where good ideas come from, Where Good Ideas Come From, Psych 176 School Mafia (Homie Finally Returned the Favor) 3

What are the disadvantage of the psychometric approach?

-not much to say about how to increase creativity -do lab tests capture what we mean by "creativity"?

The Building blocks of creativity

If the goal is to find new (successful) combination of blocks, having more building blocks is better- potentially more combinations to choose from

How to tell if something is an insight problem or not

If you can feel yourself getting closer to solving the problem as you go along, its not an insight problem. Insight = Ah ha! comes in a flash/ out of nowhere

Problem in groupthink

Immediate focus on small number of alternatives (one)

What does creative thinking do?

generate original ideas

Why is averaging powerful?

statistical principle: the average of the individual estimates will be at least as accurate as an average individual's performance

psychometric approach (Guilford)

studying creativity in ordinary people

Deviation from truth (error) =

systematic bias + random error - If errors uncorrelated, they cancel each other out

What is creativity?

the ability to produce novel and valuable ideas

divergent thinking

the ability to see lots of possibilities

what is the role of depth of knowledge in creativity

the deeper the knowledge, the better

How does exploitation and exploration differ in terms of return/investment?

-exploration has a lower short-term return -weigh as a long-term investment

two types of motivation

-extrinsic -intrinsic

signs of groupthink

-failure to consider range of options -ignoring disconfirming evidence -overconfidence -critical assumptions unchallenged -stereotyping outsiders -pressure to conform -little or no dissension or debate -illusion of unanimity dur to muted opposition

alternatives in groups

-fear of rejection -unwilling to rock the boat, upset harmony -too cohesive -too diverse -punished for new ideas

process loss in brainstorming

-fewer ideas often generated in brainstorming groups compared to same number of individuals separately -production blocking (competition for speaking time -process loss largely erased with diverse group -advantages of diversity neutralize disadvantage of taking turns

why creativity in organizations?

-firms need to change over time -desirable to "first in" -respond to competitors -respond to changing environment -every firm needs at least some exploration

Might we underappreciate organization's role in fostering or inhibiting creativity?

-fundamental attribution error

accessing knowledge in orgs

-get diff. groups together -clear tone from top -resources -failure tolerance -safe for everyone to offer ideas

what to do

-give it a try-and quick -accept that mistakes will be made -take small steps -give people the room they need -have concrete, consistent set of reinforcing signals

What is the key to good group creativity and decision making?

-harnessing value of diverse opinions -analogous to breath of knowledge in individual creativity

What are antecedents of groupthink?

-high group cohesion -homogeneity of members' social background and ideology -isolation of the group from outside sources of information and analysis -directive leadership

antecedents in groupthink

-high group cohesion -homogeneity of members' social background and ideology -isolation of the group from outside sources of information and analysis -directive leadership

groups as solution to individual biases in problem solving and decision making

-if indiv. narrowly focused, groups could overcome problem -groups have more information, experience, perspectives -ideally, group response better than any individual's response -"avg." and ingersoll-rand showed that combining info can lead to better outcomes

What are some symptoms of groupthink?

-illusion of invulnerability, overconfidence -rationalization/confirmation bias -unquestioned belief in morality of group -pressure to conform -self-censorship of ideas -stereotyping those opposed to group as biased,weak, evil, stupid

some symptoms of groupthink

-illusion of invulnerability, overconfidence -rationalization/confirmation bias -unquestioned belief in morality of group -stereotyping those opposed to the group as biased, weak, evil, stupid -direct (and indirect) pressure to conform -self-censorship of ideas -illusion of unanimity among members

how does aggregating diverse perspectives improve group creativity and decisions

-in creativity tasks, diversity provides a broader set of ideas/hypotheses -in forecast/estimation tasks, diversity yields different - and offsetting - mistakes -in interdependent tasks (e.g., product design), complementary expertise can incorporate all relevant problem dimensions

problems in decision making?

confirmation bias Hindsight bias overconfidence

General problem with groups is that they strive for

consensus

Dissent - even if wrong - stimulates

consideration of the issue from multiple perspectives

Incubation effects appear to be real However...

evidence for passive forgetting account more convincing than evidence for active, unconscious processing account

What is the biological approach?

examines eminent people in order to try to figure out why they became so

Biological (Case Study) Approach descriptions:

examines people, or groups, to figure out why they became so (e.g. Picasso, Mozart, Da Vinci) Strengths: Studies "real" creative behaviors Weaknesses: rare, unrepresentative, difficult to find cause, selection and interpretation issues

What is the cognitive approach?

interested in understanding creativity as function of "usual" cognition

People who work in creative fields (e.g., artists, researchers) tend to be more

intrinsically motivated than general population

Incubation

put the idea out of your mind, allowing unconscious mind to take over, forget about logical constraints (WALLAS)

values that creators foster across domains

search for originality tendency towards autonomy taste for challenging boundaries taste for consistency, parsimony, generality tolerance for ambiguity and uncertainty intrinsic motivation

water jug problem (1942)

seeing more efficient solutions to the problem.

1. People tend not to consider a large number of alternatives; instead, focus on

small number (zero when status quo not questioned...)

preconscious

state between conscious and unconscious reality where thoughts are loose and vague but interpretable, viewed by some as the source of creativity

confirmation bias

tendency to pick a hypothesis and seek information that confirms the hypothesis

place (press)

the environment, and how this can influence creativity

Good mathematical proofs

the epitome of analytical thinking - require creativity

what is the role of breadth of knowledge in creativity

the more things you know form different disciplines, the better

product

the outputs of creativity

the adjacent possible

the possibilities of new creative discoveries at a moment in time

narrow focusing

the tendency for people to focus on a small number (often 1) of hypotheses/explanations

incubation effect

the tendency to arrive at a solution after a period of time away from the problem

Overconfidence

the tendency to be more confident than correct—to overestimate the accuracy of our beliefs and judgments *overly narrow focusing Need to consider broader range of possibilities (or why best guess might be wrong)

Hindsight bias

the tendency to believe, after learning an outcome, that one would have foreseen it

creativity intelligence

the threshold hypothesis: a high degree of intelligence appears to be necessary but not sufficient condition for high creativity

how do mutation, error, and serendipity work together?

they unlock new doors in the adjacent possible

abstraction

thinking of a problem in a more abstract way

internalization of beliefs/longevity in Group Cohesion

thought experiment: What judgments would Asch's subjects have given if the other group members left the room after the last trial?

What is the reasonable goal of education?

to enhance both creative and critical thinking

Does having more knowledge "hurt"?

too much experience leads to "ruts", habits, stereotyped responding (i.e., water jug problem) -- negative transfer

What type of approach do centralized organizations have?

top down approach

What is hypnagogia?

transitional state between wakefulness and sleep, often rich with sensory experience

to overcome hindsight bias

try to think of an explanation for why the other outcome might happen

Creative and critical thinking are

two sides of same coin

Idea generation, problem solving, hypothesis testing, decision making are

ubiquitous

Cognitive Approach descriptors:

understanding creativity through the means of the mind (cognitive processes) strengths: often experimental (inferring causation), builds on what we know already in cognition, can study and measure creativity in lab weaknesses: may be too narrow of both cause and effect, limited relevance to groups and organizational settings.

person

wahr personal characteristics tend to produce creativity

fundamental attribution error

we tend to overvalue person-based explanations and undervalue situational explanations

What is confirmation bias?

we test our hypothesis in a way that is likely to confirm them -- regardless of whether they are correct we seek evidence that would show us to be right rather than evidence that would show us to be wrong

creative thinking

what could be

analytical thinking

what is

ethical thinking

what should be

What is the "fundamental attribution error"?

when attributing causes to others' behavior, we tend to overvalue person-based explanations and undervalue situational explanations

how does being wrong change our perspective?

when we're wrong, we have to challenge our assumptions and adopt new strategies

Internalization of firm's goals, values provides broad incentive to

work in firm's interest

brainwriting

write ideas down rather than say them in group settings

x

x

to overcome overconfidence

you think of ways your answer might be wrong

Why is abstraction helpful?

· Accessing or retrieving specific example makes other examples less accessible or retrievable -More abstract representation may lessen dominance of any one instance -Going up hierarchy makes it more likely that you will come down different branch and arrive at better solution ·More abstract problem description helps clarify goals and assumptions -"what should I do" vs. "which jobs should I apply for" after graduation

Implications of actively combining blocks in new ways

· Be more risk taking · Get over fear of failure · "fail faster" --Get the fails out of the way to make room for the home run · Learn creative skills/tools (brainstorming, lateral thinking) · Write things down! -- To revisit and build on old ideas · Take breaks/walks · Change environment · Be persistent · Lots of trial and error --Try to find Watson's major trial and error in double helix · Protected time --Again, good ideas can fade into view

Common threads between hindsight bias and over confidence

· Both reduced when forced to consider why alternatives might be true -Evidence regarding alternative has less impact · In both kinds of studies, getting people to think harder about the focal possibility has no effect, but getting people to think harder about the alternative does -Implies that we typically underweight the strength of evidence regarding alternative(s)

Priming and environment

· Common, subtle aspects of environment can influence behavior - e.g. Priming people with business objects in lab (e.g. briefcases, boardroom tables, etc.) led to more business-like outcomes - Subjects completely unaware of any of these effects

Insight problem: "cheap necklace"

· Costs $2 to open link $3 to close link · Join all 12 links into single circle for no more than $15 · Solution: -Open all three of one link to join the rest

Implications of "more and bigger variety of blocks"

· Get more education · Gain broader experiences · Break out of routine · Be open to new experiences · Don't be afraid to do things differently · Don't judge ideas too early · Live in a rich interesting environment · Meet new people - Johnson's 'slow hunches' good ideas can take many years to fade into view

The Creative Lifestyle

· Line blurred between home and work life - E.g. increasing blocks doesn't only happen between 9-5 -Benefits of being more creative realized beyond work It's a lifestyle

Narrow focusing and decision making

· Not enough to analyze or focus on data that are readily available - need to step back and ask what data are needed to make the decision · From Larrick reading: 94% of CEOs had pets as children. Therefore, pet ownership as child predicts future success as leader (False conclusion from narrow focusing)

insight

· Often associated with problems involving single key insight to solve Aha! Experience following impasse and result of "restructuring" or seeing from a different perspective

conscious vs. unconscious processing

· Only aware of a small fraction of mental activities · Generally accepted that a capacity of unconscious mind much greater than conscious mind - Reading (Conscious) 45 bits/sec - Visual system (unconscious) 10 million bits/sec · Conscious thinking occurs when object task is focus of conscious attention Unconscious thinking occurs when attention not on object or task

Overconfidence does not go away when...

· Task is one of prediction rather than general knowledge questions (e.g. predicts winner of NBA games) or when task is one of diagnosis (e.g. physicians diagnosing pneumonia · Subjects are warned about phenomenon before undertaking task · Inceptives are provided for accuracy

Increasing creative behavior is an active, not passive, process

Natural tendency is to consider small number of alternatives, judge ideas quickly

How to access that huge database you are constantly building in your head

-

Key to building creative organization

Decentralization

The role of knowledge

New ideas rooted in old ideas

A creative environment

Sparks, supports, and refines creative ideas

extrinsic motivation

Driven by money (or other tangible incentives), recognition; concerns about evaluation, competence

Fear of criticism:

Putting forth new idea makes one vulnerable

exploration vs. exploitation

-exploration has a lower short term return -full value of exploration not realized unless exploited -danger of success: often reduces exploration

The Beatles & Bach

• Bach's inspired blackbird

Role of facilitator/leader

• Write down ideas • Keep group on topic - Discourage evaluations, elaborations, stories, irrelevant discussion, etc • Encourage equal participation, wild ideas • Encourage idea generation during lulls • Revisit old ideas or categories during lulls • Have group take occasional breaks

How to access Knowledge: Some straightforward strategies

• Write things down: -Darwin kept notebook so many or notes recorder to be able to revisit ideas -Have a notebook available at all times (even at night) -Serendipity and the slow hunch in WGICF •Positive Affect -Few mins of comedy or small bag of candy improved creativity •Creativity games -debonos six thinking hats

the fourth quadrant

"Non-market/networked" innovations far more frequent than, e.g., "market/individual" innovations in last 200 years check slide

If judgments are not made independently, they

"converge." Rather than having 2 judgments, you have, say, 1½. This greatly reduces the benefits of combining individual judgments.

What two types of the blocks get in the way of accessing knowledge?

(1) Perceptual Blocks: hard for us to think outside of the box (2) Cultural blocks: some cultures believe reasoning and logic to be good, and intuition and pleasure to be bad

value of cognitive diversity

-aggregating diverse perspectives improves group creativity and decisions - greater diversity -> to better information

group influence: degree of cohesion

-attraction to group and current level of cohesion may affect willingness to contradict others -internalization of beliefs/longevity

New Ideas are rooted in old ideas

-

Space challenger disaster, 1986

- 5 delays - There looked like there was burn damage on the o rings - 40 degrees on the day on the launch Looked only at when failed occurs rather than when fails did not occur

How to avoid narrow focusing

- Actively entertain multiple perspectives/alternatives/hypotheses - Actively seek confirming evidence i.e. Leonardo de Vinci "wouldn't take yes for an answer" Groups? -Can be worse in groups -If managed well, great things

Overcoming hindsight bias

- Before reporting confidence in the (two) possible outcomes in hindsight, S's had to write down explanation as to why the "false" outcome might have been true · Implies that part of the explanation of hindsight bias is ignoring or underweighting alternative outcomes

innate factors predisposing the development of creativity

- Cognition - Intelligence - Personality - Motivation

Two motivations for conforming to others

- Concern with being accepted by others (peer pressure) as shown by Asch - Looking to others for information (informational influence) as shown by Sherif

Centralized organizations have "top down" approach

- Decision making authority resides at top of hierarchy (e.g., CEO) - Information flows up, decisions get made at top, instructions then flow down

Small alternatives In groups:

- Fear of rejection - Unwilling to rock boat, upset harmony - Too cohesive - Too diverse - Punished for new ideas

How is creativity measured from a cognitive approach (five ways)?

- Fluency: how many creative ideas arise? - Originality: how novel are the ideas? - Problem sensitivity: Is the idea closely related to the problem? - Flexibility: can creative ideas adapt? - Practicality: how useful are the ideas?

What role do analogies and problem solving play in the understanding of creativity?

- Identify challenge - Get facts/ feelings - Problem framing - Idea creation - Solution development - Action planning - Transform products and ideas

What are some problems with Wallas' 4 stage theory?

- Inconclusive evidence - Merely descriptive ie doesn't tell us how it is going on or why it is

How to put all that latent knowledge to work? In Individuals:

- Incubation - Time and effort - Brainstorming - Abstraction - Creativity "games" - Environment (priming) - Break up routine - REM sleep

Small alternatives In organizations (all of above, plus):

- Lack of motivation - Failure intolerance - Fear of change - Avoid risk and uncertainty - Stuck in "local optimum"

Small alternatives In individuals:

- Lack of perspectives, knowledge, input from others

Organizations' natural tendency is to

- Punish failure - Minimize risk, uncertainty - Be efficient - Focus on short run - Separate functions from each other - Limit lines of communication - Discourage honest, direct feedback

What do we hope for from team cohesion?

- Shared objectives - Group norms (shared procedures, styles, expectations, etc.) - Source of motivation and accountability - Fun (there is more to life and work than $) - Trust

Overcoming overconfidence

- Writing down reason that supported answer had no effect -Writing down reason that contradicted answer improved calibration - Suggests that we typically think of reasons why we're right, not wrong. · Narrow focusing!

What is the 'gap'?

- a question or something that calls out to be expressed, examined, played with, or understood - mind keeps replaying problems from different angles in an attempt to resolve it, figure out, or merely express it

Alien Drawing Task - evaluated on 3 aspects: overall creativity, similarity to earth creatures, atypical features

- a task linked to imaginative activities - an individual has to draw an alien - evaluation?

Alternate Uses Test - fluency: number of unique responses - originality: the novelty and unconventionality of the response (scale 1-5) - flexibility: the diversity of the range of categories (ring and earring X donut and earring)

- a test linked to brainstorming activity - e.g., different uses of a brick, drawing things based on circle, tactics for an organisation - analysis of responses?

Aesthetic model

- an information processing model (how art experience is based on information processing) - has 5 broad stages

creativity

- area of psychology interested in examining similarities and differences between each individual

What is transformational creativity?

- change the space of possibilities

What is exploratory creativity?

- consider possibilities and find the best one

role of knowledge in groupthink

-avoiding too much homogeneity might help -accessing knowledge, opinions, perspectives--from both insiders and outsiders--is crucial

What is the economic approach to creativity?

- creative behaviour is influenced by market forces and cost/benefits analysis - investment theory of creativity: creative people are willing to buy low (pursue ideas that are unknown or out of favour but have potential) and sell high (convince others of their value) in the realm of ideas - theory assumes that ideas already exist

creativity and mental illness (Pringle)

- daily expressions of creativity (taking photos, making a college, ...) do not require suffering - individuals engaged in high levels of creativity also reported a higher sense of well-being and personal growth

creativity and mental illness (in Sweden, Kyaga)

- individuals with creative jobs are more likely to be diagnosed with and treated for bipolar disorder

definitions of creativity

- many of them involve a product - it involves thinking that aims at producing ideas or products that are realatively novel and, in some respect, compelling (působivý) (Sternberg, 2006) - it is a process that may not lead to a tangible (hmotný) product (Runco, 2007)

three-criterion definition of creativity

- novelty/originality - usefulness/adaptiveness - non-obviousness/surprise

What is problem finding and minding the gap?

- pro-active identification of problem to be solved or approach to explore - occurs through 'minding the gap' by paying attention to what your thoughts repeatedly come back to

creative insight tests

- tests that have a single solution that tends to occur suddenly - e.g., celebrant question, 'ball triangle'

honest feedback and constant input from other at pixar

-"dailies" provide constant feedback -"brain trust" provides honest feedback - but has no authority -important that person in charge of issue makes final decisions -active management is the key to accessing wealth of knowledge, perspectives, talent latent in the organization

role of culture

-'norms' may be the most important piece -internalization of firm's goals, values provides broad incentive to work in firm's interest

Evidence that more knowledge helps?

-10 year rule, we become masters at something (we end up developing novel works and ideas after developing our skills from old ideas/works/knowledge) *generally for cognitively complex domain areas Positive transfer > negative transfer

Group Influence - Asch (1951) Experiment

-Brought into a room with other people -you perform a visual perception task: judging line lengths -having just one other subject in the experiment drastically reduces conformity -3 "stooges" results in more conformity than 8 "stooges" plus one other subject -w/ 2 "stooges" and 16 subjects, "stooges" get laughed at

Unconscious vs Conscious Processing

-Conscious processing: limited in capacity, and only aware of when the object or task is focus of our conscious attention -Unconscious Thinking: occurs when attention is not on object or task

Creative and critical thinking are both crucial to Good Thinking

-Creative and critical thinking are two sides of same coin -Good Thinking requires both, and there must be balance between the two -Idea generation and evaluation occur continuously during creative activity

What are examples of functional fixedness?

-Duncker's candle problem -two-string problem

value of dissent

-General problem with groups is that they strive for consensus -in groupthink, people reluctant to voice dissent, examine negative views of favored position -people in minority position tend to adopt perspective of majority -dissent as liberator -dissent, even if wrong, stimulates consideration of the issue from multiple perspectives

· Prescriptions for improving decision making similar to those for generating more creative solutions

-Generate and consider multiple alternatives/hypotheses -Actively seek out, consider disconfirming information -Don't let habits or way info presented to you focus you on narrow subset of approaches or alternatives Improving decision making an active process

Implications of getting "more and bigger variety of blocks":

-Get more education -Gain broader experiences -break out of routine -be open to new experiences -don't be afraid to do things differently -don't judge ideas too early -live in rich, interesting environment -meet new people

Success stories

-Google's "20% Time": Gmail, Google Docs, AdSense, Google News -3M: Wet sandpaper, Post-It Notes, masking tape, Scotch tape, etc. -Marriott: Airline catering -AmEx: Postal money orders, traveler's checks, financial services -J&J: Baby powder, Band-Aids

evidence that supports the theory that the more knowledge you have, the more creative you can be

-Hayes' study of 76 compsoers -the beatles story

importance motivation in creativity

-Highly creative people described as absorbed and devoted to work -People who do what they love are more creative -People identified as more intrinsically motivated (based on "work preference inventory") produce more creative work -people who work in creative fields tend to be more intrinsically motivated than general population -very common for people to think that extrinsic motivators are important to get (other) people to work hard -Evidence, however, indicates, that extrinsic motivators should, under many circumstances, be downplayed, not emphasized

groupthink

-Janis argued that several bad group decisions were due to group dynamics, especially a strong tendency to try to keep group morale high -instead of the group seeking or discussing opposing views, actively quells them

space shuttle Columbia disaster

-MMT started with conclusion, worked backwards -failed to gather additional info -overconfidence -dismissed disconfirming evidence -limited discussion of different perspectives -not even case that "nothing could be done"

how can problems be exacerbated in groups

-Natural group dynamics make groupthink common -Illusion of unanimity increases overconfidence -Important decisions often made by groups

increasing creative beh. as an active not passive process

-Natural tendency is to consider small number of alternatives, judge ideas quickly -Increasing depth and breadth of individual knowledge requires time, effort (and sometimes $...) -Breaking routines, meeting new people, thinking abstractly, seeking disconfirming evidence, etc, goes against most people's natural tendencies -Homogeneous groups form when people left to own devices -Diverse groups often not cohesive -Hard to go against group

What is chase the expert?

-People tend to underestimate value of harnessing diverse opinions and instead "chase the expert" --rarely the case that the individual will consistently outperform the group --Galton & weight judging comp. --Finding US submarine Scorpion

How do platforms add to the process of innovation and ideas?

-Platforms come in stacks -There is a lot of diversity in different platforms -Connects you to other innovations and ideas -There is a generative power behind open platforms -platforms get their creativity from recycling old ideas

cultural blocks

-Reason, logic, numbers utility, practicality are good -Feeling, intuition, qualitative judgements pleasure are bad

Creativity important for mundane behavior (too)

-Underlies not just Big Ideas, but countless small ones that shape our lives -Idea generation, problem solving, hypothesis testing, decision making are ubiquitous -More creativity -> higher quality of life

what is a weak tie exaptation?

-Weak ties allow information to travel throughout a network more efficiently -that is, without becoming trapped on the remote island of a close knit group Having 'weak ties' in two categories will help to bring different perspectives because it comes at a problem from multiple angles over one (this used in DNA discoveries)

Group Creativity and decision making

-a key to good group performance is harnessing value of diverse opinions -ex: averaging diverse, independent opinions is very powerful (but people tend to not realize this) -later: problems with accessing information in groups (active process)

Unfortunately, people talk about information they have in

common rather than what is unique to them

Benefits of Abstraction (Accessing Knowledge):

-avoids focusing on being influenced by a specific entity/feature ex: "method of raising the car" provides more ideas and possibilities than a "jack" (only one solution) -accessing or retrieving a specific example makes other examples less accessible or retrievable ex: going up the branch gives the specific representation less dominance and opens up possibilities -more abstract problem description helps clarify goals and assumptions ex: "What should I do?" vs "Which jobs should I apply for" after graduation

What is groupthink?

-bad group decisions are made due to group dynamics -groups tendency to try to keep group morale high -rather than seeking out or discussing opposing views or disconfirming evidence, the group quells them -examples: Kennedy's decision to invade Cuba, Space Shuttle Columbia disaster

Implications of "actively combining blocks in new ways":

-be more risk taking -get over fear of failure -"fail faster" -learn creative skills/tools (brainstorming, lateral thinking) -be persistent -lots of trail and error -protected time (creating blocks of time for creativity) *living such a creative lifestyle doesn't come naturally to us, it requires actively and consciously pursuing it

Commonalities between Hindsight bias, overconfidence, and confirmation bias when they are challenged? (2 commonalities)

-both hindsight and overconfidence reduced when forced to consider why alternatives might be true -getting people to ACTIVELY think about the alternatives (e.g. what else can I do? what other things can I seek ok?) > to think about the possibilities (e.g. How likely will it happen?)

similarities between individual and group decision making/problem solving

-both often plagued by narrow focusing on single alternative, lack of disconfirming evidence -problems can be exacerbated in groups -problems can be overcome - again by actively considering alternatives, seeking disconfirming evidence

relation between individual and group creativity

-breadth of knowledge in indiv. -> diversity in groups -importance of accessing knowledge in individuals -> maintaining independence, voicing opinions in groups

how does pixar get people from different parts of organization to work together?

-build trusting and respectful relationships -movies contain tend of thousands of ideas from hundreds of people -everyone free to communicate with anyone -safe for everyone to offer ideas -building designed so that people from different departments interact -must be actively managed

What are the advantages of the cognitive approach?

-can be measured in a lab often experimental -builds on what we already know about cognition

how does pixar provide the right environment?

-clear that creativity at all levels is important -okay to take risks

What makes up a successful creative organization?

-cognitive diversity -failure tolerance -creative role models -resources -time -autonomy -non monetary rewards -challenging tasks -sharing of information

what you'll see in creative organizations

-cognitive diversity -failure tolerance -creative role models -resources -time -autonomy -non-monetary rewards for creative behavior -challenging tasks -sharing of information

accessing knowledge in groups

-cohesion -brainstorming -make clear that new ideas welcome -diversity (to stimulate new thoughts)

What consists of the "right environment"?

-collective creativity -honest feedback and constant input from others -broad focus on alternatives and information

different consequences of group influence

-compliance internalization

What are two motivations for conforming to others?

-concern with being accepted by others -looking to others for information

two motivations for conforming to others

-concern with being accepted by others (peer pressure) as shown by Asch -looking to others for information (informational influence) as shown by Sherif

What are three factors of narrow focusing?

-confirmation bias -overconfidence bias -hindsight bias

electronic brainstorming

-connected electronically; type ideas, seen by all -no waiting (hence no process loss) -shown repeatedly to be very effective

group issues to overcome

-consensus implying correctness -group discussion favoring common information

what to do about groupthink

-consider multiple alternatives -assign devil's advocate(s) -vigorous debate -encourage dissension -consult with "outsiders" -create sub-subgroups to independently make recommendations -no "ownership" of ideas -okay to change mind, revisit previously rejected alternatives

P&Gs "Corporate New Ventures"

-cross functional -volunteers -given clear goal-but enormous latitude in how to achieve that goal -clear tone from top: value creativity -Result: many new projects launched

What is the "bottom up" approach?

-decision making authority pushed down the hierarchy

What is "top down" approach?

-decision making authority resides at the top of hierarchy (e.g., CEO) -information flows up -decisions get made at the top -instructions flow down

Decision making vs problem solving?

-decision making seen as improved by increasing rationality -problem solving improved by increasing creativity *problem solving allows us to generate a plethora of various options, decision making helps us consider the pros and cons

Why is dissent important?

-dissent reduces conformity even if the dissenter's view is different from the minority -even if wrong, dissent stimulates consideration of the issue from multiple perspectives

What is intrinsic motivation?

-driven by interest, enjoyment, task involvement -"reward" is feeling good about job well done

What is extrinsic motivation?

-driven by money (or other tangible incentives), recognition -concerns about evaluation, competence

prescriptions for group issues

-eliminate fear of voicing minority opinion -make clear different members' areas of expertise

is creativity in organizational setting different?

-in orgs, usually doing something that someone else want you to do -you're paid -your performance is evaluated -someone else, your boss, needs to approve of your suggested change/new idea -efficiency, short term gains highly valued -upper management often want to control, "help" -someone else decides how much time you can allocate to different activities -in general: concerns about intrinsic motivation

Groupthink decision making process

-incomplete survey of alternatives -failure to examine risks of preferred choice -failure to reevaluate previously rejected alternatives -poor information search -selection bias in collecting information

What does decentralization allow for?

-increased autonomy -experimentation -creativity -intrinsic motivation

accessing knowledge in individuals

-incubation -time and effort -brainstorming -abstraction -creativity "games" -environment (priming) -break up routine -REM sleep

What is the Asch experiment and what did it show?

-judging the line lengths; which is most similar to the test line? -peer pressure

alternatives in organizations (all others, plus:)

-lack of motivation -failure intolerance -fear of changes -avoid risk and uncertainty -stuck in "local optimum"

Consider only small set of alternatives

-lack of realization that ---there is tendency to consider small set of alts ---it's important ---it can be overcome -habit, routine, ruts -short-run, efficiency, "good enough" -fear of criticism: putting forth new idea makes one vulnerable

What is crowdsourcing?

-looking to people outside the organization for ideas and solutions -different from outsourcing

Evidence that supports the theory that knowing too much hinders creativity at a certain point (3)

-luchin's water jug experiment -dunker's candle problem -2 string problem

What are the attributes that lead to high intrinsic motivation?

-meaningfulness (significance of work) -responsibility (autonomy) -knowledge or results (feedback)

What are the advantages of face-to-face brainstorming?

-more enjoyable than individual brainstorming -more satisfaction with performance (source confusion, social comparison) -team building -increased sense of participation

sources of cognitive diversity

-non-redundancy (independent opinions) ---diff. data/experience -ideal: group members have learned different information in a broad range of environments ---Ingersoll Rand's new-product team

What are the advantages of the social approach?

-often experimental; builds on what we already know about social psychology -can be measured in a lab

What is the danger of success?

-often reduces exploration -"good" is the enemy of "great"

Where do new ideas come from?

-old ideas -- experiences, observations, learned facts, etc. -combining old ideas in new ways or applying old ideas to new domain

brainstorming

-osborn (1957) described formal technique for groups to generate ideas ---defer judgement of own and others' ideas ---focus on quantity, not quality, of ideas ---state all ideas, and combine and improve on others' ideas

advantages to face-to-face group brainstorming

-people enjoy is more than individual brainstorming -people more satisfied with performance ---source confusion ---social comparison -team building -increased sense of participation, ownership in final outcome?

advantages of brainstorming

-reduces fear of voicing "wrong", "bad", or "crazy" ideas -reduces inhibition -fear often a barrier to voicing ideas, especially at work -allows members to build on other's ideas -other's ideas facilitate "prime" thoughts that you otherwise would not have

What are the advantages of brainstorming?

-reduces fear of voicing "wrong", "bad", or "crazy" ideas -allows members to build on others' ideas

priming in brainstorming

-related concepts more strongly connected in semantic networks -different "primes" (other's ideas) activate different concepts - and different related concepts

combining group and individual brainstorming

-sequential individual and group brainstorming sessions lead to more ideas than one individual or one group brainstorming session (holding time constant) -use other's ideas to generate own as an advantage -individual sessions not susceptible to production blocking, free riding, concern over group to overcome disadvantages

What are sources of cohesion?

-similarity -common identity -common enemy -shared success -shared suffering

sources of cohesion

-similarity -common identity -common identity -common enemy -shared success -shared suffering?

Attributes of work that lead to high intrinsic motivation

-skill variety -see final product -significance of work -autonomy -feedback -

How did Osborn describe the formal technique for groups to brainstorm?

-start with a diverse group -each participant generate as many ideas as possible -do not judge ideas -build on others' ideas

how to brainstorm

-start with diverse group -goal of each participant is to generate as many ideas as possible -don't judge any ideas -build on other's ideas

why averaging is powerful

-stat. principle:The average of the individual estimates will be at least as accurate as the average individual -deviation from truth (error) = systematic bias + random error -Independent judges more likely to bracket truth -As bracketing increases, so does power of averaging -Power of averaging under appreciated -Metaphor for good group decision making

attraction to group and current level of cohesion may affect willingness to contradict others in Group Cohesion

-strong attraction coupled with low cohesion is the problem -confidence in acceptance by group is critical

What are the advantages of the psychometric approach?

-study "normal" people -can be measured in a lab

When can extrinsic motivators help creativity?

-they are perceived as providing information rather than controlling -the creative task is algorithmic rather than open-ended -they are introduced at the right time during the creative process

Evidence of too much knowledge hurts?

-too much expertise leads to "ruts", and difficult habits and set ways of thinking to break -"negative transfer": things that previously worked for us are carried over and doesn't help us (e.g. water jug problem, functional fixedness [candle and tack box, two strings problem])

What are the disadvantage of the cognitive approach?

-too narrow in terms of both cause and effect of creativity -limited relevance to group and organizational approach

What are the disadvantage of the biological approach?

-unrepresentative (implies only eminent people are creative) -selection and interpretation issues; difficult to infer causation

Confirmation Bias

-we seek evidence to make our hypothesis right, rather than evidence that would prove ourselves wrong (regardless of whether our hypotheses are correct or not) * we tend to not consider other hypotheses

What does outcome knowledge influence?

-what we think we would have known -what we think we did know if foresight

What is the incubation effect?

-when stuck on a problem, taking a break is helpful because you'll more easily be able to take a different approach when you return to it -forgetting is a driving effect suggests that unconscious processes are at work

role of facilitator/leader

-write down ideas -keep group on topic -encourage equal participation, wild ideas -encourage idea generation during lulls -revisit old ideas or categories during lulls -have group take occasional breaks

variations of brainstorming

-write down ideas individually -group brainstorm, then individual brainstorm, then share electronically -can repeat individual, group sessions -"brainwriting" -electronic brainstorming

5 Approaches To Study Creativity:

1) Biological (Case Study) Approach 2) Psychometric Approach 3) Cognitive Approach 4) Social Approach 5) Sociocultural Approach

What are the four primary themes in class + 2 additional ones?

1) Break narrow focusing 2) Benefits of extensive knowledge/experience 3) How to Access knowledge 4) Taking active steps toward creativity *5) creative and critical thinking are both crucial for good thinking. *6) Creativity is important for mundane behavior

Hypothesis development consists of three stages

1) Hypothesis generation 2) Hypothesis testing 3) Hypothesis evaluation May need to cycle through the various stages before taking action · Each stage is vulnerable to narrow focusing, failure to consider alternatives

Incubation effects in insight problems (2 approaches about what incubation does):

1) Passive Forgetting - putting it aside and think about other things * it decays the activation of previous way of thinking (ability to take on new approach) ex: Kekule & Poincare 2) Unconscious Processing - unconscious recombination of ideas, when our attention is not on task *two types of unconscious processing: (1) stimulus dependent - implicit learning, only occurs when task is at-hand (2) stimulus independent - during sleep, strengthening of place cells

Revisiting Course Themes:

1) Problem: We have a strong tendency to immediately focus on small number of options or alternatives 2) Help in the long run: building extensive database -new ideas rooted in old ideas -breadth and depth of knowledge, experience 3) Help in the Short Run: Accessing Database -abstraction, sleep, incubation, creativity games, etc. 4) Building, accessing, connecting database is an active process -being more creative requires time and effort *creativity and critical thinking are both crucial to Good thinking (being good in one can be limiting)

Simple Straight Forward Ways to be creative (5 Different Ways)

1) Tell Them To Be Creative 2) Make Time for Being Creative 3) Write Things Down *Each aspect requires active management 4) Positive Affect (Feeling good) 5) Creativity Games (e.g. Six Thinking Hats, 9-dot problem)

What are the two perspectives on extending our breadth of knowledge vs not extending it?

1) more domain-specific knowledge is helpful to some point, but too much can hinder creativity "too much cooks spoil the pot" 2) the more domain-specific knowledge, the better "the more the merrier"

Good Thinking is composed of 3 different types of thinking

1. Analytical thinking- "what is" (convergent thinking -using rules) 2. Creative thinking- "what could be" (divergent thinking - creating the rules) NEED both of these to be a good thinking 3. Ethical thinking- "what should be" Ethical thinking is interrelated • All three are important! • Being limited in any one area will limit your achievements

stages of the creative cycle

1. Prepare and gather 2. Incubation 3. Illumination 4. Intimation 5. Verification

What are the two preconditions of an idea? How do both work? What examples does the author use to illustrate these conditions?

1. Sheer size of a network: you can't have an epiphany with only three neurons firing. The network needs to be densely populated (46). 2. The network must be plastic- capable of adopting new configurations

Four class themes

1. Tendency to immediately focus on small number of alternatives 2. The importance of extensive knowledge/experience 3. Need to access knowledge 4. Increasing creativity, an active, not passive process

Incubation as a 2-step process

1. Unconscious Thought associates and creates novel idea or solution to problem 2. Solution transferred to consciousness

four broad types of specific measures of creativity

1. brainstorming activity 2. creative insight test 3. imaginative activities 4. self-report tests

What are the themes of the class?

1. narrow focusing 2. importance of breath and depth of knowledge -- new ideas are rooted in old ideas 3. accessing knowledge 4. increasing creativity is an active process 5. creative and critical thinking are both crucial to good thinking 6. creativity is important for mundane behavior

What are the two stages in incubation?

1. unconscious processing 2. transfer of solution to conscious awareness (aha! experience)

four ways to access more knowledge in order to be more creative

1. write things down 2. brainstorm 3. positive mood 4. creativity games 5. ask good questions

3 criteria for creativity

1.Element of historical novelty 2.Element of surprise 3.Element of success

What is the 10 year rule?

10 years of practice and repetition needed to succeed with a new idea; 10,000 hour rule

What is the 10/10 rule? How has it changed?

10 years to build a new platform, 10 years for it to be adopted. This all changed when Youtube came out. - 10/10 Rule: It takes 10 years to build an idea and formulate a brand and 10 years until mass adoption

Understand the fourth quadrant exercise and examples

1st quadrant (top left): least popular, basing work on existing innovations, private corp or solo entrepreneur 2nd quad (top right): interconnected private firms 3rd (bottom left): most innovations happen here, idea-sharing amateurs 4th (bottom right): open source of collaborative networks, most popular

Possible 2-Step Process of Incubation for Insight Problems?

2 step process: 1) UT associates and creates novel idea or solution to problem (even when solution doesn't come to mind) 2) Solution transferred to consciousness - Our Aha! experience

Why does incubation effects occur?

A break seemed to help S's stop thinking about the problem in the same (wrong) way It's hard to consider other solutions when thinking about the same thing · Suggests that FORGETTING is a driving effect

Culture

A shared set of beliefs, values and norms (that foster organizational effectiveness)

Expertise

A well-developed base of knowledge--furnishes the ideas, images, and phrases we use as mental building blocks

How to have a decentralized organization

Accept that mistakes will be made Give it a try Take small steps Give people the room they need Have concrete, consistent set of reinforcing signals

Being Creative = Being _____

Active -"Chances favor the prepared mind."

what innovations were the result of this error?

Alexander Fleming discovering Penicillin when the mold infiltrated a culture of Staphylococcus he had left by an open window in his lab -DNA -photosynthesis -triode invention -photography -pacemaker -radiation

Too much knowledge hurts

Although knowiedge might be building blocks for new ideas, mortar hoiding blocks together should not be too strong Too much experience leads to 'ruts', habits stereotyped responding Know how things should be done and difficult to "break set' do/see things differently

What is the adjacent possible? How does it impact innovation?

An idea that needs the things adjacent to it in order to make it work.

3 key areas of good thinking?

Analytical thinking ( What is...) Creative thinking ( What could be ...) Ethical thinking (What should be...)

Heuristic Search and Selection - Newell and Simon (1957)

Application of problem space theory to creativity Generate and test Theory has been used in Artificial Intelligence

What is the psychometric approach to creativity (assumptions, tests, techniques)?

Assumptions: - assumes creativity can be measured reliably an validly - assumes creativity can be developed Tests: - give people simple divergent thinking tasks like think of as many uses for this object or write out all the questions you can think of based on examination of a scene Techniques: - brainstorming: group generates as many ideas as possible in supportive atmospheres

Role of knowledge

Avoiding too much homogeneity might help

Herbert Simons Heuristics (Langley 2004) 7 7 items

Be audacious study important problems ignore discipline boundaries use secret weapon balance theory and data satisfice persevere

Intrinsic motivation

Being driven more by interest, satisfaction, and challenges than by external pressures

Different Approaches to studying creativity

Biographical (case study) approach Psychometric Approach

How accessing knowledge can be put into use in groups?

Brainstorming, cohesion

Benefits of extensive knowledge/experience

Breadth and depth of knowledge

The role of knowledge In individuals:

Breadth and depth of knowledge

"Norms" may be the most important piece

Can be summed up as: "What determines how people behave when they are not being watched" and "The way things are done around here"

Why is carbon important? How does this apply to ideas and innovation?

Carbon connects; innovation helps create ideas - Majority of things in life started with carbon and something else because of carbons 4 valence electrons allow it many possibilities

Funetional Fixedness

Dunker's (1945) candle problem . You don't see the box of tacks as a solution, but rather as a container for the tacks

In interdependent tasks (e.g., product design)

complementary expertise can incorporate all relevant problem dimensions

What is the right environment for creativity?

Clear message from top: Creativity important here - at all levels! Okay to take risks

The role of knowledge In groups and organizations:

Cognitive diversity of members

How to put all that latent knowledge to work? In groups:

Cohesion Brainstorming Make clear that new ideas welcome diversity

In the 2-4-6 task, participants demonstrate ________ in testing their hypotheses.

Confirmation bias

Difference between Creative vs Critical Thinking?

Creative Thinking: innovative, inventive, unconstrained, exploratory, generative, imaginative Critical Thinking: focused, disciplined, logical, constrained, down-to-earth, practical, conservative we need both: -creativity generates original ideas, unusual approaches to problems, novel perspectives of situations (innovative ideas) -critiquing evaluates creative thinking output, judges acceptability, selects among options (pros and cons thinking)

Good Thinking requires both, and there must be balance between the two

Creative and critical thinking

Sternberg's theory emphasizes three abilities that work together

Creative: Insights Analytical: Compare/Analyze Practical: Everyday tasks

how do cultures and sub-cultures impact innovation?

Creativity is likely to emerge from individuals who bridged "structural holes between tightly knit clusters -diversity brings innovation

Environment and creativity

Creativity writers often propose changing the environment to increase creativity - Retreats, cleaning office, rearranging furniture, new location, etc. -Change the environment, change the way we think

Extrinsic motivation

Driven by money (or other tangible incentives), recognition; concerns about evaluation, competence

Consider how much creative and critical thinking went into the discovery of

DNA structure, or landing a man on the moon

Key to building creative organization:

Decentralization

Decentralized organizations have a "bottom up" approach

Decision making authority pushed down the hierarchy, when people have the information (and incentives) to make good decisions

Breadth and Depth

Depth of knowledge is important: • 10 year rule in any cognitively complex domain • Positive transfer seems to overwhelm negative transfer Breadth of knowledge/experience important: • Edison's background in telegraphy • Wright brother's background in bicycles Picasso's familiarity with ancient art • Gutenberg and wine making • Obstetrician visits zoo/ incubators "Chance favors the prepared mind"

What does critical thinking do?

evaluate creative thinking output

Sleeps and creativity (dreams)

EXAMPLES: -Loewi: Electrochemical nerve communication -McCartney: "let it be" and "yesterday" -His mother, Mary, came into his dream and said "Let it be", and the tune to the song was in a dream

Sociocultural approach

Emphasizes role that society and culture play: I.e. Political environment, war, changing of borders, immigration Advantage: -Aids understanding on why entire societies, or specific times, more or less creative Disadvantage: -Does not address basic questions of why some individuals are more creative than others, and how to increase creativity

Remote Associates Test

Example: •Cheese, sky, ocean - Answer - blue • Light, birthday, stick -Answer -candle

More Knowledge helps

Examples: Of 500 notable works only 3 composed before 10th year of career (and those 3 were composed in years 8 and 9) Chess masters require 10 years of experience o Grand masters know about 50,000 different patterns or board configurations

rationalization/confirmation bias in group think

Explain away warnings, negative feedback, to avoid rethinking position

Exploitation vs. exploration

Exploration has lower short-term return Full value of exploration not realized unless exploited

Things we face when focusing on a small number of alternatives in groups?

Fear of rejection too little diversity or too much diversity

theoretical perspectives used to define creativity

Fluency: the number of ideas you come up with Flexibility: types of ideas or categories you name Originality: produce the most new/unusual ideas Elaboration: develop & organize ideas to do difficult things

Propulsion Theory

Focuses on product: Replication - tries to keep things status quo Redefinition - present a different perspective on same product Forward Incrementation - push a domain forward Advanced Incrementation - pushing the domain 2-3 steps forward Redirection - redirect the field or product Reconstruction - move in a new direction but keep the same information Re-initiation: recreate, move it to a new starting point Integration: two diverse domains are merged together to create a new idea

"I should care about this because"

Important for understanding plethora of famous (but anecdotal) accounts of creative behavior i.e Johnson and serendipity

What is the historiometric approach to creativity and what are some of its findings?

Focuses on: - historical individuals: geniuses with key differences - nomothetic hypotheses: seek general laws or statistical relationships that transcend particulars (ex. person, time, place) - quantitative analysis: rich qualitative data transformed into numeric measurements Findings: - mad genius stereotype - idea that multiple creators often come up with same creation at the same time - notion that war exerts transient depressing influence on creativity - economic growth and stimulates creativity

How to put all that latent knowledge to work? In organizations

Get different groups together Clear tone from top Resources Failure tolerance Safe for everyone to offer ideas

Breadth of Knowledge gives us what? What's the side effect by increasing or decreasing breadth or depth of knowledge?

Gives us new perspectives to apply to old ideas to create new ideas ex: Picasso's usage of ancient art in his current art ex: Wright Bros' background in bicycles, led to the creation of flight (steering control for person person) *a side effect: is with increasing either breadth or depth, we give one for the other (We can't have everything)

How do hunches lead to great ideas?

Good when starting ideas. Useful when tied to other hunches. Must be in an open, liquid network. Time, place, tech, and economy must be right for it to become useful

What is in common between individuals, groups and organizations when focusing on a small number of alternatives?

Habit, routine, short run efficiency

Is creativity in organizational setting different?

In general: Concerns about intrinsic motivation

• Alexander Calder's Mobiles

His experience with modern art and visit with Mondian leads to his truly creative idea

What can help with creativity

Honest feedback and constant input from others

- average 12 fixations a minute on a model face when drawing X 140 fixations when non-drawing - frontal cortex most active when drawing (thoughts and thinking)

How do art experts experience art?

- around 140 fixations when drawing - visual cortex most active when drawing

How do art novices experince art?

Getzels emphasis on posing good questions

Ideas is that quality of answer depends on quality of question -i.e. Flat tire: How can we get a jack? → how can we raise the car (allows for a larger pool of possible answers)

How is the physical structure of a place or building important to innovation and ideas?

If it's easier to tear down, there are no qualms, people will be more willing to innovate and create anew. Essentially, a more open and flexible building allows for a liquid network of ideas

Some symptoms of groupthink

Illusion of invulnerability, overconfidence Rationalization / Confirmation bias Unquestioned belief in morality of group Stereotyping those opposed to the group as biased, weak, evil, stupid Direct (and indirect) pressure to conform Self-censorship of ideas Illusion of unanimity among members

How accessing knowledge can be put into use in individuals?

Incubation, time and effort, break up routine

multiple discoveries

Independent and (near) simultaneous discoveries

What is the difference between an independent and dependent variable?

Independent- The event, condition, or treatment that is systematically varied by the experimenter Dependent- A measure of the response to the independent variable.

Erie Canal results

Innovations trickled through the contractors

Sternberg 1985 on intelligence and creativity

Intelligence is about adapting to existing environments; creativity is about shaping new environments

Cognitive Approach

Interested in understanding creativity as a function of 'usual cognition, such as attention, memory, reasoning, abstraction, etc. • Advantages: -Often experimental (random assignment to condition) -Builds on what we already know about cognition -Can study people and measure creativity in lab settings Disadvantages: -Too narrow in terms of both cause and effect of creativity? -Limited relevance to group and organizational settings?

How has Google created a foundation for great ideas to grow?

It has allowed for slow-hunch innovation through the the "20-percent time", which allows for every four hours engineers to take a break and work on their own personal projects

What are the criteria according to psychologists of something creative?

Item/idea/thing is... - new - useful like aesthetically pleasing or appropriate to the task - (some say it must be surprising)

Things we face when focusing on a small number of alternatives in organizations?

Lack of motivation failure intolerance

Common to all: individuals, groups, and organizations

Lack of realization that... - There is tendency to consider small set of alts - It's important - It can be overcome Habit, routine, ruts Short-run efficiency, "good enough" Fear of criticism

General problem with groups is that they strive for consensus

Leads to premature closure, agreement with initial majority view, and extremism (polarization)

How does the author use gas, solid and liquid to describe the potential of innovation?

Liquid has mobility. Gas is ambiguous. Solid is stable. Best creative environments are the edge of chaos in the liquid state. Edge of liquid and gas, moving fast w/o chaos. But you need to pick at the edge to succeed

Crowdsourcing

Looking to people outside the organization for ideas and solutions

What went wrong with Space Shuttle Columbia disaster (2003)

MMT started with conclusion, worked backwards Failed to gather additional information Overconfidence Dismissed disconfirming evidence Limited discussion of different perspectives Not even case that "nothing could be done"

"Multiples" and the adjacent possible

Multiple people coming up with the same idea at the same time • I.e. calculus, discovery of oxygen, telescope, battery, law. Is this crazy? No with new ideas and new building blocks makes it possible terms of the adjacent possible, the time was right in this

Imaginative thinking skills

Provide the ability to see things in novel ways, to recognize patterns, and to make connections

Where do new ideas come from? What are possible processes to develop these new ideas?

New ideas come from old ideas (e.g. experiences, observations, learned facts, etc.) -reconfiguring, combining old ideas in new ways, or applying old ideas to new domains (e.g. Watson and Crick using old ideas from other researchers and articles to fit into their development of the DNA model)

How do we measure creativity?

No single way to answer it, they will use a variety of measures, depending on the particular approach researchers want to discuss

Two defining features of Creativity

Novel and Valued (society, field, individual)

What are multiples?

Occurs when several people make the same discovery almost simultaneously.

What is the difference between open and closed networks?

Open: unsecured Close network: outsiders can't access information, documents shielded from other members, 'need to know' restrictions.

Decentralization -- increased autonomy -- allows for more experimentation, creativity, and intrinsic motivation

People given clear goals, but not told exactly how to achieve them

Hindsight Bias

Perceive outcomes after the fact (hindsight) as more likely than before the fact (in foresight) *this is due to the ignoring or under-weighing alternative outcome(s) -"we knew it all along" - when outcome occurs and asked if we knew it was likely to happen, we are more likely to think "Oh yea, I knew that was going to happen." -if asked if the next person would know, after we know what the answer is, we highly believe the other person should know too. Overall: outcome knowledge influences what we (1) think we would have known, (2) think others know, and (3) think we did know in foresight.

Guilford's three dimensions that are used to define human cognition

Place creativity into structure of intellect: Product (produced) Content (content) Operations (thoughts)

What does good question asking do for us? (Accessing Knowledge)

Posing good questions ("problem of the problem") gives us good quality answers -this deals with posing the problem/question more abstractly ex: "How can we get a jack?" -> "How can we raise the car?"

what happens during the "years of silence"? *before the 10-years

Practice, Practice, Practice (as much as possible) -tend to have tutor or coach, who gave feedback -going over, and over very specific aspects until they mastered it. ex: the Beatles, Mozart, Picasso BUT putting in the 10,000 hour rule doesn't mean it will lead to creative contribution

What are the different stages of the creative cycle?

Preparation, incubation, illumination, verification

What is Wallas' 4 stage theory?

Preparation: - Learning the tools of the trade - Learn about what has been done in the field Incubation: - Don't consciously work on the problem so that you can unconsciously explore possibilities Insight: - Letting it go allows you to create Verification: - Tweak the idea/build prototypes/editing/etc - Seeing your work from the perspective of those who would be judging it - Convince others of the value of your work

Hypotheses Process and what to do with them? What can we do since they're susceptible to narrow focusing?

Process: 1) Generation 2) Testing 3) Evaluation -each stage is susceptible to narrow focusing *What we can do? -actively entertain multiple perspectives/alternatives/hypotheses - actively seek disconfirming evidence

4P's of Creativity

Product - Person - Place - Press

MetaDendral - Buchanan & Feigenbaum (1978)

Programme able to conduct searches in history Predicts fragmentation of glasses of molecules during mass spectrometry Forms hypotheses from theoretical models and instances ...Led to (minor) scientific discoveries

Importance of (REM) sleep

REM sleep facilitates finding (non-obvious) shortcut answer to difficult lab task Subjects not told that there was a short cut Subjects did not start second part of task knowing the shortcut

Advantages of brainstorming

Reduces fear of voicing "wrong", "bad", or "crazy" ideas Allows members to build on others' ideas

Explain the tug-of-war that goes on in organizations

There is often a tug of war between team-oriented leader who is focused on cooperation and interaction and with the creative thinker whose ideas are fostered through solitary focused work It is best not to force too much interaction between these two

Insight vs. Non-Insight Problems

Seems to be a psychological difference between the two: -Non-Insight: people can tell how close they are to solving the problem ex: Tower of Hanoi - I can see my progress and how close I am to the end -Insight: have no idea they're about to solve them ex: Me trying to figure out loneliness in UCSD *there's also different effects of language: -Insight problems: there tends to be more pauses, more metacognitions (awareness and understanding of one's thoughts and feelings), fewer logical statements

How does serendipity add to the process of innovation and ideas? • How does disorganization impact the brain?

Serendipity allows for happy accidents and new discoveries from hunches. Disorganization makes the brain more innovative by allowing new neural connections to happen.

Sources of Cohesion

Similarity, common identity, common enemy, shared sucess and shared suffering?

What is the difference between snap judgments and long drawn out ideas?

Snap Judgements: Simple and hardly become world changing. Ex: Are they trustworthy? Long Ideas: Have evidence and merit. Often include multiple hunches. Ex: Moussassi case 9/11.

environmental factors predisposing the development of creativity

Society Family environment Zeitgeist

domain specific versus domain general

Specific: creative in one category General: all around creative

Why averaging is powerful?

Statistical Principle

Drawing extraterrestrial creatures

Subjects presented with specific (previously generated) extraterrestrial animal examples more likely to generate extraterrestrial animals with same properties (e.g tails) more likely to draw animals with tails Even when told to create animals as different as possible from examples

Systematic inventive thinking

Take existing product, change it using: subtraction, multiplication, division, task unification, attribute dependency change Eg. stapler -Subtraction: Remove the metal staple and replace it with thread. Remove the staple head and replace it with a more complex thread head -Multiplication: 3 stapling heads spaced in a series (like 3 hole punch)

Statistical Principle

The average of the individual estimates will be at least as accurate as the average individual

What is the "edge of chaos"?

The fertile zone between too much order and too much anarchy

What does the author say about patterns and how these impact creativity?

The larger the city, the more creative it is. Creativity with size. The city and the web are both engines of innovation because they are both environments that are powerfully suited for creation, diffusion and adoption of good ideas.

How can decision making be improved?

by increasing rationality

How do invention and collaboration interact?

They both give new facts and ideas through multiple perspectives.

Where do new ideas come from

They come from old ideas- experiences, observations learned facts, etc. New ideas often come from combining old ideas in new ways of applying old ideas to different domain

Benefits of abstraction

Thinking abstractly avoids focusing on, being influenced by, specific entity

What is insight?

This aha moment we experience that comes from a "restructuring" (or seeing from different perspective) when we were at an impasse. *seems to come in a flash, out of nowhere ex: Kekule and the Ouboros, or Poincare at the beach

Hypnagogia

Transitional state between wakefulness and sleep, often rich with sensory experience -Dalí (the melting clock painting), kekulè, Edison, Beethoven · Took advantage/ exploited this technique by holding something heavy in their hand and as soon as they fell asleep, the weight would fall and wake them up

Metaphor for good group decision making

Value of harnessing diverse, independent perspectives

So why not just ask good questions all the time?

Various barriers keep us from doing so Eg. perceptual blocks prevent us from clearly perceiving the problem itself -i.e. Frozen food doors "How to improve doors How to keep heat out while allowing free passage?" Lead to stips of plastic in freezer section

convergent thinking tests

insight problems the remote association task

Preparation, incubation, insight, verification

Wallas 4 Stage Theory

Break narrow focusing

We tend to not consider a large number of alternatives

individual differences

What is a key aspect of creativity?

"Fundamental attribution error"

When attributing causes to others' behavior, we tend to overvalue person-based explanations and undervalue situational explanations

What is an associative state?

When business corporates and gov have a desired outcome for society A shower or walk, anywhere that removes you from the task-based focus of modern life. Allows for your mind to stumble across an idea that you had previously overlooked

negative transfer

When experience hinders learning in a new situation

What are liquid networks. Define and understand these and their value to innovation

Where info flows easily and into multiple unpredictable paths. Nurture hunches into revelations. Ex: World Wide Web and Google.

Why is the adjacent possible so vital?

You can dream of possible, but you need pieces to bring it to market. To be created for real you need a structure to facilitate such./ "Ahead of its time;" Idea didn't have humans, teach, science to work.

Explorer vs Developer

_________: has the idea ______________: takes the idea and expands on it

Internal vs. External Creativity

___________: people who struggle and find satisfaction in writing them out _________: expresses through interactions with other people and collaborations with others

Speed ventures

a disguised version of a real high-consequence decision made in 1986

DeBono's Six Thinking Hats

a good decision making technique and method for group discussions and individual thinking. Combined with the parallel thinking process, this technique helps groups think more effectively. It is a means to organize thinking processes in a detailed and cohesive manner.

Confirmation bias

a tendency to search for information that supports our preconceptions and to ignore or distort contradictory evidence

convergent thinking

ability to correctly hone in the single correct solution to a problem narrows the available problem solution to determine the single best solution

Advantageous to have broad knowledge/experience, but must be

able to access/make use of it

Highly creative people described as

absorbed and devoted to work

creativity is an

active process

hypothesis evaluation

after new data, you update your belief in your hypothesis

What are the advantages of sociocultural approach?

aids understanding of why entire societies, or specific times, are more or less creative

Broad focus on

alternatives and information

What are three factors of good thinking?

analytical thinking, creative thinking, and ethical thinking

psychometric

assumes creativity can be measured reliably and validly, give people simple 'divergent thinking' tasks such as --> unusual uses test, asking questions test, product improvement, circles

Active management is key to

avoiding groupthink

How does thinking abstractly affect thinking?

avoids focusing on being influenced by specific entity lessen the dominance of one solution/instance

What is exaptation?

borrowing technology from an entirely different field, and putting it to work to solve unrelated problems -making sandals out of tires

What type of approach do decentralized organizations have?

bottom up

harnessing value of diverse opinions is analogous to

breadth of knowledgein individual creativity and decision making!

How can problem solving be improved?

by increasing creativity

How does exaptation add to the process of innovation and ideas?

chance favors the connected mind

Idea generation and evaluation occur

continuously during creative activity

Attraction to group and current level of cohesion may affect willingness to

contradict others

Underlies not just Big Ideas, but

countless small ones that shape our lives

Critical thinking evaluates

creative thinking output, judges acceptability, selects among options

three types of thinking that are crucial to good thinking

creative, analytical, and ethical

Weisburg

creativity involves ordinary cognitive processes (planning, analogy) opposed to extraordinary cognitive processes

Accessing knowledge, opinions, perspectives -from both insiders and outsiders -- is

crucial

Approaches to creativity

developmental theories psychometric theories economic theories cognitive theories evolutionary theories psychodynamic

How does priming affect brainstorming?

different "primes" (others' ideas) activate different concepts and different related concepts

Breadth of knowledge in individuals

diversity in groups

intrinsically motivated

do it for their own personal satisfaction as opposed to pleasing someone else/reward/recognition

What are the disadvantages of sociocultural approach?

does not address basic questions of why some individuals are more creative than others

intrinsic motivation

doing something because of interest or enjoyment in the task itself

9 dot problem

don't place constraints on the representation that aren't part of the actual problem

Evidence, however, indicates, that extrinsic motivators should, under many circumstances, be

downplayed, not emphasized

Sociocultural Approach descriptors:

emphasizes role of society and culture strengths: helps understand why entire societies, or specific times in history, are more or less creative weaknesses: doesn't address why some individuals are more creative than others and how to increase creativity.

sociocultural approach to studying creativity

emphasizes role that society and culture play in creativity

Social Approach descriptors:

emphasizes social (external factors) - (e.g. motivation, social influence, role models, resources, etc.) Strengths: often experimental, builds on what we know in social psych, can study it in labs, and representative of group and org settings Weaknesses: by nature, less emphasis on individual cases (e.g. Role of Expertise)

What is the social approach?

emphasizes social (external) factors

What is the sociocultural approach?

emphasizes the role that society and culture play

How does error add to the process of innovation and ideas?

error forces you to continue to explore, fail harder, if there's no error that's not good because everything could always use improvement

What is meant by "exploitation" in organizational creativity?

exploiting current opportunities for growth

What is meant by "exploration" in organizational creativity?

exploring new opportunities for growth

What are common decision errors seen as?

failing to consider alternatives; "narrow focusing"

Common cause of lack of creativity and poor decision making is...

failure to generate or consider multiple alternatives/solutions/perspectives

How accessing knowledge can be put into use in organizations?

failure tolerance, cross-functional teams

What is meant by "process loss" in brainstorming?

fewer ideas are often generated in brainstorming groups compared to same number of individuals seoarately

What does REM sleep facilitate?

finding shortcut answers to difficult lab tasks

hypothesis generation

forming expectations through limited data e.g. 2-4-6 task "numbers increasing by 2"

Preparation

gathering the tools you need to go beyond the trade level, learning as much about that thing as you can (WALLAS)

problem with cohesion/diversity tradeoff

greater diversity -> lower cohesion

Aggregating diverse perspectives improves

group creativity and decisions

Janis (1971) argued that several bad group decisions (e.g., invade Cuba, escalate war in Vietnam) were due to

group dynamics, especially a strong tendency to try to keep group morale high

Natural group processes will often lead to

groupthink

People tend to underestimate value of

harnessing diverse opinions and instead "chase the expert"

A key to good group performance is

harnessing value of diverse opinions

Insight

have the idea about new approach/perspective (WALLAS)

More creativity

higher quality of life

Which two biases are reduced when forced to consider why alternative(s) might be true?

hindsight and overconfidence bias

process

how people produce creative products

when you are being creative you are changing the state space in the way that is useful for the situation, problem solving (transformational) solving it in the way that transforms it in a positive way

how transformation is chosen

What two things happen during creative activity?

idea generation and evaluation

In creativity tasks, diversity provides a broader set of

ideas/hypotheses

problem of group think

immediate focus on small number of alternatives (one)

Groups as solution to

individual biases in problem solving and decision making

how should individual sessions follow group sessions?

individual sessions should follow group sessions immediately

the distinguishing quality of a good question

it is very broad

What is the usual view of creativity?

it lies on increased effort in finding answers to questions quality of answer depends on the quality of question

active management in groupthink

it's key

cognitive approach to studying creativity

lab experiments that are interested in understanding creativity as a function of usual cognition (such as attention, memory, reasoning, etc)

psychometric approach to studying creativity

lab testing that looks for a relation to creativity and personality

Things we face when focusing on a small number of alternatives in individuals?

lack of perspectives ( you only have your own view to look from) Limited knowledge ( only can pool from your own knowledge)

alternatives in individual

lack of perspectives, knowledge, input from others

What are the disadvantages of the social approach?

less emphasis on the individual

Being limited in any one area will

limit your achievements

What is the psychometric approach?

looks for relation between personality traits and creativity

Psychometric Approach descriptions:

looks for relation between personality traits and creativity (often correlational studies) Strengths: study "normal" people, and measure creativity via lab Weakness: doesn't show "how to" increase one's creativity, uncertainty if it captures the meaning of creativity

Importance of accessing knowledge in individuals

maintaining independence, voicing opinions in groups

People in minority position tend to adopt perspective of

majority

Brainstorming an active strategy for, e.g.,

making it acceptable to voice unusual ideas

fluency, originality, problem sensitivity, flexibility, practicality

measurements of creativity

In forecast/estimation tasks, diversity yields different—and offsetting

mistakes

How does cohesion affect coordination and motivation?

more cohesion --> better coordination and motivation

People who do what they love are

more creative

People identified as more intrinsically motivated (based on "work preference inventory") produce

more creative work

How does cognitive diversity affect information?

more diversity --> better information

What is the cohesion/diversity tradeoff?

more diversity --> less cohesion -teams with the greatest potential information value are often those most in need of greater cohesion

Decentralization -- increased autonomy -- allows for

more experimentation, creativity, and intrinsic motivation

problem with knowledge and creatvity

need to access more knowledge than is readily available

novel

new; original

The role of breadth and depth of knowledge and experience in creativity

not only that domain-specific doesn't hurt, nut is necessary for creativity o Negative transfer occurs but so does positive transfer

· Outcome knowledge influences

not only what we (a) think we would have known and (b) think others know, but also (c) think we did know in foresight

Two qualities that make an idea creative

novel and useful

What are two defining features of creative behavior?

novel, valued

What is an insight problem?

often associated with problems involving single key insight to solve; the aha! experience

social approach to studying creativity

often lab su=tudies that emphasize social factors and how they relate to creativity

new ideas are rooted in _________ _________

old ideas

Creative and critical thinking are both crucial for good thinking

one without others is very limiting

Creative thinking generates

original ideas, unusual approaches to problems, novel perspectives of situations

The incubation effect is thought to occur because

people work on problems at an unconscious level.

functional fixedness

perceive item only in terms of most common use

What is hindsight bias?

perceive outcomes after the fact (in hindsight) as more likely than before the fact (in foresight)

What do good "question asking" involve?

posing the problem/question more abstractly

Which is stronger: positive transfer or negative transfer?

positive transfer overwhelms negative transfer

What is negative transfer?

previously successful strategies can hurt performance when task changes and requires a difference response or approach (i.e., water jug problem)

Creativity is important for mundane behavior

problem solving and decision-making are found everywhere

insight problems

problems involving a single key insight that you need to solve them (aha! experience)

What is the difference between insight and non-insight problems?

psychological; subjects working on non-insight problems can tell you how close they are to solving the problem, whereas subjects working on insight problem have no idea they're about to solve them

Non-insight problem: Tower of Hanoi

· Three pegs, move tower to different to a different peg without placing a large piece on top of another -Not an insight problem because you have to work through it... doesn't come as an instantaneous solution

Incubation effects in insight problems

· When stuck on a problem, it helps to put it aside and think about other things · Often suggested that unconscious processes at work - Perhaps unconscious recombination of ideas?

The adjacent possible

• "The a kind of shadow future, hovering on the edges of the present state of things, a map of all the ways in which the present can reinvent itself." (Johnson, p. 31) • Depends on current building blocks • Sometimes shared by many, sometimes unique to individual Examples: Primordial soup, musical chords, vocabulary: • If you only know 3 chords, the adjacent possible is limited to the combination of those 3 chords • As we add chords to our musical vocabulary, our adjacent possible expands

How to actively process knowledge?

• Consider alternative perspectives, potential solutions • Seek out and attend to disconfirming evidence • Abstraction • Change in environment • Even incubation effect, if break taken strategically

What is Creativity

• Creative ideas have two things in common: Novel and Useful (or valued) • Novel alone is not enough

Biographical (case study) approach

• Examines eminent people, or groups of people in order to try and figure out why they became so creative Strengths: -Studies real creative behavior Weaknesses: -Rare, unrepresentative: implies only eminent people are creative -Selection and interpretation issues -Difficult to infer causation

Antecedents of groupthink

• High group cohesion (?) • Homogeneity of members' social background and ideology • Isolation of the group from outside sources of information and analysis • Directive leadership

Evidence for knowledge hurts?

• Many labs "Negative transfer Previously successful strategies can hurt performance when task changes and requires different approach I.e. manual transmission problem- moving from manual to automatic will transfer unnecessary skills

How do you measure creativity?

• No single answer Range from, e.g. number of great works when studying eminent artists

Advantages of face-to-face group brainstorming

• People enjoy it more than individual brainstorming • People more satisfied with performance

How to brainstorm

• Start with diverse group • Goal of each participant is to generate as many ideas as possible - As potential solutions and to stimulate others • Do not judge your or others' ideas (easy?) • Build on others' ideas