Presented by

P. Pon Rajesh Kumar

College Of Engineering-Guindy,Chennai

� Models of Brain Creativity

� Freud’s Model of Levels of the Mind

� Brain-Dominance Theory

� Information Processing and Computational Modeling

� Thinking Processes leading to Creative Ideas

� Creativity and Problem Solving� Creativity and Problem Solving

� Creative Thinking Methods

� Brainstorming

� Idea Generating Techniques Beyond Brainstorming

� Random Input Technique

� Synectics: An Inventive Method Based on Analogy

� Concept Map

� Most innovative products = remembering useful design concepts +

recognizing promising concepts

� Best engineers will use creative thinking methods and design

processes

� Creative thinking is highly valued across many fields of endeavor

No engineering activity requires more creativity than design� No engineering activity requires more creativity than design

� Ability to identify concepts that will achieve particular functions

required by a product is a creative task.

� Today’s fierce worldwide competition for markets, new products,

and engineering dominance is changing that mindset.

� Organizations that create Innovative products can only survive in

today's market.

� Society’s view of creativity has changed over time

Scholars believed creativity to be an unexplainable personal talent � Scholars believed creativity to be an unexplainable personal talent

present at the birth of an artist

� Creativity was measurable and, therefore, controllable.

� Creativity is a teachable skill for individuals and groups

� Example: Transparent trucks

� It is not possible to observe and examine the steps that a creative

person’s brain follows but One can only study the results of the

process (e.g., a problem solution or a design) and any commentary

on how they developed as stated or recorded by the producer.

� Advances in medicine and technology have expanded the

boundaries of the activities of the brain that are observable and can

be studied in real time.be studied in real time.

� Modern neuroscience uses sophisticated tools such as Functional

MRI and Positron Emission Tomography to observe the brain in

action. The field is making great strides in revealing how the brain

works by identifying which parts of the brain are responsible for

particular actions. Understanding thinking is the realm of cognitive

scientists and psychologists

Functional MRI

Positron Emission Tomography

� Thinking is the execution of cognitive processes like the activities

of collecting, organizing, finding, and using knowledge.

� Cognitive psychology is the more specialized study of the

acquisition and use of knowledge by humans in their activities.

� The psychological aspects of human behavior must be considered in

helping us to understand a person’s thinking because cognitive helping us to understand a person’s thinking because cognitive

processes are naturally influenced by an individual’s perceptions

and representations of knowledge.

� Skills for developing creative thinking come from sciences that

study human thinking, actions, and behavior

Sigmund Freud developed a topographical model of the

mind consisting of three levels:

� Conscious mind :The part of the mind where our current thinking

and objects of attention take place. The conscious mind has

relatively small capacity for storage of information in its memory.

This memory can be categorized as immediate memory, lasting only

milliseconds, and working memory lasting about a minute.milliseconds, and working memory lasting about a minute.

� Preconscious mind : The long-term memory, lasting anywhere

from about an hour to several years. This is a vast storehouse of

information, ideas, and relationships based on past experience and

education. While things stored here are not in the conscious, they

can be readily brought into the conscious mind.

� Subconscious mind : The content of this

mind level is out of reach of the conscious

mind. Thus, the subconscious acts

independently of the conscious mind. It may

distort the relation of the conscious and

preconscious through its control of symbols

and the generation of bias.

Freud developed his model to

explain personality types and their behaviorsexplain personality types and their behaviors

based on his own training, experience, and

beliefs about cognition. Freud’s work led to

the important conclusion that much behavior

is driven directly from the subconscious

mind, and these actions cannot be controlled

by the conscious mind.

� Nobel Prize winner Roger Sperry studied the relationships between

the brain’s right and left hemispheres

� Thinking that utilizes the left hemisphere of the brain is called

critical or convergent thinking. Other terms for left-brained

thinking are analytic or vertical thinking

� Thinking that utilizes the right hemisphere of the brain is called

creative or divergent thinking. Other terms for right-brained creative or divergent thinking. Other terms for right-brained

thinking are associative or lateral thinking

� Study of the brain physiology has revealed that there are

connections between the two hemispheres of the brain and within

the same hemisphere

� In general, women appear to have a higher number of these cross

connections, and this difference is noted as one explanation for

women’s higher capacity for multitasking.

� Researchers like Herrmann have developed a means of

characterizing how individuals think according to the preference

with which they seem to access different areas of the brain

� Herrmann’s instrument is a standardized test, the Herrmann Brain

Dominance Instrument (HBDI).

� It is similar in nature to the Kolb Learning Style Inventory or the

MBTI personality classification instruments. Using tests like these,

engineers often test as being as left-brained, preferring to think in

logical, linear, and convergent ways.logical, linear, and convergent ways.

� The brain-dominance model of thinking seems to fall short of giving

concrete steps that one can follow to think up a creative idea when it

is needed. However with study and practice, there is no reason that

you cannot become facile with using both sides of your brain

� In today’s world, it is natural to compare the workings of the brain

to those of a computer. For example, like the computer, the brain has

different types of memory storage (short term and long term).

� The brain stores information according to a scheme of categories or

classes and uses those memory structures to retrieve information

when queried

The human brain can picture or grasp only about seven or eight � The human brain can picture or grasp only about seven or eight

things at any instant. Thus, the mind can be characterized as a

device with extremely low information-processing capacity

combined with a vast subliminal store of information.

� It is impossible to connect with the information stored in the

preconscious mind. Thus, an important step in problem solving is to

study the problem from all angles and in as many ways as possible

to understand it completely.

� Most problems studied in that way contain more than the seven or

eight elements that the mind can visualize at one time.

� Thus, the elements of the problem must be “chunked together” until

the chunks are small enough in number to be conceptualized

simultaneously.

� Decomposition of a creative task is a strategy found in many

methods for design such as functional decomposition

� Humans are prone to using heuristics and mental models extracted

from similar past experiences.from similar past experiences.

� Association is the practice of organizing new information by

categorizing it or relating it to things that are already known. These

association paths can be traveled again when searching memory.

� Unique Association is seen in a brainstorming session and

associationism is another creativity enhancement method .

� Creativity is a characteristic of a person that is assigned based on

what the person does.

� Then the creativity question becomes, “How can some people use

their brains to be more creative than others?” A group of researchers

in the sciences named the successful use of thought processes and

existing knowledge to produce creative ideas creative cognition. existing knowledge to produce creative ideas creative cognition.

� creative thinking can be accomplished by deliberate use of

particular techniques, methods, or in the case of computational

tools, software programs

� The study of creativity usually focuses on both the creator and the

created object.

� Creative thinkers are distinguished by their ability to synthesize new

combinations of ideas and concepts into meaningful and useful

forms.

� A creative engineer is one who produces lot of ideas can be

completely original ideas inspired by a discovery. More often,

creative ideas result from putting existing ideas together in novel creative ideas result from putting existing ideas together in novel

ways.

� There is the popular myth that creative ideas arrive with flash-like

spontaneity—the flash of lightning and clap of thunder routine.

� Students of the creative process assure us that most ideas occur by a

slow, deliberate process that can be cultivated and enhanced with

study and practice.

� A characteristic of the creative process is that initially the idea is

only imperfectly understood

� The creative process can be viewed as moving from an amorphous

idea to a well-structured idea, from the chaotic to the organized.

� We need also to recognize that the flow of creative ideas cannot be

turned on upon command

� Therefore, we need to recognize the conditions and situations that � Therefore, we need to recognize the conditions and situations that

are most conducive to creative thought.

� Develop a creative attitude

� Unlock your imagination

� Be persistent

� Develop an open mind

� Suspend your judgment

� Set problem boundaries

Some psychologists describe the creative thinking process and

problem solving in terms of a simple four-stage model.

� Preparation (stage 1): The elements of the problem are examined

and their interrelations are studied.

� Incubation (stage 2): You “sleep on the problem.” Sleep disengages

your conscious mind, allowing the unconscious mind to work on a

problem freely.

� Inspiration (stage 3): A solution or a path toward the solution

emerges.

� Verification (stage 4): The inspired solution is checked against the

desired result.

� Before we look at formal methods of enhancing creativity, it is

important for you to understand how mental blocks interfere with

creative thinking.

� A mental block is an event that inhibits the successful use of normal

cognitive processes to come to a solution.

� Perceptual Blocks

• Stereotyping :Thinking conventionally or in a formulaic way • Stereotyping :Thinking conventionally or in a formulaic way

about an event, person, or way of doing something and not

thinking out of the box.

• Information overload :You become so overloaded with minute

details that you are unable to sort out the critical aspects of the

problem.

• Limiting the problem unnecessarily : Broad statements of the

problem help keep the mind open to a wider range of ideas.

• Fixation: People’s thinking can be influenced so greatly by

their previous experience or some other bias that they are not

able to sufficiently recognize alternative ideas.

• Priming or provision of cues:If the thinking process is started

by giving examples or solution cues, it is possible for thinking

to stay within the realm of solutions suggested by those initial

starting points. This is known as the conformity effect.

� Emotional Blocks:

These are obstacles that are concerned with the psychological These are obstacles that are concerned with the psychological

safety of the individual. They reduce the freedom with which you

can explore and manipulate ideas.

• Fear of risk taking: This is the fear of proposing an idea that is

ultimately found to be faulty. This is inbred in us by the

educational process.

• Unease with chaos : People in general, and many engineers in

particular, are uncomfortable with highly unstructured situations

• Unable or unwilling to incubate new ideas : In our busy lives,

we often don’t take the time to let ideas lie dormant so they can

incubate properly. It is important to allow enough time for ideas

to incubate before evaluation of the ideas takes place.

• Motivation: People differ considerably in their motivation to seek

creative solutions to challenging problems.

� Cultural Blocks:

• People acquire a set of thought patterns from living in a culture

• Certain industries are tradition bound and are reluctant to change, • Certain industries are tradition bound and are reluctant to change,

even in the face of decreasing profitability.

• Countries even differ in their attitudes toward creative problem

solutions. This can be traced to differences in political and

educational systems, and business culture

� Intellectual Blocks

Intellectual blocks arise from a poor choice of the problem-

solving strategy or having inadequate background and knowledge.

• Poor choice of problem-solving language or problem

representation

• Memory block

• Insufficient knowledge base

• Incorrect information

Environmental Blocks� Environmental Blocks

• Physical environment

• Criticism

Improving creativity is a popular endeavor. Creative

methods are aimed to improve

� Sensitivity: The ability to recognize that a problem exists

� Fluency: The ability to produce a large number of alternative � Fluency: The ability to produce a large number of alternative

solutions to a problem

� Flexibility: The ability to develop a wide range of approaches to a

problem

� Originality: The ability to produce original solutions to a problem

� Brainstorming

• Brainstorming is the most common method used by design teams for generating ideas.

• This method was developed by Alex Osborn to stimulate creative magazine advertisements, but it has been widely adopted in other areas such as design

• Brainstorming is a carefully orchestrated process. It makes use of the broad experience and knowledge of groups of individuals.

• The brainstorming process is structured to overcome many of the mental blocks.mental blocks.

• A well-done brainstorming session is an enthusiastic session of rapid, free- flowing ideas.

• Brainstorming is used for generating ideas for design concepts in conceptual design.

• In doing this the best approach is to think of all the possible limitations or shortcomings of the product, in what might be termed reverse brainstorming

• One way to help the brainstorming process is to break up the

normal thought pattern by using a checklist to help develop new

ideas.

• SCAMPER checklist is used as a stimulant when the flow of ideas

begins to fall off during the brainstorming activity.

� Idea Generating Techniques Beyond Brainstorming:

• This section presents simple methods that address other mental

blocks to creativity

• These methods consist of prompting new thinking or blocked

thinking by providing questions that lead team members to

considered new perspectives on a problem or creative task

ChecklistsChecklists

• Checklists of various types often are used to help stimulate

creative thoughts. Osborn was the first to suggest this method.

Fantasy or Wishful Thinking

• A strong block to creativity is the mind’s tenacious grip on reality.

• One way to stimulate creativity is to entice the mind to think in a

flight of fancy, in the hope of bringing out really creative ideas.

� Random Input Technique� Random Input Technique

• Edward de Bono is a long-time developer of creativity methods

• He stresses the importance of thought patterns, and he coined the

term lateral thinking for the act of cutting across thought patterns.

• One of the key tenets of lateral thinking is the concept that an act

of provocation is needed to make the brain switch from one

pattern of thought to another

• The provocative event interrupts the current thinking process by

introducing a new problem representation, providing a new probe

for a memory search, or leading to a restructuring of the solution

plan.

• Ideas can be stimulated by reading technical journals in fields

other than your own, or by attending technical meetings and trade

shows in fields far from your own.

� Synectics: An Inventive Method Based on Analogy

• The designer recognizes the similarity between the design under • The designer recognizes the similarity between the design under

study and a previously solved problem.Whether it is a creative

solution depends on the degree to which the analogy leads to a

new and different design

• The method proposed by the group for improving creativity was

called Synectics

• It assumes that the psychological components of the creative processes are more important in generating new and inventive ideas than the intellectual processes.

• Synectics is a formalized process led by a highly trained facilitator that proceeds in stages

First Step - Understand the problem

Second Step - Searches for creative solutions based on four types of analogies

• The objective is to distance your mind from the problem using analogies, and then to couple them with the problem in the last analogies, and then to couple them with the problem in the last phase of Synectics.

• Direct analogy: The designer searches for the closest physical analogy to the situation at hand. This is a common approach that we have all used at one time or another.

• Fantasy analogy : The designer disregards all problem limitations and laws of nature, physics, or reason. Instead, the designer imagines or wishes for the perfect solution to a problem.

• Personal analogy : The designer imagines that he or she is the device

being designed,associating his or her body with the device or the

process under consideration.

• Symbolic analogy : This is perhaps the least intuitive of the

approaches. Using symbolic analogy the designer replaces the

specifics of the problem with symbols and then uses manipulation of

the symbols to discover solutions to the original problem.

� Concept Map

• A very useful tool for the generation of ideas by association, and

for organizing information in preparation for writing a report, is for organizing information in preparation for writing a report, is

the concept map and its close relation the mind map.

• A concept map is good for generating and recording ideas during

brainstorming

• Because it is a visual method instead of a verbal one, it

encourages left brained thinking

� Exercise Can Improve Your Creativity

� Ambient Noise Levels Are Best For Creativity

� Travelling Might Improve Your Creative Thinking

� Blue And Green Can Improve Your Performance On Creative

Tasks

Sometimes Constraints Can Be Beneficial To Creative Work� Sometimes Constraints Can Be Beneficial To Creative Work

� A Separate Workspace Can Improve Your Creativity

� Being Sleepy Can Make You More Creative