PSY 813 Psychology of Creativity Past Paper PDF

Copyright The copyright to this original work is held by Professor Ammirante and students registered in course PSY 813 can use this material for the purpo...

Copyright The copyright to this original work is held by Professor Ammirante and students registered in course PSY 813 can use this material for the purposes of this course but no other use is permitted, and there can be no sale or transfer or use of the work for any other purposes without explicit permission of Professor Ammirante. PSY 813 (week 10): Psychology of creativity 1 - theories and approaches Paolo Ammirante 06/11/2024 2/55 Outline · What is creativity? · Cognitive approach · Neurobiology approach · Psychometric approach · Historiometric approach · Readings: Kaufman & Glăveanu (2019); Zabelina & Silvia (2020) What is creativity? 3/55 Defining creativity 4C model of creativity · General agreement among psychologists that creativity involves producing · developmental trajectory proposed by Kaufmann & Beghetto (2009) something that has two qualities: - 1 originality - may seem subjective but people tend to have strong agreement (Sternberg & Lubart, 1996) - 2 quality or value, i.e., people find it meaningful, useful, good · Some others: - task-appropriateness - regularity of production, i.e., not just “lucky” 5/55 6/55 The creative process · 5 ideas about the creative thinking process: - convergent/divergent thinking - associate theory - analogic thinking - geneplore model - Wallas’ stage model Cognitive approach 8/55 Convergent/divergent thinking Associate theory · convergent thinking: thinking that works towards nding a solution to a · Associate theory: creativity involves ability to make connections between specic problem that usually has a correct solution remote concepts (Kaufman & Glăveanu, 2019, p. 32) · divergent thinking: thinking that is open-minded; involves exploring many - “Creativity is just connecting things” (Steve Jobs) possible solutions - basis of the Remote Associations Test (more later) - central concept behind many creativity tests (more later) 9/55 10/55 Analogic Thinking Geneplore model · analogical thinking: “a problem-solving strategy in which similarities are noted · proposes that the creative process cycling between two phases (Finke et between two or more situations” (Halpern, 2003) al. 1992): · particularly relevant to inventions: - 1 generative phase - unfinished ideas - e.g., angioplasty - 2 explorative phase - interpreting and implementing generated ideas 11/55 12/55 Wallas’ stage model Incubation and insight · creative process involves passing through different stages (Kaufman & · “The germ of a future composition comes suddenly and unexpectedly. If the Glăveanu, 2019, p. 32): soil is ready … it takes root with extraordinary force and rapidity, shoots up - preparation: focusing on the problem and gather knowledge through the earth, puts forth branches, leaves, and, finally, blossoms.” (P. I. Tchaikovsky, composer) - incubation: mind keeps thinking about the problem even if the person is doing other tasks - insight: “aha” moment in which the solution appears - verification: creative idea is tested, expanded, and implemented 13/55 14/55 Incubation and insight Incubation and insight · “I don’t want to say mystical, but you can’t put your finger on it. Once you’ve · “I went to spend a few days at the seaside, and thought of something else. got that idea, the rest will come. It’s like you’ve planted a seed, then you water One morning, walking on the bluff, the idea came to me, with just the same it a bit and suddenly it sticks up out of the ground and goes, hey, look at me.” characteristics of brevity, suddenness and immediate certainty, that the (Keith Richards, Rolling Stones) arithemic transformations of indeterminate ternary quadratic forms were identical to those of non-Euclidian geometry” (Henri Poincare, Mathematician) 15/55 16/55 Is this magic? Luchins’ water jug problem · What is going on during incubation to promote creative insight? (Halpern, · three jugs of different capacities 2003) · use these to measure out a specific · some possibilities: amount of water - release from mental set - spread of activation - memory consolidation Smith (2003) 17/55 18/55 Mental set Release from mental set · mental set group did all 10 in order · mental set is a heuristic · no mental set group only did last 2 · with an incubation period, there is no need to rely on heuristics · mental set (Einstellung): becoming stuck in a specific problem-solving strategy 19/55 20/55 Nodes in a network Spread of activation · associate theory modelled as “spreading activation” between nodes in a network · e.g., Meyer and Schvaneveldt (1971) has participants response as fast as · more creative ideas involve more possible whether both in pair were words distant nodes · slower reaction times for more distantly-related words - takes more time · maybe luxury of an incubation period allows for spreading activation to distant nodes 21/55 22/55 Memory consolidation Sleeping on a problem · new memories are fragile and must be consolidated if they are to become · Number Reduction task in Wagner et al. (2004): permanent · presented with an 8-digit series of 1’s, 4’s, and 9’s · consolidation involves strengthening new memories by “replaying” them in · Rules: our head - if two digits are the same, respond with that digit - especially during sleep - if two digits are different, respond with the remaining digit · but also editing out the unimportant stuff and keeping the important stuff - comparison is between series - i.e., consolidation involves mentally restructuring memories - final digit is your answer · NOVA sleep [6:45-9:56]: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nn6gnhg71hE · restructuring may lead to insight 23/55 24/55 Number reduction task Wagner et al. (2004) · procedure: did the number reduction task before and after 8-hr incubation period: - SLEEP - WAKE-NIGHT - WAKE-DAY · DV: percentage of participants gaining insight 25/55 26/55 Findings · Participants in the SLEEP group were more than twice as likely to gain the insight. · consolidation -> restructuring -> insight · incubation period allows for this to happen Wagner et al. (2004) Neurobiology approach 27/55 Flow state Measures of flow · e.g. 1, flow state (aka in the zone): “Being completely involved in an activity for · questionnaire its own sake. The ego falls away. Time flies. Every action, movement, and - e.g., Flow State Scale thought follows inevitably from the previous one, like playing jazz. Your whole being is involved, and you’re using your skills to the utmost” (Csikszentmihalyi · experience sampling in https://www.wired.com/1996/09/czik/) · brain activity - not specific to creativity, but people are most creative when in a state of flow Jackson & Marsh (1996, p. 34) 29/55 30/55 Brain correlates Limb & Braun (2008) · flow state associated with · e.g., Limb & Braun (2008) showed less activity in DLPFC when jazz pianists deactivation of the dorsolateral improvise prefrontal cortex (DLPFC) · https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hnlvqWxAjGY - DLPFC is involved with self- · DLPFC can be non-invasively deactivated using transcranial Direct Current censoring, inhibition, etc. Stimulation (tDCS) - interpretation: silencing of our By Pancrat - Own work, CC BY-SA 3.0, - several studies have investigated effect of tDCS on creativity “inner critic” https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/ index.php?curid=13359196 31/55 32/55 Default Mode Network Ellamil et al. (2012) · default mode network active during rest and mindwandering · participants were undergraduates from the Emily Carr University of Art and · prefrontal cortex involved in executive control Design · Beatty et al. (2014) scanned brains at rest of low and high scorers on a · shown book descriptions; tasked with coming up with book cover designs in the fMRI scanner divergent thinking test · showed greater coactivation of default mode network and prefrontal cortex in high-creative group - Interpretation: - default mode = idea generation - prefrontal cortex = idea evaluation Ellamil et al. (2012) 33/55 34/55 Ellamil et al. (2012) · deliberately alternated between: - idea generation (drawing or writing ideas) - idea evaluation (drawing or writing evaluations of the ideas) · Findings: - default mode network more active for idea generation - executive control network more active for idea evaluation Psychometric approach 35/55 Psychometric tests of creativity RAT · Three well-known standardized tests for creativity: · Can you think of a word that is associated with all three words? - Remote Associations Test (RAT) - OPERA HAND DISH - test of associate theory/convergent thinking · How about this one? - Torrance Tests of Creative Thinking (TTCT) - FALLING ACTOR DUST - test of divergent thinking · more questions here: https://www.remote-associates-test.com/ - Alternate Uses Test (AUT) - test of divergent thinking 37/55 38/55 TTCT and AUT Balzac · “This coffee falls into your stomach, and straightway there is a general commotion. Ideas begin to move like the battalions of the Grand Army on the battleeld, and the battle takes place…” (Honoré de Balzac, Treatise on Modern Stimulants) · evidence? https://lifewithbb.weebly.com/torrance.html · Try AUT here: https://davebirss.com/altuses/ By Louis-Auguste Bisson - http:// images.nzz.ch, Public Domain, https:// commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php? curid=53687940 39/55 40/55 Does coffee make us creative? Balzac · Zabelina and Silvia (2020) had students consume: · effect of caffeine on RAT but not TTCT - 200 mg caffeine pill (= 12 oz coffee) · remained after controlling for: - OR placebo - mood · then completed RAT and TTCT - caffeine expectancy (e.g., ratings on “Caffeine picks me up when I am feeling tired”) - working memory Fig. 1 from Zabelina & Sylvia (2020) 41/55 42/55 What’s so great about caffeine? Threshold effect · authors’ interpretation: caffeine focuses attention · a stereotype is that creative people are “geniuses” - needed for convergent task · Torrance thought there was a threshold effect if IQ at about 120 - but not for divergent task (mind needs to wander) · debated in the literature 43/55 44/55 Creativity and mental health Bipolar disorder and creativity · another stereotypical association is · some correlational evidence to support the link creativity and mentally illness - e.g., Kyaga et al. (2011) study of more than 300,000 Swedes found bipolar - e.g., Dutch artist Van Gogh cut off disorder overrepresented in creative professions his ear; “27 club” (Kurt Cobain, - but direction of causality unclear Jimi Hendrix, Amy Winehouse, etc.) · “We of the craft are all crazy” (Lord Byron) By Vincent van Gogh - mwF3N6F_RfJ4_w — Google Arts & Culture, Public Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/ index.php?curid=21977797 45/55 46/55 Peak age for creativity · historiometric approach uses statistics to analyze creativity - focuses on “Big-C creativity” · e.g., is there a peak age for creativity? Historiometric approach 48/55 Peak age for creativity Career age · Dennis (1966) looked at the quantity · 1 chronological age might not be the of output from famous people in arts, best measure of creative sciences, and scholarship development - found decline starting in late-30s/ - e.g., Anna Mary Robertson early-40s (“Grandma Moses”) started painting in her 70s and produced · A couple of issues with this method: thousands of paintings - e.g., Mozart started composing at 4 and wrote 600 works before https://www.reddit.com/r/museum/ death at 35 comments/zl7dg/ · career age might be a better anna_mary_robertson_grandma_moses_7_septemb measure 49/55 50/55 Quantity versus quality Equal-odds rule · 2 quantity is not necessarily the same as quality · but in a way, focusing on quality doesn’t remove the inuence of quantity · to address this issue, instead of looking at total output, some creativity - equal-odds rule: all else being equal, if you produce more stuff, then you researchers focus on measures of “eminence” will be more likely to produce something good - e.g., space allotted in reference works (e.g., Wikipedia, etc.) - e.g., number of awards and honours - e.g., surveys of experts (e.g., top 100 songs of all time, etc.) 51/55 52/55 References 1 References 2 · Beaty, R. E., Benedek, M., Wilkins, R. W., Jauk, E., Fink, A., Silvia, P. J., … & Neubauer, A. C. (2014). · Kaufman, J. C., & Beghetto, R. A. (2009). Beyond Big and Little: The Four C Model of Creativity. Review of Creativity and the default network: A functional connectivity analysis of the creative brain at rest. General Psychology, 13, 1-12. Neuropsychologia, 64, 92-98. · Kaufman, J. C., & Glăveanu, V. P. (2019). A review of creativity theories: What questions are we trying to · Dennis, W. (1966). Creative productivity between the ages of 20 and 80 years. Journal of Gerontology, answer? In J. C. Kaufman & R. J. Sternberg (Eds.), The Cambridge handbook of creativity (2nd ed., 21(1), 1-8. pp. 27–43). Cambridge University Press. · Ellamil M., Dobson C., Beeman M., Christoff K. Evaluative and generative modes of thought during the · Kyaga, S., Lichtenstein, P., Boman, M., Hultman, C., Långström, N., & Landen, M. (2011). Creativity and creative process. NeuroImage. 2012;59:1783–1794. mental disorder: family study of 300 000 people with severe mental disorder. The British Journal of · Finke, R.A., Ward, T. B., & Smith, S. M. (1992). Creative cognition: Theory, research, and applications. Psychiatry, 199(5), 373-379. Cambridge: Bradford. · Limb, C. J., & Braun, A. R. (2008). Neural substrates of spontaneous musical performance: An fMRI · Halpern, D. F. (2003). Thought & knowledge: An introduction to critical thinking (4th ed.). Lawrence study of jazz improvisation. PLoS one, 3(2), e1679. Erlbaum Associates Publishers. · Luchins, A. S. (1942). Mechanization in problem solving - the effect of Einstellung. Psychological Monographs, 54(6), 195. · Jackson, S. A., & Marsh, H. W. (1996). Development and validation of a scale to measure optimal experience: The Flow State Scale. Journal of sport and exercise psychology, 18(1), 17-35. · Meyer, D. E., & Schvaneveldt, R. W. (1971). Facilitation in recognizing pairs of words. Evidence of a dependence between retrieval operations. Journal of Experimental Psychology, 90, 227-234. 53/55 54/55 References 3 · Simonton, D. K. (1980). Thematic fame, melodic originality, and musical zeitgeist: A biographical and transhistorical content analysis. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 38(6), 972. · Smith, S. M. (2003). The constraining effects of initial ideas. Group creativity: Innovation through collaboration, 15-31. · Sternberg, R. J., & Lubart, T. I. (1996). Investing in creativity. American Psychologist, 51, 677-688. · Wagner, U., Gais, S., Haider, H., Verleger, R., & Born, J. (2004). Sleep inspires insight. Nature, 427(6972), 352-355. · Wallas, G. (1926). Art of Thought. New York: Harcourt. · Zabelina, D. L., & Silvia, P. J. (2020). Percolating ideas: The effects of caffeine on creative thinking and problem solving. Consciousness and Cognition, 79, 102899. 55/55