COGNITION AND CREATIVITY

Cognitive research on creativity is both traditional and innovative. I t is traditional in the sense that many of the well-recognized process es, structures, and stores from mainstream cognitive psychology have b een used to understand creative thinking. It is innovative because the re is a need to understand processes which are not recognized unless o ne is specifically interested in creativity. Some of these are inheren tly subjective, a fact which is often disregarded by those hoping for a traditionally scientific analysis. Still, much of the interest in th e cognitive sciences concerns how new constructs come into being; and anyone interested in that is in fact thinking about creativity. That i s creativity. This article reviews several traditional cognitive topic s, including knowledge, memory, classification, judgment, and categori zation, and describes how each can influence creative thinking. It als o presents an original model of creative thinking with problem finding ideation, and judgmental processes as primary components, and knowled ge and motivation as secondary (contributing but not controlling) comp onents. Several issues are covered, including the relegation of motiva tion, the distinction between declarative and procedural knowledge, an d the potential for knowledge to both facilitate and inhibit creative ideation.