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Cognitive Mechanisms in Human Creativity: Is Variation Blind or Sighted?
Author(s) -
STERNBERG ROBERT J.
Publication year - 1998
Publication title -
the journal of creative behavior
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.896
H-Index - 55
eISSN - 2162-6057
pISSN - 0022-0175
DOI - 10.1002/j.2162-6057.1998.tb00813.x
Subject(s) - creativity , variation (astronomy) , argument (complex analysis) , cognition , psychology , cognitive psychology , cognitive science , evolutionary psychology , epistemology , social psychology , philosophy , biochemistry , chemistry , physics , neuroscience , astrophysics
It is argued that the cognitive mechanisms in human creativity are, for the most part, sighted rather than blind. The article opens with a review of attempts to apply evolutionary ideas to psychology. It continues with an argument that blind‐variation ideas seem to apply well in some areas of psychology, but that the psychology of human creativity is not one of these areas. An alternative sighted‐variation framework is then proposed. It is argued, nevertheless, that the blind‐variation system of biological evolution itself shows emergent creative properties, even though this system does not serve as an appropriate model for human creativity.