A MODEL OF SCIENTISTS CREATIVE POTENTIAL - THE MATCHING OF COGNITIVE STRUCTURE AND DOMAIN-STRUCTURE

Findlay and Lumsden have proposed a model of creative potential which accounts for divergent thinking but not for convergent thinking. This limitation impedes the applicability of the model to scientific creati vity, where competence and thus convergent thinking play a fundamental role since the early stages of creation. This limitation is a natural consequence of the fact that Findlay and Lumsden's model is purely in trapsychic. This paper proposes a model of scientists' creative potent ial which accounts for both divergent and convergent processes. First, drawing from Csikszentmihalyi's and Kuhn's theories, scientists' crea tive potential is defined as a matching between the cognitive structur e and the epistemic and social structure of the domain. Second, based on this sociopsychological definition, an extension of Findlay and Lum sden's model is proposed. The model states that the highest creative p otential is achieved by those scientists who deeply understand the cor e of the domain and still have cognitive power to access, and experime nt on many ideas that are not presently included in the domain. The ne w model is shown to have greater explanatory power than Findlay and Lu msden's model and to include the latter as a limiting case.