How to Improve Your Creative Thinking: Curators All the Way Down

How to Improve Your Creative Thinking: Curators All the Way Down

Creativity is a powerful skill that allows us to produce novel and useful ideas in a given social context. It is a two-part process that involves generating candidate ideas and making novel connections between them, and then narrowing down to the most useful one. But what exactly drives creative thinking? Recent evidence suggests that semantic memory structure, or how we relate language-based concepts, plays a significant role in creativity.

When a memory moves from short-term to long-term storage, it becomes associated with existing memories, also known as "schemas." This association process leads to a shift in our overall understanding of the world. Understanding this mechanism helps us comprehend the creative experience on a deeper level and reveals a missing component—attention.

When our brain engages in divergent thinking, such as coming up with various uses for an object, the default network is activated. This network, called the "default network," is responsible for spontaneous, self-generated thought, including mind wandering. On the other hand, the control network allows us to think flexibly, inhibit distractions, and draw from our memory. The interplay between these networks is regulated by the salience network, which helps us effectively engage each one. Interestingly, higher scores in creative thinking are associated with greater coupling between these networks.

A key aspect of creative thinking is the ability to make connections between existing ideas. Memories act as the building blocks for creative thinking. To stimulate creativity and deepen existing associations, it is crucial to consume other people's ideas through conversations, reading, or listening. Seeking out new ideas that are significantly different from our own may not be as effective as making incremental steps outside our filter bubble. New information must overlap somewhat with our existing knowledge to be effectively associated and assimilated.

Taking notes, making highlights, and revisiting material that is related to our current thoughts can help us maintain and strengthen connections. These connections often occur during periods of mind wandering or engaging conversations. Our attention is less focused during mind wandering, allowing us to explore and experiment with connecting our memories in different ways. Engaging in conversations with others also helps spark our own ideas that we can share.

The optimal state for creative thought work depends on various factors, including the type of work, attentional state, mood, and engagement level. Maintaining a positive affective mental state, such as being happy and not anxious, is beneficial for creative thinking. Contrary to what we might expect, forcing ourselves to focus too much can narrow our thinking. Mind wandering is essential for exploring, retrieving, and experimenting with different connections between our memories.