Thursday, December 11, 2014

Exploring Creativity

Creativity is a fundamental human ability based on cognitive processes that we are all wired for from birth (assuming health); whether it’s writing a symphony, building a Lego castle, or coming up with a new excuse for missing the dreaded dentist appointment, everyone has creative abilities.  Essentially, creativity is defined as the ability to generate (and bring to fruition) novel ideas.  However, some people are clearly more creative than others and it is the highly creative types that have captured the fascination of the scientific community; scientists are hard at work trying to understand what aspects of brain function and behavior are responsible for higher creativity and whether creative cognition and actions can be deliberately enhanced or increased. 

A team of researchers, led by Dr. Darya Zabelina of Northwestern University, is looking into how attention is involved with creativity.  In their 2013 study, they found that higher levels of creativity are associated with increased ability to sustain attention, but also with decreased attentional flexibility (or perseveration, a trait also associated with OCD).  This makes sense because, obviously, maintaining attention on the task at hand is important for success in any endeavor.  It also makes sense for creativity to be linked to decreased attentional flexibility because this would coincide with lowered distractibility and higher efficiency.  The people we think of as being most successful in any field are also often highly creative.  And these successful creative minds tend to take a highly focused or even obsessive approach to their work.  Think of Charles Darwin, Marie Curie, Beethoven, Einstein, Michael Jackson, Ada Lovelace, David Beckham, Steve Jobs . . . all legends in their area of expertise, all operating with high levels of creativity, and all characterized by rare focus and persistence.  It’s no wonder people want to understand creativity and, if they can, learn to be more creative. 

Zabelina’s study shows evidence for a link between sustained attention and creativity, a valuable piece of the puzzle, but does not give any further insight into if or how it might be possible to manipulate creativity.  For this, the study points to attention as one of the next topics of investigation.  If sustained attention is an important aspect of creativity, perhaps researchers can gain further understanding by shifting their focus to the mechanisms of attention in creative people.
Thus, in the scientific community, the jury is not officially in on whether or not it is actually possible to learn creativity.  But the evidence so far does strongly suggest that it is possible to enhance one’s innate creativity.  This is partly just common sense, because, we know that the brain remains plastic into old age and is therefore capable of learning.  And how is learning different from creativity?  I’m not sure that science has answered this question specifically, but we do know that both learning and creativity are comprised of the forming of new neural connections in the brain.  What is responsible for the innovation that occurs in the creative process, which differentiates it from regular learning?  I don’t know of any research that answers this question either, but I would like to make a hypothesis based on my own experience as both an artist and a scientist.  I spent the majority of my life as an artist, working professionally for several years.  So, not only was I thinking creatively on a regular basis, but was constantly exposed to other creative minds and their methods.  Based on my experience, when in the midst of the creative process, a person is both the artist and the teacher.  So, at the cellular level, this would mean that novel connections in the brain are formed not in response to specific directions, say from a textbook or lecture, but in response to the brain’s own internal resources - these internal resources being memories and impressions gathered throughout one’s life. 
Nick Skillicorn, CEO and founder of Improvides, a company that aims to help individuals and companies increase innovation, gave a TED talk in which he presented the current state of creativity science.  In it, he compiles both classic research and the latest studies on creativity.  He emphasizes that everyone can improve their creativity, regardless of their current level of creativity.  One of the classic studies that Skillicorn references has been used over the years as a hallmark piece of evidence in support of the hypothesis that creativity can be learned or enhanced.  This 1973 study by Dr. Marvin Reznikoff found that only 30% of a person’s creativity is determined by genetics, leaving the majority up to environmental influences.   

If the overall goal of creativity research is to improve the creativity of individuals and teams, it may also be useful to explore how creativity could be being stifled unnecessarily in childhood and early adulthood.  In his talk, Skillicorn raises this concern and cites a study that asked kids of different ages, “are you creative?”  90% of second-graders said “yes”, in stark contrast to only 10% of highschoolers.  Skillicorn believes that this is reflective of a problem in the education system in which too much emphasis is placed on having the “right” answer and not enough on creative, open-ended thinking. 

Skillicorn goes on to point out that creativity is not as straight forward as it seems.  He stresses that not all artists are creative; some, although highly skilled, are better at replicating the ideas of others than actually coming up with new ideas.  This means that a person could apply exceptional focus and sustained attention to practicing an artistic craft, say painting or dancing, but still have very little creativity.  True creativity is elusive and can be found at work in any field of expertise, whether it be music, business, or even science.  The science of creativity is in its infancy and only a few pieces of the puzzle have been assembled, but, so far, the horizon is bright for those who want to improve their creativity.


Zabelina, D. L., & Beeman, M. (2013). Short-Term Attentional Perseveration Associated with Real-Life Creative Achievement. Frontiers in Psychology, 4, 191. doi:10.3389/fpsyg.2013.00191


Skillicorn, N. (2014, September 3). Nick Skillicorn: The Science of Improving Your Brain’s Creativity [Video file].  Retrieved from: http://www.improvides.com/2014/09/04/tedx-talk-science-improving-brains-creativity/

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