Creativity And Mental Imagery

Creativity is increasingly attracting attention of scientific community given its role in different aspects of human life. So far we have only began to understand its complexity and how it correlates with other cognitive processes. A further understanding of its key processes is essential to better implement applications of creativity tools to daily life. Therefore, it is the aim of this Research Topics to further elucidate how creativity can be measured, and its components, such as mental imagery, are determined.

What factors affect creativity and the generation of creative images? What factors affect the ability to reinterpret those images? Research described in this book indicates that expectations constrain both of these attributes of creativity. Characteristics of the imagined pattern, such as cohesiveness or its psychological goodness, also affect image generation and reinterpretation. Other evidence indicates that images can be combined mentally to yield new, manipulable composites. Cognitive models encompass the research and extend it to fields as diverse as architecture, music, and problem solving.

In Using Mental Imagery to Enhance Creative and Work-Related Processes, Valerie Thomas explores the productive use of mental imagery skills to engage with the processes of creativity. Practical and original, the book offers detailed guidance for a highly effective method that can provide rich insights into the development of a range of creative enterprises, including artistic and work-related projects. In this accessible and innovative book, Thomas pays equal attention to the theory and application of mental imagery. First, she explains how imagination-based methods have been developed and theorised within the discipline of creative behaviour, especially with regard to dual-processing theories of creativity. The book then considers mental imagery as a dialogical method informed by contemporary post-Cartesian theories of embodied cognition that reprise an earlier premodern understanding of imagination as a mediator between body and mind. Thomas introduces a particular approach to mental imagery that, informed by a functional research-informed framework (the Interactive Communicative model of mental imagery), can be applied very effectively to creative processes. The second half of the book provides detailed guidance on how to apply this particular method and is copiously illustrated with case vignettes. It includes chapters on using imagery theorised as conceptual metaphors such as the plant image for representing creative capabilities and the building image for representing creative and work-related projects. It also explains how to use imagery to represent and work with the conceptual processes of undertaking qualitative research projects. This original and wide-ranging book advances the scope and use of creative image-work in diverse settings. It will be an essential resource for everyone who is interested in developing their own mental imagery skills for creative real-world applications and for all professionals such as coaches, therapists and research educators who want to facilitate creativity in others.

Creativity is increasingly attracting attention of scientific community given its role in different aspects of human life. So far we have only began to understand its complexity and how it correlates with other cognitive processes. A further understanding of its key processes is essential to better implement applications of creativity tools to daily life. Therefore, it is the aim of this Research Topics to further elucidate how creativity can be measured, and its components, such as mental imagery, are determined.

Bringing together the results of experiments on discovery and invention in visualization conducted by the author over a three year period, this book reports new findings on the generation of creative inventions and concepts using mental imagery, and proposes a reconceptualization of the creative process. Creative Imagery introduces the concept of “preinventive forms” and describes an approach to creative invention differing from those typically used in problem-solving studies. There are two unique features of this book. First, it combines the experimental methods of cognitive science with the opportunity to explore and discover creative inventions in imagination. Second, it provides readers with numerous opportunities to use the creative imagery techniques to develop their own inventions and conceptual discoveries. This text is of particular interest to scientists working in the fields of experimental psychology, cognitive psychology, and cognitive science. The techniques for generating creative inventions will also be of interest to people working in engineering, architectural design, and the visual arts.

This book re-examines the common view that a high level of individual creativity often correlates with a heightened risk of mental illness.

Advances in Psychology Research presents original research results on the leading edge of psychology. Each chapter has been carefully selected in an attempt to present substantial advances across a broad spectrum. Contents: Behavioral Psychology -- The development of alcohol habits in a Swedish male birth cohort; Exploring the instrumental versus non-instrumental aspects of procedural fairness: The usefulness of a person x situation approach; Assessment of death anxiety among Chinese: A study of reliability and validity; Teachers' beliefs about creativity; Biological Psychology -- Neuropsychological bases of creativity.