Creacción LectureCognitive

Mechanisms in Creative Design

Steven M. SmithDepartment of Psychology

Texas A&M University

Developing Pedagogical Models for Interdisciplinary Creation and Research Processes

Approaches to the Study of Creativity

1. Creative Products2. Creative Personalities3. Creative Processes

What is Creativity? Creative Processes

Creative Cognitive Processes

Knowledge/SkillDivergent Production

FixationIntuitive Guiding

Opportunistic Assimilation

Mind WanderingVisual Synthesis

Cognitive RestructuringStructured Imagination

Abstract ThinkingConceptual

CombinationAnalogical Transfer

1. To know how to train creative thinking.

2. To create new tools to support creative thinking.

3. To support the process of creative design.

Why do we need to study Creative

Cognition?

Creative Cognition

Generative Processes

Exploratory Processes

Producing Ideational Structures

Exploring Ideational Structures

Creative Cognition

Generative Processes

Exploratory Processes

Divergent Production

Intuitive GuidingMental Play

Opportunistic Assimilation

Cognitive Restructuring

Structured Imagination

Abstract ThinkingConceptual Extension

Conceptual Combination

Analogical Transfer

MIND-WANDERINGHighly volatile & easily distracted thinking, a

scattered mind“Attention becomes disengaged from the immediate external environment and focused on internal trains of thought.”

“a goal-driven process, albeit one that is not directed toward the primary task (Smallwood & Schooler, 2006)

Costs of mind-wandering: Reading, Attention, aptitude

What are some possible benefits of mind-wandering?

Incubation and Insight

Boosting Activation Above Threshold

OPPORTUNISTIC ASSIMILATION

leaves

conscious threshold

conscious

unconscious

Mental Play: VISUAL SYNTHESISPlaying with forms to generate

pre-inventive structures for exploring

Structured Imagination

New (creative) ideas are based on existing concepts and schemas.

Structured Imagination

New (creative) ideas are based on existing concepts and schemas.

Path of Least Resistance

Conceptual extension tends to begin with a basic level category, and then become more specific.

Abstraction promotes creative ways to redefine problems.

Redefining Problems

Abstraction promotes creative ways to redefine problems.

Redefining Problems

Abstract ThinkingAnalogical Transfer

Conceptual Combination

ABSTRACT THINKINGA hierarchical approach

Creative Cognition: A “Big Picture”Generating Preinventive Knowledge Structures

Divergent ThinkingIntuitive Guiding

FixationIncubation & Insight

Exploring & Playing with KnowledgeAbstraction

Conceptual ExtensionAnalogical Transfer

Conceptual Combination

A flexible collaboration of many different cognitive processes, each

contributing in its own way.

Creative Cognition