The shifting sands of creative thinking: Connections to dual-process theory

By Paul T. Sowden, Andrew Pringle, Liane Gabora. 2014

369 citations recorded by the source corpus.

Dual-process models of cognition suggest that there are two types of thought: autonomous Type 1 processes and working memory dependent Type 2 processes that support hypothetical thinking. Models of creative thinking also distinguish between two sets of thinking processes: those involved in the generation of ideas and those involved with their refinement, evaluation, and/or selection. Here we review dual-process models in both these literatures and delineate the similarities and differences. Both generative creative processing and evaluative creative processing involve elements that have been attributed to each of the dual processes of cognition. We explore the notion that creative thinking may rest upon the nature of a shifting process between Type 1 and Type 2 dual processes. We suggest that a synthesis of the evidence bases on dual-process models of cognition and of creative thinking, together with developing time-based approaches to explore the shifting process, could better inform the development of interventions to facilitate creativity.

Subfields: Cognitive Neuroscience, Experimental and Cognitive Psychology

View Paper: https://www.semanticscholar.org/paper/b5bc0e13a2dd0015acd40212bf99405183b63b17

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Citations in the corpus

Robust prediction of individual creative ability from brain functional connectivity (2018, background): “Building on dual-process theories of creative cognition (8), which emphasize idea generation and evaluation processes, a recent brain network model posits that the default network supports idea generation and the executive network supports idea evaluation (1, 9), consistent with their established ro”
Improvisation facilitates divergent thinking and creativity: Realizing a benefit of primary school arts education (2015, background): “…of novel ideas and to evaluate them in order to produce ideas that will be of value to the context in which they are generated (e.g. Campbell, 1960; Finke, Ward & Smith, 1992; Gabora, 2005; Guilford, 1956; Howard-Jones, 2002; Simonton, 1999; see Sowden, Pringle & Gabora, 2015 for a synthesis).”
The relation between semantic memory structure, associative abilities, and verbal and figural creativity (2020, background): “Further studies have provided empirical and theoretical supports for the unique roles of associative and executive functions in creativity, suggesting the role of associative abilities as an important predictor of creative thinking that represents a valid elementary cognitive ability underlying crea”
Conceptualising creativity benefits of nature experience: Attention restoration and mind wandering as complementary processes (2018, background): “Evidence that both associative abilities and attention control play a role in creativity, and the increasing support for dual (conscious top-down and unconscious bottom-up) process models generally, warn against reliance on a single mechanism (Beaty et al., 2015; Sowden et al., 2015).”