The goal of this article is to review work on mind wandering, metacognition and creativity in order to consider their relationship with cognitive flexibility. I introduce a model of the role that mind wandering and metacognition have in the generation and exploration of novel ideas and products in the creative process. I argue that managing the…

How does creativity develop from a nearly ubiquitous and domain-general capacity associated with playfulness and openness to experience to a highly rarified and domain-specific ability associated with invention and innovation? In this short report, I describe creativity along two dimensions: self- and socially referenced creativity. In…

Integrating research from cognitive, social, organizational, and developmental psychology, the present article builds on the idea that constraints play a key role in creativity. The Mr. Plumbean approach, which refers to the willing integration of focusing constraints for creative purposes, emphasizes the role of attitude toward constraints in…

In this article, the author discusses and reviews the relevant needed aspects of intelligence relative to creativity, the creative process and the creative product. Further, there are elements of personality which also need to be examined. Some suggestions for future research are described.

The focus of this paper is ageing creativity: in community participation settings, in the street and parks, in homes, in residential care, living into medical and allied health functional health maintenance and rehabilitation teaching. Creativity, inherited and absorbed from culture/s, emerges during babyhood for whole of life. We enquire about…

Gayle T. Dow and Katie Kozlowski, researchers at Creativity Research Lab at Christopher Newport University in Virginia, discuss how the brain makes us creative and what teachers can do to encourage creative learning in the classroom.

We propose a working definition of creative experience that involves principled engagement with the unfamiliar and a willingness to approach the familiar in unfamiliar ways. In other words, a creative experience can be defined as novel person world encounters grounded in meaningful actions and interactions, which are marked by the principles of:…

Over several decades, novel-and-appropriate has become established as the standard definition of creativity; while allowing for variations in the exact wording, the requirement that creativity requires external validation of value, utility, etc. is largely unchallenged. This functions well in high consensus fields in which value can be empirically…

House of Imagination works with educators, artists and creative professionals to develop a creative approach to learning and researching experimental sites for pedagogical innovation. In our partnership work, our creative methodology, with everyone an artist, drives the ambition for artistic excellence. House of Imagination's signature project…

Few traits are as desirable as creativity. In fact, according to chief executives around the world, creativity is the most sought-after trait in leaders. This article is an attempt to share with educators what researchers have found regarding the hallmarks of creativity. It also provides a sampling of proven techniques and approaches instructors…

More than fifteen years ago, the Hewlett Foundation commissioned the researchers at SRI International to create the first comprehensive, statewide study of arts education in California. The resulting report, 2007's "An Unfinished Canvas," revealed the degree to which California was failing to provide standards-based courses in arts…

This article featuring SNAAP data was recently published in Creativity Research Journal. SNAAP research scientist, Angie Miller, at Indiana University Bloomington, used SNAAP data to explore whether exposure to creative coursework during one's time at their institution was able to predict several different career and arts involvement outcomes for…

Identifying potential abilities of children and youth is important, but often too little effort goes into conceptualizing how to enhance and support domain specific talent once it has been recognized. This article provides a research base for exploring this problem, leading to some grounding definitions, insights from experts on dimensions of…

The articles in this issue of "New Directions for Child and Adolescent Development" nicely summarize recent findings about creativity and development. This commentary underscores some of the key ideas and puts them into a larger context (i.e., the corpus of creativity research). It pinpoints areas of agreement (e.g., the need to take…

The SunSpaceArt (SSA) project, led by the author, a solar scientist at the University of Cambridge, comprises a diverse team of scientists and visual artists who run STEAM (STEM + Arts) workshops in schools, space camps and at other venues (museums, science centres and so on). The project focuses mainly on 7- to 12-year-olds, which is a key age…