Creative cognition involves the analysis and comprehension of the processes and mental representations within creative thought. Creativity refers to the ability to create original, useful and appropriate work. Creative thinking, however, never follows the same pattern. Psychologists have presented data to the effect that discoveries, inventions, and original ideas originate from insight, others, however, are of the view that discoveries originate from the cumulative application of expertise or prior knowledge (Smith et al., 1997). The two schools of thought have led to a contention among psychologists on whether creativity involves prior knowledge and expertise or simply, insight. The dominant view, however, is that creativity and the production of novelty stem from prior knowledge and expertise.
According to Smith et al, (1997), creative thinking requires a prepared mind. Psychologists are of the view that the reproductive use of acquired knowledge or prior knowledge is likely to give rise to creative novelty and leaps. The basic view is that concepts already established, learned and acquired guide a person in the exploration and eventual generation and invention of new ideas. Another view is that the playful manipulation of acquired knowledge results in creative ends.
Novelty and creative ideas almost always spring from single domains like science, arts or sports among individuals with some level of expertise. A person with some prior knowledge and expertise in a certain field of study is more likely to use that knowledge to come up with advanced ideas. An individual without prior knowledge would not even be aware of any important advances and what he or she may consider an advancement may already have been discovered.
According to Mumford et al., (2002) creative work involves two major processes: the generation of the initial idea or the creative process and the implementation of the idea or the innovation process. Creative work involves a rigorous process of the identification of a problem, the gathering of information that allows for the comprehension of the problem. The information gathered generates new ideas and thoughts which eventually lead to new creations and inventions.
Creative work, in essence, is person centered. Creative solutions to problems can only be achieved if individuals actively acquire knowledge and work with it. The acquisition of knowledge requires a rigorous and slow process of developing expertise. Furthermore, psychologists suggest that creative work requires expertise in different fields to provide collaborative efforts in the differing intensities, composition and duration on the nature of the problem needing a creative solution (Mumford et al., 2002). Creative achievement is tied to intense involvement coupled with an extensive practice which connotes some level of expertise in relation to a given field (Mumford et al., 2002). Most experts are tied to their work which serves as some source of identity.
Dietrich (2004), provides a neuroscientific approach to creativity. In her opinion, the prefrontal cortex which is the area in the human brain where creativity occurs, functions to combines information that is already highly processed to produce or create higher cognitive functions. This suggests that the human brain also uses information that is pre- existing in the brain, or that has already been conditioned to conjure up new ideas. The human brain employs the use of the working memory which allows a person to process information and to temporarily store and monitor situations that are in real time. The working memory, in effect, acts as a prerequisite for a host of neurological processes such as abstract thinking, long- term memory access, cognitive flexibility, and strategic planning. Neuroscientific studies suggest that working memory buffer is critical and a necessity for effective creative thinking. The memory buffer holds key problem- solving knowledge in an individual's mind which is critical in creative thinking.
The neuroscientific study also proposes two forms or processing modes that can give rise to creative thoughts: the spontaneous and deliberate processing modes. Some neuroscientists have provided research to the effect that creative thoughts can be influenced by defocused or spontaneous processing modes. This research is true but it is also noteworthy that spontaneous and defocused processing of information can only yield creativity if deliberately applied to relevant information in order to solve problems and create solutions and new ideas (Dietrich, 2004).
Hence, neuroscience emphasizes that a working memory which can be equated to prior knowledge or expertise in a given field, is a prerequisite to creative thinking. The human brain has the capacity to form new ideas and novelty from spontaneous or deliberate processes but critical to creative thinking is the deliberate process and function of the prefrontal cortex.
According to Smith et al., (1997), imagination and intuition are essential in the implementation of a creative thought. There are various researchers that employ the use of simple laboratory tasks that do not require prior knowledge to spur creativity. Also, activities that are habitually carried out by subjects are used to induce creativity without prior knowledge. It is noteworthy that these insight based creativity tasks draw from some form of knowledge or information in the brain of the individual. If there was not prior knowledge or information from which the tasks could be based, then there would not be any creative process. As mentioned, the human brain or the prefrontal cortex applies the information stored within its memory to deal with problems in real time. Hence, in as much as the researchers claim no prior knowledge is needed, the human brain would find knowledge that is relevant and then apply it to the problem at hand.
In conclusion, creative cognition is based on expertise and prior knowledge. Expertise is essential both from a neuroscientific point of view as well as a social psychological view. The human brain depends on memory or pre- acquired knowledge to form new ideas and creative solutions to problems. This is in line with the psychologists view that reproduction of prior knowledge leads to creative ideas.
References
Dietrich, A. (2004). The Cognitive Neuroscience of Creativity. Psychonomic Bulletin Review. Vol. 11, Issue 6, pp 1011 – 1026
Mumford, M.D., Scott, G.M., Gaddis, B., Strange, J.M. (2002). Leading Creative People: Orchestrating Expertise and Relationships. The Leadership Quarterly. Elsevier Science Inc
Smith, S.M., Ward, T.B., Finke, R.A. (1997). The Creative Cognition Approach. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.
