Gotlieb (2019) Flashcards
Imagination
Refers broadly to the human capacity to construct a mental representation of that which is not currently present to the senses. Imaginative thought happens intentionally and unintentionally, and solitarily and collectively. Many forms draw heavily on the DMN
Social-emotional imagination
The ability to conceive of multiple possible cognitive and affective perspectives and courses of actions and to skillfully reflect about each of these and their ties to one’s own value and understanding of the world
Pretend play
Acting out stories which involve multiple perspectives and the playful manipulation of ideas and emotions. It is an essential contributor to children’s social and emotional development and an early form of social-emotional development. Leads to experiencee in the generation phase and skills for the exploration phase for creativity
Affect
Can help children build associations for problem-solving and divergent thinking in pretend play. It can mediate the relation between pretend play and creativity
Make-believe games
Support children’s capacities for self-regulation, delay of gratification, civility, and empathy
Empathic perspective-taking
The ability to imagine what another person thinks or feels or to imagine oneself as another person. An aspect of social-emotional imagination
Affective perspective-taking
Inherently an act of imagination in that it requires simulating another person’s experiences
Perspective-taking
Facilitates social functions that support creativity. Drawing on these skills while processing information helps us learn the information in a way that is longer-lasting and useful. Also increases cooperation, reduces negative misinterpretations of others’ behaviours, and can improve the outcome of a negotiation. It supports creativity in groups and individually
Flexible identity construction
The flexibility with which people construct their identity. It requires maintaining a sense of one’s core self while also conceiving broadly of and skillfully moving between the many aspects of one’s identity. Also involves developing and utilising strategies to refine an aspect of one’s identity. Aspect of social-emotional imagination
Constructive internal reflection
The ability to connect complex ideas and think about one’s own values and beliefs and the social meaning of one’s daily encounters in order to guide actions and thoughts. Need for uninterrupted time with thoughts and can facilitate creativity in the social realm. Helps us make meaning of our lives and guides moral actions
Polycultural thinking
Thinking informed by an awareness of multiple interacting cultures. A form of cultural awareness that can be developed among people who live and interact with others from a variety of cultures and who often themselves belong to more than one cultural group
Creative innovation
Typically arises from the unexpected rearrangement of products and ideas that already exist. Cultural experiences and lenses may affect this
Temporal imagination
Characterised by one’s ability to engage in mental time travel
Mental time travel
being aware of subjective time and oneself in relation to it or reconstructing and reasoning about the past and envisioning possible futures
Prospection
The ability to “pre-experience” the future by simulating it in our minds. Includes (1) Navigational, (2) Social, (3) Intellectual, and (4) Memorial. First three are hypothetical simulations of future events, and the fourth runs through counterfactual alternatives to events that have occurred. It can serve creativity by helping them become open to broader categorisations and unlikely connections between objects and ideas
Construal-level theory
Stipulates that temporal distance or the perceived proximity of an event in time affects an individual’s mental representations of future events and thus their responses to them. The further an imagined event, the more abstract it will be construed
Memory construction
Underlies imaginative thinking because humans are not able to “play back” the past but must construct a likely rendering of past events based on educated, imagined guesses
Counterfactual thinking
A case of temporal imagination that combines prospection and memory when individuals entertain thoughts of what might-have-been. Tend to simulate what-if experiences when they are similar to current experiences
Distal simulations
Those dedicated to imaging events that seem far away in terms of time and distance and that are unlikely to occur or that involve the minds of strangers. More abstract and simplified in comparison
“What-if” thinking
Supports creativity through entertaining other possibilities and allowing the thinker to detach from the present and imagine more flexibly
Mind-wandering
The experience of having one’s attention shift away from the objective world and its related perceptual input and toward internal reflection. Often involves temporally imaginative thoughts, can also be atemporal
Positive constructive daydreaming
Playful, wishful imagery, and planful, creative thought. Four adaptive functions: (1) Future planning, (2) Creative incubation and problem-solving, (3) Attentional cycling, and (4) Dishabituation
Attentional cycling
When an individual can flexibly switch between various informational streams
Dishabituation
Improves learning since an individual is taking short, recuperative mental breaks from externally demanding tasks
Prospective daydreaming
Allows individuals to connect past and future selves, devise long-term plans, and serve as creative inspiration
Openness
Reflects cognitive engagement with aesthetic, sensory, and affective information in perception and fantasy
Intellect
Reflects cognitive engagement with abstract and semantic information through reasoning
Latent inhibition
The ability to ignore presumably irrelevant stimuli and inconsequential events in one’s environment. It can benefit original thinking and correlates with openness/intellect and creativity
Implicit learning
Learning of complex information that occurs outside of conscious awareness. May enable those high in openness/intellect to be creative
Divergent thinking
Aspect of creative thinking and supported by openness/intellect
Motivation
Critical personal factor that ensures that creativity translates to creative achievement. Aligns with openness/intellect
Inspiration
Associated with openness and creativity.
Spurs individuals to transform hypotheticals into actual products
Affective engagement
The extent to which individuals are open to experiencing the full spectrum of their emotions. Good predictor of lifetime creative achievement
Emotional ambivalence
The simultaneous experience of positive and negative emotions. Can serve as signal for unusual environment, which increases sensitivity to unusual association, which in turn fosters creativity
