When we sit down to write, draw, speak, or otherwise create, there is no countdown to the ultimate idea. When we take in a creative piece, there’s almost no way to tell whether each word has come easily or struggled to fit their sentences. In a finished piece, everything reads as natural.
Creativity can seem like an elusive goal, something hoped for instead of worked on. Projects that require it are hard to start. However, by demystifying the creative process with cognitive science, we understand its factors, its difficulties, and that it’s entirely possible and valuable for anyone.
The Creative Process
Graham Wallas, a psychologist and educationalist, aimed to create a model of the creative process and defined four stages: Preparation, Incubation, Illumination, and Verification. By understanding these stages, waiting for an idea is more predictable and less frustrating.
Stage One: Preparation
In the first stage, people search internally and externally for information, materials, and inspiration. They start to fully understand the goal and possible steps towards it.
Stage Two: Incubation
Next, ideas need time and space to grow. Walking away from a problem allows the subconscious to make connections between prepared ideas and a wider range of contexts.
Thoughts happen quickly, meaning we can have hundreds in a few minutes. Focusing on a task requires filtering. By doing something else, the brain starts to wander farther than it could while staying on a single path.
Inhibitory Control and Creation
The ability to “filter thoughts” or suppress automatic responses to stimuli is an executive function known as inhibitory control. An example is waiting for another person in a conversation to finish talking before talking.
Inhibitory control plays an interesting role in creativity because, though it can hinder creativity, being skilled at it is linked to higher creativity. This could be because of its value in other stages: it limits distraction and promotes deeper thinking. The benefit of having an ability like inhibitory control might rely on knowing how to use it.
Related studies led to psychologist J. P. Guilford’s distinction between two types of creation: convergent thinking finds a single best solution to a problem, while divergent thinking aims for multiple answers to open-ended questions like, “How can a paperclip be used?” These cognitive science concepts provide vocabulary for discussing how creativity relates to general features of the mind.
Stage Three: Illumination
After ideas are allowed to develop, insights break into the forefront of the mind. This experience of suddenly understanding something is known as the eureka effect, eureka moment, or Aha! moment. Eureka moments often happen randomly and suddenly, leading to the belief that creative ideas are random and sudden, when they’re actually more connected to what we already know.
How Problem Solving Leads to Insight
A few theories aim to explain that gaining insight is not just a two-step process of having a problem and then experiencing a eureka moment.
Firstly, the progress monitoring theory proposes that we think about how far we are from our goal as we solve a problem, and once we realize our path isn’t working, finding alternatives becomes a focus. Going path to path takes time.
Meanwhile, the representational change theory proposes that as we better understand the problem, we relax unnecessary restraints.
The process of chunking, where the mind groups pieces of information to better retain it in short-term memory, is why problems need a moment to process. For example, you might remember and read the phone number 555-135-4680 as 555, 135, and 4680. It can feel strange to recite it all in a row, one number at a time. In chunk decomposition, “chunks” are broken down in order for their elements to be understood and regrouped in a more meaningful, productive way.
In summary, problem-solving involves complex, dynamic cognitive processes that because of their unconscious nature, aren’t given great attention.
Stage Four: Verification
Finally, ideas are built on, fine-tuned, and turned into creations. Critical thinking, or thinking rationally and without bias, helps in recognizing faults and ways to improve; however, it’s difficult. Cognition is limited. We are constantly perceiving and reacting to the world, creating a load of information. For efficiency, we must carefully choose what influences to prioritize.
Sometimes, shortcuts known as heuristics are taken, leading to bias. For example, the availability heuristic describes making quick decisions based on what’s easy to bring to mind. Someone might decide against travel by plane just because the article they read recently makes the choice of plane travel seem dangerous.
The challenge of efficient but productive thinking can make verification the stage most demanding of time and effort.
What Affects Creativity?
Individual Factors
Some people seem to be more creative than others, raising the question of why this is the case and whether creativity is natural or something to be taught.
Personality & Cognitive Style
Personality traits have been shown to play a role, though further research is required to determine its relative significance. Cognitive style is similar to personality, but describes how someone processes information, thinks, and solves problems instead of what their usual thoughts, feelings, or behaviors are.
How creativity could or should be measured isn’t clear, complicating its study. At least for now, findings are often based on completion of tasks requiring cognitive skills like divergent thinking.
The traits openness and impulsivity have been most commonly linked to higher creative performance. One theory for why is that openness promotes having diverse experiences that plant seeds for later great ideas. Additionally, openness and impulsivity push people away from conventionality and unlock access to strange but effective solutions. On the other hand, neuroticism, often associated with increased anxiety and rumination, may lower creativity.
Background
A major way people differ is by their histories. People come from different cultures, areas, socioeconomic classes, and more.
Culture influences values, beliefs, and expectations. A culture that values or expects conformity might limit self-expression, making innovative ideas less likely to be shared.
Area and socioeconomic class largely determine availability of resources like money, time, and guidance. Without sufficient money or time, using creativity is much more difficult. People in undeveloped countries or lower socioeconomic classes may not have reliable access to the Internet or make enough money to pay for technology.
Overall, culture, area, socioeconomic class, and personal choices also all come together to determine the kinds of memories that people take inspiration from. Ultimately, being exposed to a variety of stimuli and experiences is key.
Situational Factors
Factors affecting creativity can also be specific to the task or situation. Notably, motivation to complete the task is affected by intrinsic interest as well as how important, urgent, and novel it is. Studies have repeatedly shown the strong relationship between intrinsic motivation and creativity.
Because these determinants are subjective, two people doing similar work can display different levels of creativity. Additionally, something to consider in research is that one person might outperform someone else by having more experience and expertise in the specific knowledge the work requires, not necessarily by being “more creative.”
Fostering Creativity
Creativity helps us all solve problems. It’s important for officials in schools and workplaces, as well as individual people, to know how to create environments conducive to innovative thinking and problem-solving. Work becomes more efficient and pleasurable.
The creative process, often divided into the stages Preparation, Incubation, Illumination, and Verification, involves complex cognitive processes. The study of creativity is one window into the broad, interdisciplinary study of cognitive science.
This process can be affected by a myriad of factors, some of which are specific to the person or task. Creativity relies on skills, such as divergent thinking, that people seem to have different natural talents in. However, it’s possible to improve your creativity, especially with an understanding of how it works.
References
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- Center, Pearce. “The 5-Step Creative Process.” Pearce Center for Professional Communication, 2 Apr. 2021, pearce.caah.clemson.edu/the-5-step-creative-process.
- Cherry, Kendra. “How Chunking Pieces of Information Can Improve Memory.” Verywell Mind, 19 Dec. 2022, www.verywellmind.com/chunking-how-can-this-technique-improve-your-memory-2794969.
- De Jesus, Saúl Neves, et al. “Intrinsic Motivation and Creativity Related to Product: A Meta-analysis of the Studies Published Between 1990–2010.” Creativity Research Journal, vol. 25, no. 1, Jan. 2013, pp. 80–84. https://doi.org/10.1080/10400419.2013.752235.
- “Divergent v.s. Convergent Thinking: How to Find the Right Balance.” Nulab, 19 Jan. 2022, nulab.com/learn/strategy-and-planning/divergent-vs-convergent-thinking-how-to-find-the-right-balance.
- Feist, Gregory J. “A Meta-Analysis of Personality in Scientific and Artistic Creativity.” Personality and Social Psychology Review, vol. 2, no. 4, Nov. 1998, pp. 290–309. https://doi.org/10.1207/s15327957pspr0204_5.
- Jones, Gary. “Testing two cognitive theories of insight.” APA PsycNet, psycnet.apa.org/record/2003-07955-024.
- Novotney, Amy. “The Science of Creativity.” https://www.apa.org, www.apa.org/gradpsych/2009/01/creativity.
- West, Richard F., et al. “Heuristics and biases as measures of critical thinking: Associations with cognitive ability and thinking dispositions.” Journal of Educational Psychology, vol. 100, no. 4, Nov. 2008, pp. 930–41. https://doi.org/10.1037/a0012842.
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