Creativity and Thought II

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Creativity and Thought II

• September 15, 2005

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Review

• People are more creative when they think
  divergently because they can think of a large
  number of ideas that are different from one
  another.
• Our past experiences can limit our ability to
  think divergently Negative transfer.
• Can past experience ever help? Positive
  transfer.

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Positive Transfer and Analogy

• Positive transfer The transfer of factual
  knowledge and skills from one setting to another.
  
• 75 of subjects who first saw the military
  problem correctly solved the radiation problem as
  compared to 10 who did not receive the military
  problem first.
• Analogy Mappings of relationships between
  problems regardless of their actual content.

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Use Analogies With Caution

• Difficult to disregard content and push it to the
  background.
• Transparency Danger that we will see an analogy
  where none exists.
• Example Studying for final exams in two
  psychology courses in which the exam will be open
  book essay in one and closed book multiple choice
  in the other. Transparency of content can lead
  use to use the same study strategy.

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Incubation If you cant solve a problem set it
aside

• Why does it work? The value of forgetting
• (a). We can forget the un-important details
  allowing
• us to see larger patterns in the
  information we
• learned.
• (b). New stimulus may trigger new perspective on
• the problem.
• (c). Low state of arousal (e.g. right before
  falling
• asleep) increases attention span which
  facilitates
• remote associations.

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Creativity and Knowledge Acquisition

• Knowledge is a double-edged sword.
• Sometimes existing knowledge prevents from
  solving new problems---negative transfer.
• Sometimes existing knowledge helps us solve new
  problems.
• The outcome may depend on how knowledge is
  acquired and used.

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Model of Knowledge Acquisition

• Three ways to acquire knowledge that lead to 3
  different types of creative insights.
• Selective encoding
• Selective combination
• Selective comparison

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Selective Encoding

• Definition Sifting out relevant from irrelevant
  information.
• Example Fleming noticed that mold killed the
  bacteria he was attempting to grow in his Petri
  dish. Realized that the mold was important not
  his original experiment and discovered penicillin.

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Selective Combination

• Definition Blending together disparate pieces of
  information that may at first seem irrelevant.
• Example The facts that form the basis of
  Darwins theory of evolution had been available
  for a long time but he realized how to put them
  together.

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Selective Comparison

• Definition Relating newly acquired information
  to information acquired in the past.
• Example Kekules discovery of the Benzene
  molecule. He had a dream in which a snake danced
  around and bit its tail. The next day he
  realized that the snake was an image of the
  structure of the ring.

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Circling Back To Traits

• Intellectual styles predict how people use their
  intelligence.
• Intelligence can be directed at different types
  of goals, used is different ways and result in
  different outcomes.
• Question Which intellectual styles predict
  creativity?

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Intellectual Trait Associated with Creativity

• People with a legislative thinking style
• Like to create their own rules
• Like to do things their own way.
• Prefer to work on problems that are open ended.

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Intellectual Trait that Limits Creativity

• People with an executive thinking style
• Like to follow rules
• Like to select from existing ways of doing
  things.
• Prefer problems that are structured.

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Linking Personality to Creative Thought

• Broad Interests
• High Energy
• Openness to experience
• Attraction to Complexity
• Tolerance for ambiguity

• Use analogies to recognize links between ideas.
• Produce a large number of ideas to increase
  novelty.
• Legislative as opposed to executive thinking
  style.

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Conclusion

• Certain traits and cognitive abilities are
  associated with creativity.
• Personality theories suggest that some people can
  engage in these behaviors more easily than
  others.
• Rest of us can also learn to think creatively
  with effort.