Lecture 7 Flashcards
What is creativity?
Original or novel ideas that do not have to be useful or worthwhile.
Graham Wallas: 4 stages of thinking
Preparation: systematic, conscious
Incubation: problem set aside for other work
Illumination: solution to problems presents itself
Verification: solution is developed and tested
Incubation - Smith and Blankenship
what links wheels, electric and man
57% of participants that were given a break solved the problem
27% of participants not given a break solved the problem
Why does incubation work?
Allows forgetting
unconscious work - representations related to the problem are still active but are not strong enough to reach awareness
Spreading activation
Evaluation of creativity stages of thinking
+useful framework for describing creativity
empirical support for concept of incubation
-descriptive and not explanatory
Processes involved in incubation are not specified
Types of creativity
Divergent thinking (fluency and novelty, search for new solutions) Convergent thinking (search for an optimal solution, anagrams and polygon word puzzles)
The Geneplore model
Creative thought has 2 stages:
Generation
Exploration
The Geneplore model - generation
Develop pre-inventive forms which are ideas that do not solve problems but may be useful
forms are base don prior knowledge, divergent thinking
The Geneplore model - Exploration
Using pre-inventive forms to try and solve problems, convergent thinking
Path of least resistance
Generation of new ideas contrained by existing knowledge - rely heavily on existing knowledge to create new forms
Imaginary forms task: draw creatures from another planet thats nothing like on Earth (still had bilateraly symmetry, sensory receptors)
Evaluation of path of least resistance
+ some empirical evidence that generation and exploration are important processes
Deferring evaluation of forms does seem to increase novelty
-Does not describe processes involved in generating pre-inventive forms
Focus is on originality rather than creativity
Ignores individual differences in creativity
Brain storming
Alex Osborn - increase idea production
2 main principles
Deferment of judgement
Quantity breeds quality
4 rules
- no criticism
- free whaling is welcome
- quantity is encouraged
- everyone is free to combine and improve ideas
Evidence for brain storming
Meadow: think of uses for a broom and coat hanger, ideas are rated for creativity and usefulness. Brainstorm group produced more ideas than control group
Brilhart and Jochem: Investigated deferment of judgement. Most creative when ideas where produced first then evaluated
Morphological synthesis
Zwicky
Use a 2/3 D matrix to represent different aspects of a problem.
New ideas then found by combining two points in the matrix.
Ideas are then evaluated
Evidence for 3 methods of generating ideas
Warren & Davis
compared 3 methods for generating ideas
1. short checklists of idea spurring suggestions
2. long checklist of questions organised into categories
3. morphological synthesis
