
      "note": "The tasks were controlled design problems with nonexperts and do not estimate fixation magnitude for professional design systems.",
      "locator": "Abstract"
    }
  ],
  "use_when": [
    "An example must be shown early because it communicates constraints, failure modes or stakeholder expectations, but copying its structure would be harmful."
  ],
  "avoid_when": [
    "Defixating instructions reduced example fixation in laboratory studies but did not eliminate it in every condition. Strong product conventions can also be valuable; reject a feature only for a reason."
  ],
  "example": "A reference dashboard may prove that users need status, exceptions and drill-down. Mark its dense card grid and duplicated navigation as 'do not inherit' before designing alternatives.",
  "check": "The final option preserves the useful function from the reference without reproducing at least one explicitly rejected example feature.",
  "steps": [
    "The final option preserves the useful function from the reference without reproducing at least one explicitly rejected example feature."
  ],
  "sources": [
    {
      "id": "RS-E2949BDB296A73A6",
      "title": "Need something different? Here's what's been done: Effects of examples and task instructions on creative idea generation",
      "url": "https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/31907862/"
    },
    {
      "id": "RS-E48C841AA4B2F8E8",
      "title": "Following the wrong footsteps: fixation effects of pictorial examples in a design problem-solving task",
      "url": "https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/16248755/"
    }
  ],
  "relations": [
    {
      "from": "MHC-D-RESEARCH-1265",
      "to": "MHC-D-RESEARCH-1264",
      "type": "useful_with",
      "url": "/knowledge/generate-once-before-opening-the-visual-examples"
    }
  ],
  "collections": [
    {
      "id": "RC-8AE73B7C9DFB8BCA",
      "title": "Use examples without letting them become the answer",
      "url": "/collections/use-examples-without-letting-them-become-the-answer"
    }
  ]
}