Reports the results of a study of active ingredients of creativity techniques, devices that promote idea generation, through an analysis of 172 idea-generation methods which identified three types of idea-generation devices--strategies, tactics, and enablers. These devices were organized into meaningful categories comprising a formulary of active…

In this study, 143 creativity researchers completed a survey to rate the importance of various traits and developmental influences on creative achievement. Behaviors in the Motivational Composite were rated as most important for recognized creative achievement, followed by problem finding and questioning skills, and traits reflecting adaptive…

A study of 452 inventors found that inventorship is a form of creativity with definitions and criteria and with quantitative measures, inventors with high rates of inventiveness more often have outstanding achievements, and a majority of inventors exhibit a random pattern of inventivity (rate of production of patents by an individual inventor).…

This introductory article discusses a blind-variation and selective-retention model of the creative process developed by Donald Campbell. According to Campbell, creativity contains three conditions: a mechanism for introducing variation, a consistent selection process, and a mechanism for preserving and reproducing selected variations. (Author/CR)

Argues that the cognitive mechanisms in human creativity are, for the most part, sighted rather than blind. Reviews attempts to apply evolutionary ideas to psychology and argues that these ideas do not apply to the psychology of human creativity. An alternative sighted-variation framework is then proposed. (Author/CR)

Reviews the perspective of Donald Campbell on creative thought and argues that the role of blind variation and selective retention in Darwinian evaluation and human invention is different. Proposes that a contrast can be drawn between "smart" and "not so smart" blind variation. (CR)

Argues that while blind variation and selective retention (BVSR) may not be involved in all forms of human behavior and thought, Donald Campbell has made a compelling case that human creativity and invention involve BVSR. The complementary nature of prior and current BVSR in creative human endeavor is discussed. (Author/CR)

Forty New Zealand children (ages 3-4) were given false-belief and creativity tasks to investigate whether those with a Theory of Mind outlook are better at searching their own minds for creative answers. The numbers of appropriate and original responses in the creativity test correlated positively with performance on false-belief tasks. (Author/CR)

A study of 74 undergraduates examined whether creativity training and interpersonal problem-solving training are equivalent or complementary. Results showed the training programs were complementary. Each training program specifically affected performance only on related measures of performance. A combination of the training programs affected both…

This study investigated what effect divergent-thinking training focusing on a single task would have on the creative performance of 79 seventh graders on a closely related task. Students received training in poetry-relevant, divergent-thinking skills. The training was found to have a significant impact on the students' creativity in writing…

This article examines the motivation of certain creative behaviors from the perspective of symbolic interactionism. The fundamental tenets of symbolic interactionism are described and the mechanics of symbolic interactionist-based, role-identity theory are explained. Ways that the theory can be applied to the motivation of creative behavior are…

Investigates two opposing views of creativity, that of the Freudian psychologists vs. the interpretation of humanistic psychologists, and offers a compromising, perhaps more gestalt solution, along with a new mathematical model and ideas for research in developing a more complete theory of creativity. (Author/RK)

This research investigates the relationship between creativity as a cognitive process and the level of moral reasoning as well as the relationship between moral reasoning level and various combinations of creativity and intelligence. (Author/RK)

Author presented a selection of examples of the role of connective analogies in invention/discovery. (Author/RK)

The author discusses the phenomenon of incubation in creative problem solving, distinguishes it from "creative worrying" and "tip of the tongue" experiences, and reviews research to indicate a lack of evidence of incubation's existence in well-controlled studies. Note: For related information, see EC 120 232-238. (CL)