Last updated: 3/21/99
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Creativity: Related Words and Concepts

On this web page I will put definitions and descriptions of terms and concepts that come up in this course, and may be unfamiliar. I welcome suggestions for useful additions.

Correlation

Correlation is a statistical and numerical concept that is commonly used in the social sciences to decide whether or not two variables have some kind of relationship or not. Whether, for example, creativity and intelligence, as measured by tests, are related. There is a mathematical formula that calculates the numerical value of the correlation, given two sets of variables, but we will not go into the mathematics here, but only the results. The value of the correlation can range from 0 (no correlation) to 1 (very strong correlation). (Actually, variables can be negatively correlated or anti-correlated with a correlation between -1 and 0.) Here are some illustrations:

	In the figure to the left, two uncorrelated variables are illustrated (correlation of zero). Here, the horizontal axis might represent a score on a creativity test, and the vertical axis a score on an intelligence test. Each person in the study is represented by a black dot, and the blue lines illustrate how a single dot has both a creativity score and an intelligence score. There are twelve black dots, hence twelve people in this study. The red box illustrates that the scores fall inside a roughly rectangular area. A high score on the horizontal axis (a point way to the right) can correspond to a high score on the vertical axis (a point near the top), or to a low score (a point near the bottom), or something in the middle. Similarly, a low score on the horizontal axis (a point way to the left) can correspond to a high or low score on the vertical axis, or one in the middle. In other words, knowing one score, we cannot predict the other. These points are said to be uncorrelated.
	In this example, if the horizontal score is high, then the vertical score is high also, and vice versa. The red line illustrates the tendency of the vertical and horizontal variables to vary together. There is a strong connection between these scores. they are measuring the same thing, or things that are closely related. Here, the numerical value of the correlation is 1. A correlation of 1 indicates a very high likelihood of a relationship between the two variables.
	In this third example to the left, as illustrated by the red oval, there is a tendency for the horizontal and vertical variables to be similar, but the correlation is not as strong as in the second case. If one increases, then the other tends to increase also, but there is also some variation that is independent. Knowing the value on the horizontal scale does not allow us to predict what the value on the vertical scale with as much certainty as we can in the second case above. In this case, the numerical value of the correlation would be something like 0.5, and a scientist would draw the conclusion that there is some relation between these two variables.

Darwin, Evolution, and Creativity

Charles Darwin is of interest in the field of Creativity not only because he was undoubtedly an extremely creative individual, but because his Theory of Evolution is the most detailed model available about how change can occur, and Creativity is about change. Evolutionary change even creates something new to solve a problem -- the problem of survival. It is natural for those studying Creativity to see if there is any parallel with Evolution.

In the Theory of Evolution, change occurs in the following stages:

1. In a given generation of a species, there are naturally occurring variations among the individuals in that species. Within humans there are variations (we are not all identical), within Persian cats there are variations, within Dandelions there are variations, etc.
2. Some of these variations enable the individual to leave more offspring than other individuals can leave. Commonly, the largest and strongest male ape, for example, will have more children, being better able to compete for mates and to feed his family. The favorite example of biologists is that giraffes with longer necks can reach higher on trees for the leaves that they live on, and so will be better-fed and healthier. It is important to note that the variations in #1 occur naturally within a population. These individuals that leave more offspring are said to be better adapted to their environment.
3. Since most physical characteristics are inherited (partly from the male parent, partly from the female parent, in the case of sexual reproduction), there will be a tendency for the children to resemble their parents, and since there will be more offspring from better-adapted parents, there will be more better-adapted offspring in each generation. Even a slight advantage, carried over many generations, will lead to a decisive numerical increase in the better-adapted individuals.

Now, ideas are passed along from generation to generation, but this is through teaching and learning, not through inheritance. So the analogy with Evolution cannot be exact. But still, it is obvious that better ideas will be passed along to succeeding generations more frequently than ideas that are not as valuable. It is, of course, up to each culture to decide what is valuable within that culture, just as what is adaptive in genetics depends on the physical environment.

By means of genetic mutations, very large evolutionary changes can come about. Most mutations are lethal, but a few are adaptive or helpful, and these can lead to radical changes, such as entire new species. Similarly, combining very different ideas can lead to rapid progress within a field.

So, Darwin's Theory of Evolution can be a helpful analogy in thinking about how Creative change can occur and spread. And some Creativity researchers push the analogy much further than we have done so far. A "meme" is said to be the unit of ideas, the way that genes are the unit of inheritance. Perhaps memes can compete with each other for acceptance within a culture.

Gestalt

This word figures prominently in discussions of Creativity. This German word has two meanings:

1. An organized whole that is (supposed to be) more than the sum of its parts. The "visual field" or visual perception is a prime example. Those who believe in the existence of gestalts often say that we perceive visually, not in terms of individual splotches of color, or even of objects, but in terms of the visual field as a whole -- a scene, if you will. This is applied to Creativity by saying that a creative idea is perceived, not in a series of stages, but as a whole. In other words, Creativity is an "aha" experience, in which the creative idea jumps into consciousness as a whole, without going through a series of smaller steps, whether conscious or unconscious. Several self-descriptions of individual creative processes support this view. Such self-accounts typically have four steps: (i) a period of conscious work on a problem, (ii) a period during which seemingly no work occurs, (iv) an "aha" experience of sudden insight, seeing the entire solution to the creative problem in a sudden insight or gestalt, and (iv) a period of conscious work following the insight, during which the insight is evaluated and perhaps rejected, but certainly reexamined, put on a firm footing, and integrated with the rest of the individual's thinking. Some of these self-accounts are:
   1. Poincare, in the web page for this course
   2. The psychologist Rollo May, in The Courage to Create, gives such an account of his own amateur painting.
   3. A student in the Winter 1999 Creativity course has written an account, reproduced below, presenting a personal experience.

   Generally, a great deal of significance is given to the period of unconscious activity; indeed, many see this as the critical period for creative work. Some researchers, however, say that precisely nothing occurs during this period; others propose that there is a random reordering going on, and that the first such reordering with any validity at all results in calling in the conscious mind, resulting in the "aha" sensation. There is also some experimental work suggesting that there is incremental processing going on during the unconscious phase.
   
   The Instructor also presents elsewhere a self-account of his own processing, whereby a series of small conscious steps resulted in a large-scale restructuring and solution of a creative dilemma in his approach to this course.

2. Gestalt also refers to a school of psychology that holds that gestalts are the fundamental way that the mind operates; that the whole that the mind perceives cannot be put together piece by piece, but that the individual pieces, such as our perception of objects in our visual field, is extracted from our visual gestalt.

Thinking Outside of the Box

This term refers to a well-known puzzle that is often referred to in studies of Creativity. The puzzle is, given the figure of nine dots below, to connect all of the dots using four lines drawn without picking up your pencil.

Original figure of nine dots to be connected with four lines
drawn without picking the pencil up from the paper.

For most people (including yours truly!), this puzzle is impossible, without help. There are several ways to connect all of the dots with five lines.

The problem is that, without it being stated as part of the problem, most people assume that all four lines must lie inside the box formed by the dots. This box is shown in red below.

Most people assume that their four lines must lie
inside the box, shown in red above, that is formed
by the dots, although this assumption is not part
of the puzzle statement.

One people understand that they can "think outside of the box", the puzzle can be solved as shown below.

The "think outside of the box" solution.

This is often mentioned as an example of the way that people can assume that there are limitations that are not actually there. The example is often used in creativity training programs, although it has been around long enough now that many people will have seen it before. The phrase, "thinking outside of the box", however, is undoubtedly even more popular than the puzzle.

NOTE: Some point out that the solution above makes another unstated assumption, namely that the lines must pass through the centers of the dots. If lines do not have to pass through the centers, then there is a three-line solution in which there are three very long lines, on starting from the top left above the figure, passing through the top left dot on its top edge, slanting downwards so that it passes through the bottom edge of the top right dot, etc.

Hermeneutics

(After the Concise Columbia Encyclopedia, 1991, in Microsoft Bookshelf 1994) Hermeneutics is the branch of philosophy dealing with explanation and understanding. Understanding is circular, in that the whole can be understood in terms of its parts, while the parts can be understood only in terms of the whole. This word can also refer to developing such complex explanations.