First Annual International Creativity Collaborative

Giovanni E. Corazza, University of Bologna

S. Agnoli1, G. E. Corazza1,2, M. Runco3, J. Bhattacharya4

1Marconi Institute for Creativity 2Department of Electrical, Electronic, and Information Engineering “Guglielmo Marconi”, University of Bologna 3Torrance Creativity Center, University of Georgia 4Department of Psychology, Goldsmiths, University of London

First Annual International Creativity Collaborative

Giovanni E. Corazza, University of Bologna

Outline

1.  Introduction to the Marconi Institute for Creativity

–  Collaboration in Bologna can be tasteful..

2.  The CREAM project and the CREAM measurement battery to

aid neuroscientific research on creativity for individuals

–  The festival of moods

3.  An original discussion on originality

–  Optimal originality

–  An information theoretic definition of originality

First Annual International Creativity Collaborative

Giovanni E. Corazza, University of Bologna

Marconi Institute for Creativity

mic.fgm.it

First Annual International Creativity Collaborative

Giovanni E. Corazza, University of Bologna

MIC: Goals

Historical study of creativity

Exploitation and innovation

Educational Exploration and problem solving

Theoretical study of creativity

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First Annual International Creativity Collaborative

Giovanni E. Corazza, University of Bologna

MIC: Recent Activities •  DIMAI: a theoretical model for the creative thinking process

–  April 2013

•  First International MIC Conference organized in Bologna –  September 2013

•  CREAM FP7 European Project –  Kick-off December 2013

•  Creativity and Innovation Course inside Engineering School –  Spring semester 2014

•  DIMAI methods for idea generation adopted by the European Space Agency –  August, 2014

First Annual International Creativity Collaborative

Giovanni E. Corazza, University of Bologna

MIC: Recent Activities •  Creativity measurement campaign at Engine, an international

advertisement agency in London –  September 2014

•  DIMAI session at Working Capital, a Telecom Italian accelerator for start-up companies –  October 2014

•  New creativity training program for High School students with focus on social enterprises –  November-December 2014

•  Edited book on “Multidisciplinary Contributions to the Science of Creative Thinking”, published by Springer –  Expected publication date: summer 2015

First Annual International Creativity Collaborative

Giovanni E. Corazza, University of Bologna

CREAM: CReativity Enhancement through Advanced brain Mapping and stimulation

First Annual International Creativity Collaborative

Giovanni E. Corazza, University of Bologna

CREAM: general information

•  A European Commission 7th Framework Programme Project funded under FP7-ICT-2013-10

•  Budget: 2,700,000 € •  Project duration: 01/12/2013 – 30/11/2016

•  www.ict-cream.eu

First Annual International Creativity Collaborative

Giovanni E. Corazza, University of Bologna

CREAM: partners

PLUS: Collaboration with Mark Runco

First Annual International Creativity Collaborative

Giovanni E. Corazza, University of Bologna

CREAM: Goals

1.  Multi-disciplinary approach to creativity analysis and enhancement •  Neuroscience, Psychology, Engineering, Advertisement

2.  Non-invasive real-time functional brain imaging 3.  Brain-Machine Interfaces for the stimulation of creative abilities 4.  Cognitive and psychometrical approach to creative performance and

achievement

First Annual International Creativity Collaborative

Giovanni E. Corazza, University of Bologna

CREAM: MIC role

•  Set-up of an integrated measurement battery

•  Convergent and divergent thinking, assessment skills, creative achievement (CAQ, CAAC), personality, intelligence

•  Administration to 100+100 participants from artistic and scientific domains

•  Comparison of psychological and neurological components of creativity in the artistic and scientific domains

•  New training methods to improve creativity in different domains

First Annual International Creativity Collaborative

Giovanni E. Corazza, University of Bologna

A normative reference for creativity in neuroscientific research

First Annual International Creativity Collaborative

Giovanni E. Corazza, University of Bologna

Neuroscientific observation of creativity

•  Neuroscientific research on creativity is based on monitoring brain activity in the course of “creative” behavior –  Convergent thinking tests: single correct answer tasks

•  Looking for insight

–  Divergent thinking tests: open-ended tasks

•  Looking for a posteriori correlates to creative abilities

•  Due to complexity and cost, a single task is usually adopted –  Unusual Uses Test (Guilford, 1967)

–  Remote Associates Test (Mednick, 1962)

–  New methods to measure creativity, such as asking participants to mentally compose a drawing (Bhattacharya & Petsche, 2005)

First Annual International Creativity Collaborative

Giovanni E. Corazza, University of Bologna

Open issues

•  Variable agreement about brain regions associated with creativity due to: –  variety of methods to detect creative behavior (EEG; fMRI; PET, etc)

–  difficulty in operationalizing creative performance

•  The generation of ideas is a complex process involving many abilities, long and short-term memory

•  Most studies focused on quantitative measures such as ideational fluency (i.e., the number of ideas generated during the task), reaction times, or accuracy measures

First Annual International Creativity Collaborative

Giovanni E. Corazza, University of Bologna

Approaches being pursued

•  Enhancement of the internal coherence and discriminant validity of creativity measurement methods based on brain mapping

•  New set-ups to facilitate series of creative cognitive tasks –  both quantitative and qualitative assessment

•  CREAM –  Correlation between creative performance and creative achievement

•  in Scientific and in Artistic domains

•  Normative data extracted through the CREAM test battery

•  Neuroscientific application a posteriori, after mapping creative performance

First Annual International Creativity Collaborative

Giovanni E. Corazza, University of Bologna

Measuring creativity in the scientific and artistic domains: a multi-sided test battery

First Annual International Creativity Collaborative

Giovanni E. Corazza, University of Bologna

CREAM Battery structure

First Annual International Creativity Collaborative

Giovanni E. Corazza, University of Bologna

Administration campaign

•  Highly demanding battery: 2 hours administration

•  Target: 100 participants from scientific domain, 100 from artistic domain, and 30 from advertisement

•  Scientific and artistic communities of students at graduate level (23-27 years) and ENGINE employees

First Annual International Creativity Collaborative

Giovanni E. Corazza, University of Bologna

Administration campaign: the status today

•  141 Scientific domain students: •  Astrophysics •  Chemistry •  Mathematics •  Physics •  Telecommunications Engineering •  Computer scientists

•  40 Artistic domain students: •  Musical disciplines •  Visual arts •  Fashion design

•  30 Advertising creatives •  Engine employees

First Annual International Creativity Collaborative

Giovanni E. Corazza, University of Bologna

Measuring originality: open questions and new definitions

First Annual International Creativity Collaborative

Giovanni E. Corazza, University of Bologna

The originality question

Slight originality Evolution Almost no risk

No originality Safe Full intelligibility

Optimal originality Optimal discontinuity Moderate/high risk

Idea Knowledge

Idea

Knowledge

Idea Knowledge Idea

Knowledge

Scarce intelligibility Risk too high Futuristic Revolution

First Annual International Creativity Collaborative

Giovanni E. Corazza, University of Bologna

Optimal originality

•  Is it possible to move towards a quantitative definition?

First Annual International Creativity Collaborative

Giovanni E. Corazza, University of Bologna

Optimal originality

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ity

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First Annual International Creativity Collaborative

Giovanni E. Corazza, University of Bologna