Creativity where do ideas come from? GEOGERAS TU WIENDI Christine Rottenbacher.

creativity where do ideas come from?

GEOGERAS

TU WIEN DI Christine Rottenbacher

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Introduction

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Preview

Motivation

Context

Theories and Methods

Assumption

Experimental Set Up

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Questions

Why is the question of the creative process

important for scientific work?

How do different disciplines investigate approaches to

understand the process of creativity and measure

resources of creativity?

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Systems View of Creativity

Domain

Society Individual

The Domain is a system of representation of wisdom and knowledge.

The Society consists of a group of gatekeepers deciding what belongs to the domain and what not.

The Individual generates novel ideas, trying to change the domain. (Csikszentmihaly)

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Creative Products

are changes in the domain by the individual that are retained

by society!This model shows possibilities of influencing the

probability of creative acts: A culture can restrict the access to a domain, A change of notation systems can contribute to

creativity (arabic numerals, roman numerals),...

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Creative Process

Many questions concern the nature of the creative process:

What is the role of experience?What is the role of motivation?What is the role of insight, illumination and

unconscious processing?

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Phases of the Creative ProcessINTENTION: to approach a problemINFORMATION: uptake of relevant information

and learningINCUBATION: conscious efforts are restingILLUMINATION: sudden flash of insightVERIFICATION: conscious evaluationCOMMUNICATION: transmitting of the idea to

othersVALIDITATION: public evaluation of the idea

Wallas 1926, Feldman 1988, Csikszentmihaly 1996

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Theories and Methods

For developing methods for empirical measurements we need

coherent theories of creativity.Commonly used methods to study creativity are: biographies (historiometric- quantifiable

parameters) and test- oriented approaches (measure resources for

creativity).

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Methods related to concrete QuestionsMotivation and CreativityIntrinsic Motivation: fosters creativityExtrinsic Motivation: disrupts and suppresses creativity

Intrinsic motivated people are more persistent in their work.Extrinsic motivated people accept the first idea, want their

work to be done.

Amabile (1985)

Method: consensual assesment technique to compare parallel creative works created under different motivational constraints.

inter-rater reliabilities

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Methods related to concrete QuestionsProductivity and CreativitySimonton (1999) analysed the output of creative individuals

(sciences, literature, music). His theory assumes that the quality of each work is

constant, the amount of published outcome is not.Creativity is linked to productivityIndividuals produce their most renowned works, when they

also produce their most work. (80% of total publications in a field are created by

only 20% of the people of the field).Method: historiometric analysis

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Methods related to concrete QuestionsKnowledge and CreativityWeisberg (1986, 1993): experience and knowledge contribute

to creativity.He examined knowledge combined with everyday new

experience and developed the 10 year rule.

Method: task- oriented cognitivist approaches

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Methods related to concrete QuestionsPersonality and CreativitySulloway (1997) made research on personality and discovered a relation between creativity and rebellious

personality.Further experiments on first- born personsand on correlations between IQ and creativity.

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Combination with Gestalt TheoryI have the assumption that creativity is more than problem

solving, creativity breaks usual mental sets (Newell, Simon 1972).Cognitive processes include emotional and bodily processes

of perception, interpretation, decision and action.These processes are induced by getting into contact with one

self, with another person, or with environment.

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Contact Process

James I. Kepner

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Cognitive Neuroscience of CreativityDietrich Arne (2004)Creative insights occur in consciousness.

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Cognitive Neuroscience of Creativity5 Qualities of environmental stimuli are

important:

→ modality (seeing, hearing,…) → quality (colour, tone,…) → intensity (loud, soft,…) → structure of time (periodically,…) → place (where)

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Attention and Consciousness

Attention ist the capacity to react to stimuli.

There are centers in the brain, which are involved in the

regulation of attention:Mind (Hippocampus), emotional valuation (Septum, Amygdala, ventrales Striatum) and the

classification ofstimuli:

old :: new important :: unimportant

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Experimental Setup

Task- oriented: landscape planners have to design a

complex environmentMethod: video ananlysis by independent observing

groups

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Thank you!

For your attention!