The Creative Process 1 Running Head: the Creative Process the Creative Process with Visualization as an Enabler

The mechanisms underlying the cognitive process behind creativity can be severely limited by short-term memory capacity as well as by developing a solution with a ‘closed-mind,’ meaning that the creator is limited by his/her own tunnel vision which limits creativity. Visualizations are a physical representation of the semantic networks that are created during the creative process as a creator scans his/her mind for solutions and can be used to expand working memory as well as to effectively communicate the knowledge networks of the mind. This paper will attempt to develop a working model of the creative process and then address cognitive barriers that can limit a person’s creativity. It will then explore visualizations as a tool to overcome these barriers and, finally, will include an example created by the author and included in the appendix to illustrate the concepts discussed. THE CREATIVE PROCESS 3 THE CREATIVE PROCESS WITH VISUALIZATION AS AN ENABLER Introduction As seen in Warr and O’Neill’s (2005) Table 1 below, the creative process has been broken down into different stages throughout history. As Warr and O’Neill (2005) point out, regardless of the specific stages, the process seems to follow three to four main steps. First, the problem at hand is analyzed, which is essentially the time when the creator concentrates on collecting data and attempts to come up with quick, albeit often incorrect, solutions to the problem. Second, is a stage of generating ideas, wherein “the creator does not actively attempt to solve the problem but unconsciously continues to work on it [until a possibility] surfaces to consciousness in a vague and unpolished form” (Gabora, 2002). Finally, the creator focuses in on his/her developed possibility and evaluates it until it is at a point where it is clearly communicable. Throughout this process short-term memory capacity can act as a barrier to expanding creative thoughts. This barrier can be overcome through the use of various visualizations, which can enhance the creator’s cognitive boundaries (Crapo, 2000). Table 1 – Comparison of Creative Process Models (Warr & O’Neill, 2005) Models Analysis of Problem Generating Ideas Evaluating Ideas Donating Wallas (1926) Preparation Incubation Illumination Verification X Osborn (1963) Idea Generation Idea Evaluation X Fact-Finding Idea-Finding Amabile (1983) Problem or task Presentation Preparation Response Generation Response Validation X Shneiderman (2000) Collect Create Donate Relate Cognitive Mechanisms As described above, the creative process is broken down into various stages. In general the three main stages are analysis of the problem, generation of ideas, and evaluation of solutions (Warr & O’Neill, 2005). Throughout these three stages the creator will go through two distinct THE CREATIVE PROCESS 4 forms of thought. The first mode is commonly known as the associative mode, which is an intuitive time when the creator “reveals remote or subtle connections between items that are correlated but not necessarily casually related” (Gabora, 2002). Typically, this type of unfocused thought will occur during the first two stages of the creative process, when the creator is searching for possible solutions. The second mode of thought, which aligns with the final stage of the creative process (evaluation), is the analytical mode. The analytical mode is a focused approach of thought during which the creator will “work out the logistics of the solution and turn it into a form that is presentable to the world” (Gabora, 2002). During the associative mode of the creative process, the user scans his/her memory (which is made up of past experiences) for data that can be associated (even loosely) to the problem at hand. During this scan Gabora (2002) illustrated that, because there can not be an infinite amount of space in the human mind, “the number of memory locations is much smaller than the possible number of experiences.” Gabora’s illustration, seen in Figure 1, depicts how the associative scan of the creator’s experiences works. In the figure, each intersection of the gridlines represents “a possible constellation of stimulus properties that could be present in some experience we might have.” These properties are basically what we think of as characteristics, such as the color red or, more abstractly, the concept of pride. The circles that overlay the grid represent possible memory locationsareas where an experience could potentially be logged in the creator’s mind. Memory locations filled with an actual experience or memory are represented by the circles with a black dot inside. Finally, the gradient of the diagram represents the scan area that the creator goes through when he/she begins the creative process. THE CREATIVE PROCESS 5 Figure 1 Gabora's (2002) representation of the architecture of the mind. Based on this architecture of the mind, the scan that takes place during creative thought can be described as the spreading of the gradient throughout the grid which activates different past experiences. For example, assume that the creator recalls his/her memory of a tree and that this memory is located at point k in Figure 1. This memory of a tree would be activated and would ‘light-up’ that area of his/her brain as the creator related his/her knowledge of trees to other nearby experiences that fall within the gradient, for example his association of a tree to his memory of shade or of plants. Gabora (2002) summarizes this by saying that “the current thought or experience (in this case the tree) activates a certain region of the memory. Episodes or concepts stored in the locations in this region provide the ‘ingredients’ for the next thought. This next thought is slightly different, so it activates and retrieves from a slight different region, and so forth.” Therefore, the further the gradient is allowed to spread, the more creative the solution can potentially be by allowing a larger and larger knowledge base of associations to be considered for the solution. To simplify Gabora’s illustration of the creative mechanism we can relate it to Santanen, Briggs, and Jan de Vreede’s (1999) Cognitive Network Model of Creativity as a base. This model (seen in Figure 2) groups the activated experiences that fall within the initial gradient into THE CREATIVE PROCESS 6 what Santanen et al. (1999) refer to as frames. As shown in the figure below, the initial frames that are activated and scanned during the creative process are the salient frames. Santanen et al. describe this creative model by explaining that as salient frames not previously associated to one another become simultaneously activated, the creativity of the solution increases. Figure 2 Santanen et al.'s (1999) Cognitive Network Model of Creativity. After the associative portion of the creative process, the creator must combine remote frames which are related to develop a final solution. This part of the creative process, the analytical mode of thinking, serves to drill down on possible solutions to convert them into concrete and easily communicated solutions to the problem. Unlike the associative thinking process, the goal of the analytical thinking process is not to remain at a high level and scan as wide as possible. On the contrary, the goal is to focus in on one or two specific nodes and drill down on them to refine the solution. True creative solutions cannot be developed without both associative scans and analytical drill-downs. On an anatomical level, Balzac (2007) references the works of Dr. K.M. Heilman (2002) in stating that “highly creative individuals ‘may be endowed with brains that are capable of ... divergent thinking, and have a special ability to modulate the frontal lobe-locus coeruleus system ... leading to the discovery of novel orderly relationships.’” The concept to focus on here is the idea of divergent thinking, which simply stated is the ability to develop alternative solutions. THE CREATIVE PROCESS 7 Heilman’s work focused on the specific regions of the brain associated with the creative process, but more importantly he pointed out that “creativity is dependent upon the ability to diverge and then form innovative solutions,” which ties in directly with Santanen et al.’s Cognitive Network Model and the gradient scanning model proposed by Gabora. His theory reinforces both models with his conclusion that creative innovation requires “the coactivation and communication between regions of the brain that ordinarily are not strongly connected.” Short-Term Memory as a Barrier to the Creative Process During the co-activation of the brain’s different regions that arises during the creative process, the primary barrier to an ever expanding cognitive network is the mental load limits of the creator’s short-term memory. As was proposed by Miller (1956), and is still generally accepted today (See MacGregor 1987 & Cowan 2001), short-term memory has a capacity to handle seven (plus or minus two) chunks of information. For example, given the sequence of numbers 398274601, people can typically not repeat all the numbers without missing one or two of the sequence. However, given the same sequence as 398 274 601, we break the sequence into three chunks of information which the brain can handle. Along with the memory load limits which Miller proposed, Santanen et al. also address the issue that if a creator follows a “frequent and regular activation pattern of frames...[he/she may] rarely venture beyond highly familiar concepts while generating creative solutions.” What they try to convey is that if a person follows a typical association pattern of thought, then he/she will struggle in coming up with creative ideas that would be inspired by scanning outside their typical patterns of thought. Balzac (2007) discusses this concept and explains that “to arrive at a solution to a persistently unsolvable problem, an individual must often change the method by THE CREATIVE PROCESS 8 which he or she has already attempted to solve the problem.” This approach is what is commonly referred to as thinking outside the box. So, along with the mental load limits which prevent the cognitive network from effectively extending beyond seven frames, if a creator is fixated on one development path, he/she will be doomed by his/her tunnel vision and will arrive at an incorrect solution. Visualizations as Enablers to Creative Thought Given that a user can handle only seven chunks of information, the creative process becomes ineffective after the seventh frame as he/she would begin to forget about previously activated and associated frames. Santanen et al. discuss this concept and suggest that “one way that we may use short-term memory more efficiently is by creating larger, more complex chunks [which] occurs when several frames that are simultaneously and repeatedly salient become coded into a new, more abstract chunk that contains a richer set of information” (1999). By combining different frames into new chunks of data, the creator frees up short-term memory and allows for new frames and chunks to be added to his/her ongoing associations. However, being readily able to create new and larger chunks of information is a task that takes practice to master and, as such, visualizing the information that the creator is scanning is one way to free mental resources to enable expansion of the knowledge network that is created when you scan for solutions. Johnson-Laird (1983) explains that there are three kinds of internal representations of knowledge: mental models (simply models that exist in the mind), propositional representations (sets of natural language formulations), and images (created from information being gathered from the eyes, or from information being recalled from memory). Crapo et al. takes this view of mental representation and explains that text and/or diagrams are simply external representations THE CREATIVE PROCESS 9 of these three different internal knowledge representations. He explains that visualizations, such as mind mapping, can be used to “extend working memory, [and to anchor] a view as a visualization [that] can be an effective aid in communicating a model to others” (2000). By developing a physical diagram to visualize the cognitive scan of the frames, the creator is able to remove chunks of information as well as compare what he/she has scanned in the past to what he/she is currently scanning. Throughout the creative process, the creator must develop and understand relationships that previously have never shared any “readily apparent real-world representation on which an intuitive visualization could be based” (Crapo et al., 2000). Overall, visualization is the creator’s effort to convert the highly structured and organized semantic networks in the mind into a visual display to reveal and understand their structures, to create new mental chunks and free mental resources, to facilitate collaboration of ideas, and to present information for explicit comparison of different salient frames. Visualization Application Appendix A includes sketches showing the author’s attempt at creating a visualization around deciding on a career path after graduation. There are several iterations included that illustrate the creative process as the creator started to recognize different relationships as the visualization progressed that would not have been recognized without the explicit comparison allowed by developing a visualization. It should also be noted that the number of factors and relationships that are presented in the final version nicely illustrates the ability of visualizations to allow for a much wider array of comparisons. THE CREATIVE PROCESS 10 Appendix A: Development Example of Visualization THE CREATIVE PROCESS 11 Appendix A Cont’d: Works in Progress THE CREATIVE PROCESS 12 ReferencesBalzac, Fred (2007). Exploring the Brain’s Role in Creativity. NeuroPsychiatry Review, 7 (5).Cowan, Nelson (2001). The Magical Number 4 in Short-Term Memory: A Reconsideration ofMental Storage Capacity. Behavioral and Brain Sciences 24 (1).Crapo, Andrew W., Waisel, Laurie B., Wallace, William A., & Willemain, Thomas R. (2000).Visualization and the Process of Modeling: A Cognitive-theoretic View. Troy, NewYork: Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute.Gabora, Liane (2002). Cognitive Mechanisms Underlying the Creative Process. Belgium: FreeUniversity of Brussels, Center Leo Apostel for Interdisciplinary Studies.Heilman, Kenneth M. & Nadeua S. E. (2002). Creative Innovation: Possible Brain Mechanisms. Neurocase, 9, 369-379.Johnson-Laird, Philip N. (1983). Mental Models: Towards a Cognitive Science of Language,Inference, and Consciousness. Harvard University Press, Cambridge, MA.MacGregor, James N (1987). Short-Term Memory Capacity: Limitation or Optimization? BritishColumbia, Canada: University of Victoria, School of Public Administration.Miller, George A. (1956). The Magical Number Seven, Plus or Minus Two: Some Limits onOur Capacity for Processing Information. Psychological Review, 63, 81-97. Santanen, Eric, Briggs, Robert, & Gert-Jan de Vreede (1999). A Cognitive Network Model of Creativity: A Renewed Focus on Brainstorming Methodology. United States: Universityof Arizona, Center for the Management of Information & Netherlands: Delft Universityof Technology, Faculty of Technology, Policy and Management. THE CREATIVE PROCESS 13 Warr, Andy, & O’Neill, Eamonn (2005). Understanding Design as a Social Creative Process.United Kingdom: University of Bath, Department of Computer Science: Human-Computer Interaction Group.