Intro to Creativity Lecture 2 EE 101, Fall 2014 University of Kentucky

Define creativity Relationship between creativity and intelligence Pioneers in the scientific study of creativity Measuring creativity Lecture Topics

What is creativity?

Good things What else? – Education? Intelligence? L/R? Manage? Status? – What “causes” creativity? – Cultivate? Good, Bad or Ambiguous?

A talk by Rex Jung – Prof of Neuroscience at University of New Mexico Talk outline: – Definition of creativity – Brains are malleable (can be trained like a muscle) – Understanding and fostering creativity is critical – Good, Bad, Ugly of creativity research: Ugly (misconceptions) – Genius is required – Creative people are insane – Creativity occurs in right side, rational thought in left Good (foundational truths of creativity research) – In order to have a good idea, you must have many ideas (Linus Pauling) » Nobel prize winners publication history » Picasso produced a lot of duds – Creativity is not one kind of thing – it is many (knowledge domains) » 2x2 chart: (Emotional/Cognitive)x(Deliberate/Spontaneous) Bad – New imaging tools are allowing us to explore the physical basis for creativity – Less is often more (FTD, cortex thickness, white matter) Creativity – What do we know?

Why Is Creativity Important?

"There is no doubt that creativity is the most important human resource of all. Without creativity, there would be no progress & we would be forever repeating the same patterns." - P. F. Drucker “Problems cannot be solved at the same level of thinking that created them..." - A. E. Einstein “Creativity is the 'genetic code' of education … it’s produced the most extraordinary results in human culture and is essential for the new economic circumstances of the 21st century.” - Sir Ken Robinson

Neil deGrasse Tyson on innovation – goo.gl/MrD0Xs goo.gl/MrD0Xs Dr. Tyson

Will creativity become more, or less, important in the future? More or Less

Daniel H. Pink (author of NYT Bestseller Drive and Why Right Brainers Will Rule the Future): In many professions, what used to matter most were abilities associated with the left side of the brain: linear, sequential, spreadsheet kind of faculties. Those still matter, but they're not enough. What's important now are the characteristics of the brain's right hemisphere: artistry, empathy, inventiveness, big-picture thinking. These skills have become first among equals in a whole range of business fields. I happen to be extremely left-brained; my instinct is to draw a chart rather than a picture. I'm trying to get my right-brain muscles into shape. I actually think this shift toward right-brain abilities has the potential to make us both better off and better in a deeper sense. In the same way that machines have replaced our bodies in certain kinds of jobs, software is replacing our left brains by doing sequential, logical work. And that brings us to [offshoring] …. in Asia you have tens of millions of people who can do routine tasks like write computer code. Routine is work you can reduce to a spreadsheet, to a script, to a formula, to a series of steps that has the right answer. Does this mean that logical (“left brain”) thinking will become unimportant? Opinion: Daniel H. Pink

If creativity is important, it would be good to understand it – How do we measure it (or something like it)? – What causes creative insight? – Can we do things to improve our capacity for creative thought? Comments – Our understanding is in its infancy – Growing quickly, but still a long way to go Studying Creativity

Intelligence == Creativity ?

Intelligence and Creativity How are intelligence and creativity related to one another?

Intelligence is NOT a crucial ingredient for creativity – Determine in the 1940’s Intelligence and Creativity

Example – During WWII, US military sought pilots that could get out of a jam in unorthodox ways – Wanted pilots that wouldn’t just bail in an emergency, but would be more likely to save themselves and the aircraft – Initially used IQ tests to identify such candidates – BUT High IQ was useless in finding highly inventive pilots Intelligence and Creativity

Joy Paul Guilford ( ) – Pioneered psychometric study of creativity Worked in US Army during the war, and then went to USC Psychometrics = techniques for measuring psychological quantities like knowledge, attitudes, etc. – Important observations: Above a threshold level, IQ and creativity are not strongly correlated IQ is not a measure of one’s total cognitive capacity – Introduced the concepts of Convergent and Divergent thinking Intelligence and Creativity

Aims for a single solution to a problem – Logical – Black & white This will be the focus of an education in science and/or engineering Objectively measureable! – IQ tests – Exams – The measure is independent of the examiner Convergent Thinking

Creative people can free themselves from conventional thought patterns and follow new paths This is known as divergent thinking – Generates many possible solutions to a problem Is it measureable? – Does it make any sense to define something like a Creativity Quotient (CQ) ? Divergent Thinking

Creativity is not easily quantified – No generally agreed upon measure that applies to all types of creativity (Rex Jung talk – knowledge domains) – Measure dependent on the field and on the tester Artistic, verbal, technical, spatial, etc. People creative in some areas, not in others Many of us have important moments of exceptional creativity in our lives, in spite of scoring poorly on creativity tests Measuring Creativity (1)

Measuring divergent thinking (assuming correlation with creativity) – One of the first standardized creativity tests was developed by Guilford He called it “Guilford’s Alternative Uses Test” (GAUT) Test takers list as many uses for a common object as they can – GAUT is scored based on: Originality Determined by comparing each response to the total amount of responses from a specific group of test takers. Responses that are given by 5% of the group are unusual (1 point), responses that are given by only 1% of the group are unique (2 points). Fluency scores for relevant answers. Flexibility scores for difference of categories. Elaboration scores based on the amount of detail given in the response. (i.e. 0= a brick as a bed versus 2= a brick used as a bed for a child’s dolls when the child is playing outside) Measuring Creativity (2)

Torrance Tests of Creative Thinking – Ellis Paul Torrance ( ) Worked at U of MN, then U of Georgia – Widely used to get estimates of creative potential and tendencies – Built on Guilford’s work – Puts people in categories, but reliable ranking is difficult Measuring Creativity (3)

Remote Associates Test of Creative Thinking – Created by Sarnoff Mednick RAT created at UMICH (1962) Now at USC, teaching in his 80’s – He believed RATs could be used to gauge creativity in various areas Example: – dust/pins/soup = Measuring Creativity (4)

Torrance Test Exercise Use only this shape to make a creative picture. Use only these shapes to make a creative picture. Complete this picture, adding anything you like.

Torrance Test Exercise How would you decide more vs less creative solutions?

List as many uses as you can for a brand new tube of tennis balls. GAUT Example

Examples: – cottage/swiss/cake – cream/skate/water – falling/actor/dust – night/wrist/stop – bass/complex/sleep – coin/quick/spoon Remote Associates Test

GAUT/Torrance/RAT Which provides a better measure of creativity?

For (lots) more information on measuring creativity see – suring-creativity.html suring-creativity.html – Kaufman, Plucker and Baer, Essentials of Creativity Assessment, Wiley, More on testing for creativity

Define creativity Relationship between creativity and intelligence Pioneers in the scientific study of creativity Measuring creativity Summary of Lecture 2