creativity where do ideas come from? GEOGERAS TU WIENDI Christine Rottenbacher

Creativity Christine Rottenbacher 20 2 Introduction

Creativity Christine Rottenbacher 20 3 Preview Motivation Context Theories and Methods Assumption Experimental Set Up

Creativity Christine Rottenbacher 20 4 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?

Creativity Christine Rottenbacher 20 5 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)

Creativity Christine Rottenbacher 20 6 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),...

Creativity Christine Rottenbacher 20 7 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?

Creativity Christine Rottenbacher 20 8 Phases of the Creative Process INTENTION: to approach a problem INFORMATION: uptake of relevant information and learning INCUBATION: conscious efforts are resting ILLUMINATION: sudden flash of insight VERIFICATION: conscious evaluation COMMUNICATION: transmitting of the idea to others VALIDITATION: public evaluation of the idea Wallas 1926, Feldman 1988, Csikszentmihaly 1996

Creativity Christine Rottenbacher 20 9 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).

Creativity Christine Rottenbacher Methods related to concrete Questions Motivation and Creativity Intrinsic Motivation: fosters creativity Extrinsic 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

Creativity Christine Rottenbacher Methods related to concrete Questions Productivity and Creativity Simonton (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 productivity Individuals 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

Creativity Christine Rottenbacher Methods related to concrete Questions Knowledge and Creativity Weisberg (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

Creativity Christine Rottenbacher Methods related to concrete Questions Personality and Creativity Sulloway (1997) made research on personality and discovered a relation between creativity and rebellious personality. Further experiments on first- born persons and on correlations between IQ and creativity.

Creativity Christine Rottenbacher Combination with Gestalt Theory I 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.

Creativity Christine Rottenbacher Contact Process James I. Kepner

Creativity Christine Rottenbacher Cognitive Neuroscience of Creativity Dietrich Arne (2004) Creative insights occur in consciousness.

Creativity Christine Rottenbacher Cognitive Neuroscience of Creativity 5 Qualities of environmental stimuli are important: → modality (seeing, hearing,…) → quality (colour, tone,…) → intensity (loud, soft,…) → structure of time (periodically,…) → place (where)

Creativity Christine Rottenbacher 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 of stimuli: old :: new important :: unimportant

Creativity Christine Rottenbacher Experimental Setup Task- oriented: landscape planners have to design a complex environment Method: video ananlysis by independent observing groups

Creativity Christine Rottenbacher Thank you! For your attention!