The Creative Process and Reality An analysis of search and cognition in the creative process and a call for an ecological cognitive framework for creativity research by Bo T. Christensen Redaktionsgruppen består af: Lars Hem (ansv.redaktør), Mogens Agervold, Birgitte Diderichsen, Jens Mammen og Thomas Nielsen. Sekretariat: Ingrid Graversen Psykologisk Studieskriftserie kan bestilles skriftligt eller pr. telefon (89424900). Bo T. Christensen UDGIVET PÅ PSYKOLOGISK INSTITUT AARHUS UNIVERSITET, ASYLVEJ 4, 8240 RISSKOV RISSKOV, 2002 Tryk: Institut for Statskundskab FOREWORD The present dissertation is not only interesting in its analysis of the creative process. It is also itself a substantial and creative contribution to psycho- logical theory and the development of fundamental scientific concepts. There are apparent paradoxes in the traditional understanding of creativity, as there seems to be an insurmountable gap between the objective reality of existing objects and qualities and the subjective creation of the new and surprising. Bo Christensen suggests a convincing solution to these para- doxes by expanding the reduced and often implicit ontology of most psy- chological theory. The objective category of the factually existing is sup- plemented with the possible and the impossible. And the category of ob- jects’ qualitative identity is supplemented with their numerical identity. This extends the field of reality as object for subjective activity, and thus makes room for a process of creative activity, including a “creative cycle”, which demystifies creativity and prepares it for theoretical and empirical investigation. However, the method and the fundamental concepts devel- oped have implications beyond the study of creativity in the narrow sense. They imply consequences for psychological domains such as developmen- tal, clinical, and educational psychology. Thus it is to be hoped that the dis- sertation will be read by a wide range of psychologists and psychology stu- dents. Jens Mammen Professor, dr.phil. PREFACE The present book was originally written in partial fulfillment of the re- quirement for the degree of Candidate of Psychology at the University of Aarhus, Denmark. Aside from a few spelling corrections and a few more endnotes and references, the basic structure and content of this book is identical with that thesis. My interest in creativity started when I was pre- paring to write my bachelors thesis on the topic of intelligence in Activity Theory. I wanted to incorporate creativity into the explanation of intelli- gence, but needed a theoretical framework for creativity that was compati- ble with the materialistic theory of Leontjev. I set aside three pages in my bachelors thesis to develop such a theoretical framework, which quickly became the entire project, and ended up being the main topic. It turned out that I had stubled across a research question very few cognitive researchers had taken seriously, and where American and Russian approaches to cogni- tion appeared in conflict, along with constructivist and realist explanatory frameworks. This triggered my interest and imagination, and I kept on working on the problem. The present book is basically a much more devel- oped and extended theoretical explanation of creativity in the real-world. It functions as a kind of broad theoretical framework for my present Ph.D. research project entitled: ‘Creative Cognition in the Real-World: Examin- ing activity and cognition in the creative process, in an in vivo - in vitro study’. So what was intended to be a three page explanation of creativity in Activity Theory has now become my dominant line of research, at least in the foreseeable future. I have been questioned about my extensive use of endnotes, so much so, that I thought I would use this preface to explain their content and usage. Basically the endnotes in this book consists of two things: primarily they consist of ideas and comments of relevance to creativity research in general that diverge from what is of critical importance to what is the present line of argumentation. This means that the text can easily be read without refer- ring to these endnotes. Should the reader be interested in diverging into broader issues (apart from a narrow line of argumentation) in creativity re- search, he or she may refer to the endnotes for what I consider interesting points, ideas and comments. The other function of the endnotes is simply that some of them contain definitions of terms left unexplained in the text, or the original language wording of quotes translated into English in the main text I would like to dedicate this thesis to the creative works of Karl Popper and Michael Polanyi for both being so intuitively, conflictingly and confusingly right. I hope the influence of both these great philosophers of science is evident in the present work. Finally, I would like to extend a warm thanks to the real-world for always being there for me. You are my continued source of inspiration - please forgive me for always wanting to change you. Bo T. Christensen, Aarhus, 2002 TABLE OF CONTENTS 1 INTRODUCTION – THE PROBLEM UNDERTAKEN. .................................3 2 SETTING THE STAGE .....................................................................................9 2.1 CREATIVITY – A DEFINITION ...........................................................................9 2.1.1 Novelty .................................................................................................... 10 2.1.2 Usefulness and adaptability ..................................................................... 12 2.1.3 Levels of creativity................................................................................... 16 2.2 LIMITATIONS OF THE PRESENT ANALYSIS - THE CREATIVITY FIELD NARROWED DOWN .......................................................................................................... 18 2.2.1 The creative process – a description ........................................................ 21 3 CREATIVITY AS SEARCH – INFORMATION PROCESSING APPROACHES ................................................................................................. 31 3.1 INTRODUCTION TO THE SEARCH CONCEPT – EVOLUTION AND ELEMENTS ........ 31 3.1.1 Search in its most elementary form .......................................................... 32 3.2 PROBLEM SOLVING AS SEARCH...................................................................... 35 3.3 CREATIVITY AS SEARCH................................................................................ 41 3.3.1 Perkins and Klondike spaces.................................................................... 41 3.3.2 Boden and impossible creativity............................................................... 44 3.4 PROBLEMS WITH THE INFORMATION PROCESSING VIEW OF CREATIVITY AS SEARCH........................................................................................................ 47 3.4.1 Boden ...................................................................................................... 47 3.4.2 Perkins .................................................................................................... 51 3.4.3 Limitations of the information processing approach to creativity as search .................................................................................. 52 3.5 REALISM AND CONSTRUCTIVISM IN CREATIVITY ............................................ 54 3.6 SUMMARY.................................................................................................... 58 4 STEPS TO AN ECOLOGICAL APPRACH TO CREATIVITY.................... 61 4.1 THE ONTOLOGICAL DILEMMA: HOW CAN SOMETHING BE NOVEL, AND AT THE SAME TIME COME FROM SOMEWHERE?........................................ 61 4.2 THE SEARCH DILEMMA: HOW CAN YOU SEARCH FOR SOMETHING YOU DON’T KNOW WHAT IS, AND WHICH DOESN’T EVEN EXIST? ....................................... 70 4.3 THE CREATIVE CYCLE INTRODUCED .............................................................. 76 4.3.1 The perceptual cycle ................................................................................ 77 4.3.2 The creative cycle .................................................................................... 80 4.4 SUMMARY.................................................................................................... 86 5 COGNITIVE ASPECTS OF THE CREATIVE CYCLE................................ 91 5.1 WHAT IS THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN PHYSICAL CREATIVE ACTION AND CREATIVE THINKING?.................................................................................... 94 5.2 WHAT KINDS OF PROCESSES ARE INCLUDED IN CREATIVE COGNITION? ........... 98 5.3 HOW IS KNOWLEDGE STRUCTURED IN A WAY THAT MAKES IT POSSIBLE TO SIMULATE VARIATIONS AND ANTICIPATE NOVELTY? .................................... 102 5.3.1 Variations in creativity .......................................................................... 104 5.3.2 Explanations from cognitive science ...................................................... 106 5.3.3 The inadequacy of cognitive explanations.............................................. 107 5.3.4 Mammen, and the category of choice..................................................... 111 5.3.5 Barsalou, and perceptual symbols.......................................................... 115 5.3.6 Conclusions concerning the structuring of typicalities and possibilities . 121 5.3.7 Anticipatory knowledge structures ......................................................... 123 5.4 WHAT CONSTRAINS THE