Lecture 7 - Creativity

Question 1

What is creativity?

Answer 1

• a form of ill defined problem solving
• you don’t know what the goal is until you get there
• creative ideas are both novel and useful or worthwhile

Question 2

How do we judge creativity?

Answer 2

• creativity in the arts
• creativity in the sciences

Question 3

Introspective accounts?

Answer 3

Gestalt psychologists asked creative thinkers to reflect on their thought processes

Question 4

Wallas - 4 stages of thinking?

Answer 4

• described 4 stages of thinking based on his own introspection
  1. preparation
  2. incubation = problem set aside for other work
  3. illumination = solution to problem, sudden insight
  4. verification = solution is developed and tested

Question 5

Smith & Blankership - remote associates task?

Answer 5

• looked at incubation
• p’s asked what links wheel, electric and man?
  -> 57% of p’s given a break solved the problem, only 27% of p’s not given a break solved the problem
• shows importance of incubation

Question 6

Why does incubation work?

Answer 6

• Forgetting: Allows the ‘forgetting’ of unnecessary constraints or decay of mental sets
• Unconscious Work: representations related to problem are still active and interacting with LTM, but are not strong enough to reach awareness
• Spreading Activation: similar to unconscious work account

Question 7

Evaluation of introspective accounts?

Answer 7

• Useful framework for describing creativity
• Empirical support for concept of incubation
• Descriptive not explanatory

Question 8

What are the 2 types of creative processes identified by Guildford?

Answer 8

1. divergent thinking
   -> fluency and novelty
   -> search for new solutions
2. convergent thinking
   -> search for optimal solution
   - use together for optimal problem solving

Question 9

What are the 2 stages of creative thought?

Answer 9

1. generation
2. exploration

Question 10

Generation?

Answer 10

• develop preventive forms = ideas that don’t solve the problem but that might be useful
• based on prior knowledge
• divergent thinking

Question 11

Exploration?

Answer 11

• using preventive forms to try and solve the problem
• convergent thinking
• if no solution or idea is produced, cycle back to generation and start again

Question 12

Evaluation of creative cognition?

Answer 12

• 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 per se

Question 13

What 2 ways are used to increase creativity?

Answer 13

1. brainstorming
2. morphological synthesis

Question 14

Brainstorming?

Answer 14

• increases idea production
• 2 main principles:
  1. deferment of judgement
  2. quantity breeds quality
• 4 rules
  1. no criticism
  2. free-wheeling is welcome
  3. quantity is encouraged
  4. everyone is free to combine and improve ideas

Question 15

Evidence for brain storming?

Answer 15

• Meadow et al., (1959)
  -> Think of uses for a broom and a coat-hanger - Ideas rated for uniqueness and usefulness, good idea had to score on both
  -> Brainstorm group produced more good ideas than control group
• Brilhart & Jochem (1964)
  -> Investigated deferment of judgement
  -> Most creative when ideas produced 1st then evaluated

Question 16

Morphological synthesis?

Answer 16

• involves blending acquired information with the new information
• Allen (1962)
  -> Use a 2 or 3 dimensional matrix to represent different aspects of a problem
  -> New ideas found by combining 2 points in the matrix
  -> Ideas then evaluated

Question 17

Evidence for morphological synthesis?

Answer 17

• Warren & Davis (1969) Compared 3 methods for generating ideas
  1. Short checklists of idea-spurring suggestions
  2. Long checklist of questions organised into categories
  3. Morphological Synthesis
• Morphological Synthesis produced the most ‘good’ ideas in the fastest time