Everyone has creativity, some a lot more than others. The development ofhumans, and possibly the universe, depends on it. Yet creativity is an elusivecreature. What do we mean by it? What is going on in our brains when ideasform? Does it feel the same for artists and scientists? We asked writers andneuroscientists, pop stars and AI gurus to try to deconstruct the creative process-andlearn how we can all ignite the spark within.
A
In the early 1970s, creativity was still seen as a type of intelligence. But when moresubtle tests of IQ and creative skills were developed in the 1970s,particularly by the father of creativity testing, Paul Torrance, it becameclear that the link was not so simple. Creative people are intelligent, interms of IQ tests at least, but only averagely or just above. While it dependson the discipline, in general beyond a certain level IQ does not help boostcreativity; it is necessary but not sufficient to make someone creative.
B
Because of the difficulty of studying the actual process, most early attempts to studycreativity concentrated on personality. According to creativity specialist MarkRunco of California State University, Fullerton, the “creative personality” tends to place a high value onaesthetic qualities and to have broad interests, providing lots of resources todraw on and knowledge to recombine into novel solutions. “Creatives” have an attraction to complexity and anability to handle conflict. They are also usually highly self-motivated,perhaps even a little obsessive. Less creative people, on the other hand, tendto become irritated if they cannot immediately fit all the pieces together.They are less tolerant of confusion. Creativity comes to those who wait, butonly to those who are happy to do so in a bit of a fog.
C
But there may be a price to pay for having a creative personality. For centuries, alink has been made between creativity and mental illness.Psychiatrist Jamisonof Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore, Maryland, found that establishedartists are significantly more likely to have mood disorders. But she alsosuggests that a change of mood state might be the key to triggering a creativeevent, rather than the negative mood itself. Intelligence can help channel thisthought style into great creativity, but when combined with emotional problems,lateral, divergent or open thinking can lead to mental illness instead.
D
Jordan Peterson, a psychologist at the University of Toronto, Canada, believes he hasidentified a mechanism that could help explain this. He says that the brains ofcreative people seem more open to incoming stimuli than less creative types.Our senses are continuously feeding a mass of information into our brains,which have to block or ignore most of it to save us from being snowed under.Peterson calls this process latent inhibition, and argues that people who haveless of it, and who have a reasonably high IQ with a good working memory canjuggle more of the data, and so may be open to more possibilities and ideas.The downside of extremely low latent inhibition may be a confused thought stylethat predisposes people to mental illness. So for Peterson, mental illness isnot a prerequisite for creativity, but it shares some cognitive traits.
E
But what of the creative act itself? One of the first studies of the creative brain atwork was by Colin Martindale, a psychologist from the University of Maine in Orono.Back in 1978, he used a network of scalp electrodes to record anelectroencephalogram ,a record of the pattern of brain waves, as people made upstories. Creativity has two stages: inspiration and elaboration, eachcharacterised by very different states of mind. While people were dreaming uptheir stories, he found their brains were surprisingly quiet. The dominantactivity was alpha waves, indicating a very low level of cortical arousal: arelaxed state, as though the conscious mind was quiet while the brain wasmaking connections behind the scenes. It’s the same sort of brain activityas in some stages of sleep, dreaming or rest, which could explain why sleep andrelaxation can help people be creative. However, when these quiet minded peoplewere asked to work on their stories, the alpha wave activity dropped off andthe brain became busier, revealing increased cortical arousal, more corrallingof activity and more organised thinking. Strikingly, it was the people whoshowed the biggest difference in brain activity between the inspiration anddevelopment stages who produced the most creative storylines. Nothing in theirbackground brain activity marked them as creative or uncreative. “It’s as if the less creative person can’t shift gear,” says Guy Claxton, a psychologist at theUniversity of Bristol, UK. “Creativity requires differentkinds of thinking. Very creative people move between these states intuitively.” Creativity, it seems, is about mental flexibility: perhaps not a two-stepprocess, but a toggling between two states. In a later study, Martindale foundthat communication between the sides of the brain is also important.
F
Pau Howard-Jones, who works with Claxton at Bristol, believes he has found anotheraspect of creativity. He asked people to make up a story based on three wordsand scanned their brains using functional magnetic resonance imaging. In onetrial, people were asked not to try too hard and just report the most obviousstory suggested by the words. In another, they were asked to be inventive. Healso varied the words so it was easier or harder to link them. As people triedharder and came up with more creative tales, there was a lot more activity in aparticular prefrontal brain region on the right-hand side. These regions areprobably important in monitoring for conflict, helping us to filter out many ofof combining the words and allowing us to pull out just the desirableconnections, Howard-Jones suggests. It shows that there is another side tocreativity, he says. The story-making task, particularly when we are stretched,produces many options which we have to assess. So part of creativity is aconscious process of evaluating and analysing ideas. The test also shows thatthe more we try and are stretched, the more creative our minds can be.
G
And creativity need not always be a solitary, tortured affair, according to TeresaAmabile of Harvard Business School. Though there is a slight associationbetween solitary writing or painting and negative moods or emotionaldisturbances, scientific creativity and workplace creativity seem much morelikely to occur when people are positive and buoyant .In a decade-long study ofreal businesses, to be published soon, Amabile found that positive moods relatepositively to creativity in organisations, and that the relationship is asimple linear one. Creative thought also improves people’s moods, her team found, so the process is circular. Time pressures,financial pressures and hard-earned bonus schemes on the other hand, do notboost workplace creativity: internal motivation, not coercion, produces thebest work.
H
Another often forgotten aspect of creativity is social. Vera John-Steiner of theUniversity of New Mexico says that to be really creative you need strong socialnetworks and trusting relationships, not just active neural networks. One vitalcharacteristic of a highly creative person, she says, is that they have atleast one other person in their life who doesn’t think they are completely nuts
SECTION 2: QUESTIONS 14-26
Questions 14-17
Do the following statements agree with the information given in ReadingPassage?
In boxes 14-17 on your answer sheet, write
| TRUE | if the statement agrees with the information |
| if the statement contradicts the information |
| If there is no information on this |
14 _________________ High IQ guarantees better creative ability in oneperson than that who achieves an average score in an IQ test.
15 _________________ In a competitive society, individuals’ language proficiency is more important than other abilities.
16 _________________ A wider range of resources and knowledge can beintegrated by more creative people into bringing about creative approaches.
17 _________________ A creative person not necessarily suffers more mentalillness.
Questions 18-22
Use the information in the passage to match the people (listed A-F) withopinions or deeds below.
Write the appropriate letters A-F in boxes 18-22 on youranswer sheet.
18 ______________ Instead of producing the negative mood, a shift of moodstate might be the one important factor of inducing a creative thinking.
19 ______________ Where the more positive moods individuals achieve, thereis higher creativity in organizations.
20 ______________ Good interpersonal relationship and trust contribute toa person with more creativity.
21 ______________ Creativity demands an ability that can easily changeamong different kinds of thinking.
22 ______________ Certain creative mind can be upgraded if we are put intomore practice in assessing and processing ideas.
Questions 23-26
Complete the summary paragraph described below. In boxes 23-26 on your answersheet, write the correct answer with NO MORE THAN THREE WORDS.
But what of the creative act itself? In 1978, Colin Martindale made records ofpattern of brain waves as people made up stories by applying a systemconstituted of many 23 _________________. The two phrases ofcreativity, such as 24 _________________ were found. While peoplewere still planning their stories, their brains shows little active sign andthe mental activity was showed a very relaxed state as the same sort of brainactivity as in sleep, dreaming or rest. However, experiment proved the signalof 25 _________________ went down and the brain became busier,revealing increased cortical arousal, when these people who were in a laidbackstate were required to produce their stories. Strikingly, it was found theperson who was perceived to have the greatest 26 _________________ inbrain activity between two stages, produced storylines with highest level ofcreativity.
|Archiver|手机版|小黑屋|雅思托福英语全球网
( 闽ICP备14014910号 )
|
闽公网安备 35020302034732号
发表于 2025-10-9 14:57:02
