Creativity and multiculturalism

WHAT NEUROSCIENCE TEACHES US ABOUT CREATIVITY AND MULTICULTURALISM

Presented by Alicia Arnold Fall 2011

What is Creativity?

Creativity involves the production of novel, useful products

http://www.flickr.com/photos/opensourceway/4387501000/sizes/o/in/photostream/

Mumford, M. D. (2003). Where have we been, where are we going? Taking stock in creativity research. Creativity Research Journal, 15, 107–120.

Why is Creativity Important?

“Much of our educational system is geared toward teaching people to find “the right answer.” By the time the average person finishes college, he or she will have taken over 2,600 tests, quizzes, and exams. The “right answer” approach becomes deeply ingrained in our thinking. This may be fine for some mathematical problems where there is in fact one right answer. The difficulty is that most of life isn’t that way. Life is ambiguous; there are many right answers—all depending on what you are looking for. But if you think there is only one right answer, then you’ll stop looking as soon as you find one.”Roger von Oech, “A Whack on the Side of the Head: How You Can Be More Creative,” (New York: Warner Books, 1983).

What have we learned about creativity?

Much of what we believe about creativity is inaccurate

False True1. Left or Right Brain The entire brain is active when people are

engaged in a particular task. Question isn’t what is active, but which brain areas display statistically differential activity

2. Left brain = logic and Right brain = creativity

Left and right brain are equally activated in most creative tasks

3. Creativity is a mysterious phenomenon When people are creative, they use the same parts of the brain as with everyday tasks

4. Incubation is deliberate Mind wandering is “micro-incubation” unaware of it happening

5. Associations in creativity may be important

The importance of association in creativity has been confirmed

6. People have similar patterns of brain activation

Extensive training in a domain is associated with different patterns of brain activation (professional dancer, artist, musician have different patterns of activation than recreational dancer, artist, musician) Keith Sawyer (2011): The Cognitive Neuroscience of Creativity: A Critical Review, Creativity Research Journal, 23:2, 137-154 http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/10400419.2011.571191

http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/10400419.2011.571191

Creativity is not mysterious, but part of normal mental process

Studies identify the prefrontal cortex as critical to creativity

It is the central structure involved in creative thinking; not solely responsible, but very important

Prefrontal lobe does not fully develop until a person is in their 20’s – explains why kids creativity is less structured

Prefrontal lobe is the first to deteriorate – explains the decline in creativity with age; things get “hardwired”

Leung, A. K., Maddux, W.M., et al (2008). Multicultural experience enhances creativity: The when and how. American Psychology, 63 (3), 169–181 DOI: 10.1037/0003-066X.63.3.169

“A baby’s brain is a work in progress…”

http://www.ag.ndsu.edu/pubs/yf/famsci/fs609w.htm

“We are born with as many nerve cells as stars in the Milky Way galaxy. But these cells have not yet established a pattern of wiring between them — they haven't made their connections.” http://www.ag.ndsu.edu/pubs/yf/famsci/fs609w.htm

“By the time a child is 3 years old, a baby's brain has formed about 1,000 trillion connections — about twice as many as adults have.”


“Beginning at about age 11, a child's

brain gets rid of extra

connections in a process

calling ‘pruning,’ gradually

making order out of a thick

tangle of ‘wires.’”


“The remaining ‘wiring’ is more powerful and efficient.

The more you use a circuit, the stronger it gets.

Attention is almost magical in its ability to physically alter the brain and enlarge functional circuits.

http://www.thedailybeast.com/newsweek/2011/01/03/can-you-build-a-better-brain.html

The key to creativity may be creating new pathways

Multicultural Experience Enhances Creativity

And, multiculturalism can play a role.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/wonderlane/3260581603/sizes/l/in/photostream/

A traditional view of multiculturalism is based on race

Although current discussion on multiculturalism focuses primarily on issues related to ethnic diversity in the United States, multicultural psychology concerns all aspects of human behavior that occur when people from two or more cultural backgrounds encounter each other (Chiu, in press).


At it’s core, multiculturalism is the lens with which we look at the world

Dancer Baseball player Doctor Have own language, norms…

The rhythm for the Bee Gees “Jive Talkin” was inspired by the chunka-chunka-chunka sound of a car rolling over a bridge

Robin Gibb explained to The Mail On Sunday November 1, 2009: "We'd already thought up the title for this song, but it wasn't until Barry, Maurice and I drove from Biscayne Bay to Miami that we realized what the tune was going to be. We had the idea as we passed over a bridge. Some tar noises made a rhythmic sound on the wheels of our car, which created the feel to the type of song we wanted to write. We finished the song at the Criteria studios that day."

http://www.songfacts.com/detail.php?id=1793

Multiculturalism helps…

Extensiveness of multicultural experiences was positively related to creative performance insight learning remote association and idea generation

And, creativity-supporting cognitive processes retrieval of unconventional knowledge recruitment of ideas from unfamiliar cultures for

creative idea expansion


In addition to rich experiences, multiculturalism helps with closure

Providing direct access to novel ideas and concepts from other cultures,

Creating the ability to see multiple underlying functions behind the same form,

Destabilizing routinized knowledge structures, thereby increasing the accessibility of normally inaccessible knowledge,

Creating a psychological readiness to recruit ideas from unfamiliar sources and places,

Fostering synthesis of seemingly incompatible ideas from diverse cultures


Multiculturalism provides a way to introduce new thinking

And, to change brain patterns

In order to create new pathways

For ways to change brain patterns…

Available on Amazon.com

Practicing the “Famous People” creativity technique

Choose a famous person you know a lot about

Write down your famous person’s defining experiences

Consider your person’s feelings and reactions to these experiences

What are your famous person’s defining characteristics

How might your famous person improve education around the world?

“Education is considered one of the most vital elements for a country to create its next generation of leaders such as future presidents and other government officials, which will come from the group of children or young men and women. If they would not have access to quality education in their respective communities, they will find it hard to write letters and speeches that would address certain problems, even more, applying knowledge that will make a certain country become competitive in the world market.”

http://www.tiptoptens.com/2011/06/29/top-10-biggest-political-problems-in-the-world/

Forming new pathways becomes even more important as we get older as some research shows declines in creativity associated with aging

Roskos-Ewoldsen, B., Black, S. R., & McCown, S. M. (2008). Age-related changes in creativity. Journal of Creative Behavior, 41 (1).

In closing, looking at the world from a multicultural perspective and practicing creativity will help you become more creative.

About Alicia Arnold

Author of Creatively Ever After: A Path to Innovation http://amzn.to/p6LfA6

By day, I am an award-winning, digital marketer and use my passion for creativity and innovation to train teams on creative problem solving, develop breakthrough digital experiences, and facilitate innovation workshops.

I earned a Master of Science in Creativity and Change Leadership from the International Center for Studies in Creativity at Buffalo State College and an M.B.A in Marketing from Bentley University

I look forward to connecting with you. You can reach me at… http://twitter.com/alicarnold (Twitter) http://alicia-arnold.com (Blog) http://facebook.com/AliciaArnoldCreativity (Facebook)

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Creativity and multiculturalism