learning creativity reflection
Introduction to creativity Studies Week 2
Nathaniel Barr, PhD
300,000 years ago
“Humans are animals that specialize in thinking and knowing, and our extraordinary cognitive abilities have transformed every aspect of our lives.
In contrast to our chimpanzee cousins and Stone Age ancestors, we are complex political, economic, scientific and artistic creatures, living in a vast range of habitats, many of which are our own creation.”
Cecelia Hayes, New Thinking: The Evolution of Human Cognition
Almost 50 thousand years ago
Oldest cave art found in Sulawesi
BY ADAM BRUMM, ADHI AGUS OKTAVIANA, BASRAN BURHAN, BUDIANTO HAKIM, RUSTAN LEBE, JIAN-XIN ZHAO, PRIYATNO HADI SULISTYARTO, MARLON RIRIMASSE, SHINATRIA ADHITYATAMA, IWAN SUMANTRI, MAXIME AUBERT, SCIENCE ADVANCES13 JAN 2021 : EABD4648
Almost 50 thousand years ago
“Unlike previous eras, when stasis dominated, innovation is now the essence of culture, with change being measured in millennia rather than hundreds of millennia.
Known as the Upper Paleolithic Revolution, this collective archaeological signal is unmistakable evidence of the modern human mind at work.
Richard Leakey, The Origin of Humankind
A few decades ago
Guilford, J. P.(1950). Creativity. American Psychologist, 5.
“The neglect of this subject by psychologists is appalling…”
History of Creativity Studies
Over time, humanity’s view of the creative process has changed, which in turn has altered who we think can be creative and whether we are in control of the process
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The Ancients
Western: e.g., Ancient Greeks
Eastern: e.g., China
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Ancient Greece
No actual term that corresponded to creativity or creative (instead used the term to make)
Assumed that all original ideas came from divine inspiration
Rather than create something, one was shown it
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Ancient Greece
The Muses: personification of knowledge and the arts, especially literature, dance and music
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Ancient Greece
Plato & Socrates:
Inspired thoughts originate with the gods
Don’t come when a person is rational, but when someone is "beside himself," when "bereft of his senses."
Since the gods took away reason before bestowing the gift of inspiration, "thinking" might actually prevent the reception of divinely inspired revelations.
"inspiration" is based on a Greek word meaning "the God within."
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Genius
the guiding spirit of a person, or even of an entire gens (a group of families believed to be descended from the same ancestor).
A related term is genius loci, the spirit of a specific locale.
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Ancient China
Nature provided inspiration
Inspired by surroundings rather than given an idea
Although still outside source, more credit given to “creator” than in Greek conception
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Variation in views regarding who could be creative
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Renaissance (1350-1600s)
“rebirth”
After black plague
Resurgence of classical ancient knowledge and focus on creativity and intellectualism
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Renaissance (1350-1600s)
New conception that creation was domain of individual:
Raphael: “he shapes a painting according to his idea”
Leonardo da Vinci, said he employs "shapes that do not exist”
Michelangelo, “the artist realizes his vision rather than imitating nature”
the Venetian art theoretician, Paolo Pino, that painting is "inventing what is not.”
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The Enlightenment (1620-1780s)
Age of Reason
Science
Skepticism
Voltaire (1753), ‘I value poetry only insofar as it is the ornament of reason’
Art more realistic
However, admitted conception of genius, which allowed less constrained creativity to emerge
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Hereditary Genius (Galton , 1869)
Victorian polymath: geographer, meteorologist, tropical explorer, founder of differential psychology, inventor of fingerprint identification, pioneer of statistical correlation and regression, convinced hereditarian, eugenicist, proto-geneticist, half-cousin of Charles Darwin and best-selling author.
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Hereditary Genius (Galton , 1869)
First social scientific study of great achievement
E.g.,
Studied 286 judges, 30 were Chancellor (higher rank) and 24/30 had eminent relations, compared to only 9 of remaining judges
This suggests strong hereditary influence upon genius
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Any problems with this logic?
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Inherited ability not enough
“Galton (1892) collected biographical information on eminent judges, statesmen, scientists, poets, musicians, painters, wrestlers, and others. Ability alone, he concluded, did not bring about success in any field.
Rather, he believed high achievers to be triply blessed by “ability combined with zeal and with capacity for hard labour” (p. 33).”
-Duckworth
Modern era
4Ps of Creativity Studies
Person
Product
Process
Press
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Systems view of Creativity
Hennessey & Amabile, 2010,
Annual Review of Psychology
interdisciplinary
History
Anthropology
Sociology
Urban studies
*Psychology (social, industrial/organizational, cognitive, clinical)
Neuroscience
American psychologist
Helped US Air Force train pilots
Developed Structure of Intelligence (SI) theory 1955
SI established the difference between convergent and divergent thinking
Developed early divergent thinking tests
J.P Guilford 1897-1987
* Creative Person *
Divergent and Convergent Thinking
Divergent thinking involves moving from a single starting point and extending our search in many different directions by:
Identifying opportunities
Generating varied ideas
Imagining many different perspectives
Seeking novel, unusual, or ‘out there’ solutions
Convergent thinking involves directing action towards a single solution by:
Analyzing possibilities
Critically evaluating options
Refining and developing promising possibilities
Choosing the best options
What are all the alternative uses for a brick?
Write as many answers as possible in two minutes.
Share answers with group.
J.P. Guilford’s Alternative Uses Task
Alternative Uses Task: Evaluation
Originality: Responses given by only 5% of the group are unusual and responses given by only 1% are highly novel.
Fluency: Total number of responses.
Flexibility: Different categories or types of responses. (Category 1: throw brick at wall, throw brick in a pool, throw brick during a riot; category 2: build a wall, build a castle, build a BBQ, build a loft, build a bookcase).
Elaboration: Detail in answer.
What would be all the results if dogs liked music?
You have 3 minutes to write down all your answers.
Share your results with your group.
J.P. Guilford’s Consequences Test
J.P Guilford’s Consequences Test: Evaluation Criteria
Quality: How coherent, meaningful are the consequences with respect to the question being asked?
Originality: To what degree are the consequences novel and imaginative? To what extent do they differ from the material presented or state more than what is obviously apparent from the problem?
Realism: How realistic and pragmatic are the consequences and would they occur in the real world?
Time span: To what extent do the consequences focus on long-term implications as opposed to short-term or immediate concerns?
Negative Consequences: Refers to the ‘absence or diminishing of something.’
Positive Consequences: Refers to the ‘presence or addition or something.’
Complexity: The degree to which the consequences contain multiple elements and describe the interrelations among those elements.
Use of General Principles: To what degree are there principles, laws, procedures, etc. underlying the consequences?
Source: Furnham, Adrian et al. “Personality and ability predictors of the ‘Consequences’ Test of divergent thinking in a large non-student sample.” Personal and Individual Differences 46 (2009): 536-540.
Alex F. Osborn (1888-1966)
An advertising executive
Founded Creative Education Foundation (1954) at the
University of Buffalo
Creative Process
The Rules of Brainstorming
Defer Judgment
Strive for Quantity
Freewheel
Synthesize
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American psychologist
“Father of Creativity Studies”
Torrance Tests of Creative Thinking (TTCT)
Torrance Incubation Model (TIM)
E. Paul Torrance 1915-2003
* Creative Person & Press *
Torrance Tests of Creative Thinking
What Might This Be?
Write as many answers in 2 minutes.
What Might This Be Task
TTCT
Impossibilities task
It was used originally by Guilford and his associates (1951) as a measure of fluency involving complex restrictions and large potential. In a course in personality development and mental hygiene, Torrance has experimented with a number of modifications of the basic task, making the restrictions more specific. In this task the subjects are asked to list as many impossibilities as they can.
Consequences task
The consequences task was also used originally by Guilford and his associates (1951). Torrance has made several modifications in adapting it. He chose three improbable situations and the children were required to list out their consequences.
Just suppose task
It is an adaptation of the consequences type of test designed to elicit a higher degree of spontaneity and to be more effective with children. As in the consequence task, the subject is confronted with an improbable situation and asked to predict the possible outcomes from the introduction of a new or unknown variable.
Situations task
The situation task was modeled after Guilford’s (1951) test designed to assess the ability to see what needs to be done. Subjects were given three common problems and asked to think of as many solutions to these problems as they can. For example, if all schools were abolished, what would you do to try to become educated?
TTCT
Common problems task
This task is an adoption of Guilford’s (1951) Test designed to assess the ability to see defects, needs and deficiencies and found to be one of the tests of the factors termed sensitivity to problems. Subjects are instructed that they will be given common situations and that they will be asked to think of as many problems as they can that may arise in connection with these situations. For example, doing homework while going to school in the morning.
Improvement task
This test was adopted from Guilford’s (1952) apparatus test which was designed to assess ability to see defects and all aspects of sensitivity to problems. In this task the subjects are given a list of common objects and are asked to suggest as many ways as they can to improve each object. They are asked not to bother about whether or not it is possible to implement the change thought of.
Imaginative stories task
In this task the child is told to write the most interesting and exciting story he can think of. Topics are suggested (e.g., the dog that did not bark); or the child may use his own ideas.
Post WW2 Psychology and revolution
Revolutions
“All crises begin with the blurring of a paradigm and the consequent loosening of the rules for normal research. Or finally, the case that will most concern us here, a crisis may end with the emergence of a new candidate for paradigm and with the ensuing battle over its acceptance.”
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During war time: equipment design required knowledge of human cognition
Focus: what is the most optimal way to design a machine for human use?
e.g., pilots landing airplanes
e.g., vigilance while monitoring the radar screen
The “Cognitive Revolution”
Human factors engineering presented new problems
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Donald Hebb: some functions (e.g., perception) are based on cell assemblies
Hubel & Weisel: demonstrated importance of early experience on development of nervous system (e.g., cats with early experience of horizontal lines failed to later perceive vertical lines)
The “Cognitive Revolution”
Localization of function in the brain forced discussion of mind
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The “Cognitive Revolution”
Localization of function in the brain forced discussion of mind
Hippocampal resection
“There has been one striking and totally unexpected behavioural results: a grave loss of recent memory”
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Input
Short Term
Long Term Memory
Output
The “Cognitive Revolution”
Development of computers and artificial intelligence gave a dominant metaphor
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CRUM
Computational-Representational Understanding of Mind
“Thinking can best be understood in terms of representational structures in the mind and computational procedures that operate on those structures.”
Mind: An Introduction to Cognitive Science (MIT Press, 1996)
“The term ‘cognition’ refers to all processes by which the sensory input is transformed, reduced, elaborated, stored, recovered, and used. It is concerned with these processes even when they operate in the absence of relevant stimulation, as in images and hallucinations... Given such a sweeping definition, it is apparent that cognition is involved in everything a human being might possibly do; that every psychological phenomenon is a cognitive phenomenon.”
Ulric Neisser, 1967, Cognitive Psychology
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Causes of Cognitive revolution
i) Human factors engineering advances
ii) Neuroscientific advances
iii) Computational/technological advances
Imaging the Future (Posner & Levitin, 1997)
1000 years ago: not universally held that the mind was located in brain
100 years ago: phrenology had people mapping skull
Last 10 years: “cognitive psychologists… have embraced neuroimaging techniques to localize mental operations in the brain, and to study their orchestration as humans perform a variety of tasks. ”
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http://www.zmescience.com/medicine/mind-and-brain/out-of-body-experience-fmri-10032014/
Continual Progression of Methods
Scientific method
Philosophy as means for understanding mind
Intuitions
Varied across people
Logic
Meaningless if original assumption is wrong
Reliance on Authority
Must decide based on evidence
Modern Psychology
Early days saw a variety of approaches that allowed new insight, but had some problems
Scientific psychology
Systematic empiricism:
Structured observations about the world that allow us to make precise inferences about the way the mind works
The Scientific Method: Terminology
Operational definitions are used to clarify precisely what is meant by each variable
Participants or subjects are the organisms whose behaviour is systematically observed in a study
Data collection techniques allow for empirical observation and measurement
- Psychologists use operational definitions to clarify what their variables mean: e.g., What exactly is sociability?
- Researchers use procedures for making empirical observations and measurements, including direct observation, questionnaires, interviews, psychological tests, physiological recordings, and examination of archival records.
- They depend on statistics to analyze data and decide whether hypotheses were supported. Observations are converted into numbers, which are then compared.
- They share their findings through reports at scientific meetings and in scientific journals. This way others can evaluate new research findings and build new ideas.
- Using the scientific approach, scientists state EXACTLY what they are talking about, resulting in clarity of communication. The scientific method also yields more accurate and dependable information than, for example, speculation.
- Research methods consist of differing approaches to the observation, measurement, manipulation, and control of variables in empirical studies.
Copyright © 2016 by Nelson Education Ltd
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Steps in a Scientific Investigation
Formulate a testable hypothesis
Select the research method and design
Collect the data
Analyze the data and draw conclusions
Report the findings
Discuss the Featured Study in this chapter: Dutton and Aron (1974)
Fear arousal can be mistaken for attraction or sexual arousal in certain contexts
Experimental design
Dependent variables were sexual imagery in TAT and whether they called back
Explain the results―higher levels of sexual arousal in TAT scores = more call backs from males crossing the high bridge
What does this mean? Should we take our first dates to see a scary movie rather than a romantic comedy?
Copyright © 2016 by Nelson Education Ltd
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“Humans are animals that specialize in thinking and knowing, and our extraordinary cognitive abilities have transformed every aspect of our lives. In contrast to our chimpanzee cousins and Stone Age ancestors, we are complex political, economic, scientific and artistic creatures, living in a vast range of habitats, many of which are our own creation.”
-Cecelia Hayes
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Meliorism
“humans can, through their interference with processes that would otherwise be natural, produce an outcome which is an improvement over the aforementioned natural one”