The Creative Cognition Approach

Mental processes are the essence of creative endeavor. The CreativeCognition Approach extends this particular view of creativity, first proposed anddeveloped by the editors in their earlier book Creative Cognition, to theprograms and theoretical views of some of the most prominent researchers in the areas of problemsolving, concept formation, and thinking. Chapters cover a wide range of approaches and processesthat play a role in creative cognition, from those that have their roots in associationism (thenotion that creative ideas are produced incrementally), to the Gestalt point of view (particularlyinsight), to current computational approaches. Each chapter deals with central issues in cognitionand creativity, and many consider new ways in which creativity can be studied under controlledconditions.

The Creative Cognition Approach begins with a newlook at an ancient subject, dreams. It then takes up intuition and insight from a contemporarycognitive perspective, and the importance of using prior knowledge in the incremental view ofcreative problem solving, which is contrasted with the importance of various forms of fixation andsudden insight. Studies are presented that provide new methods for distinguishing insight problemsolving from analytic problem solving, and a general description of recall, problem solving, andcreative thinking is provided along with relevant experimental evidence.

Numerouslaboratory studies of creative idea generation are described that reveal the conceptual structuresthat give rise to imaginative thinking. Visual representations are considered in the context ofmemory distortions, and in the use of diagrams in scientific discovery. Models that help clarify therelation between comprehension and creativity are discussed, and a novel integration of ideas(primary and secondary process thinking, conditioning, genetic algorithms, chaos theory, thethermodynamics of crystallography) are brought together in a connectionist framework. A multivariateinvestment approach is used to study creative performance, and criteria for assessing and enhancingcreative realism are detailed.

A Bradford Book