Chapter 13 - Of Course Animals Are Creative: Insights from Generativity Theory

Abstract

When human behavior is both novel and of value to a community, it is sometimes labeled “creative” by members of that community. Virtually all animal behavior is novel in some sense, and it is also sometimes has value, particularly when it solves a problem. It is not unreasonable, therefore, to apply the language of human creativity to some instances of animal behavior. It is also possible that the same neural processes underlie the emergence of novel behavior in both people and animals; if so, at least in that regard, animal behavior may be creative in precisely the same way human behavior is. Generativity theory is a formal, predictive theory of novel behavior which asserts that the same processes underlie novel behavior in both animals and people. Instantiated in a computer model, the theory has been successful in predicting ongoing novel behavior in both pigeons and people in laboratory settings moment to moment in time. The main assertion of the theory—that novel behavior emerges as previously established behaviors become interconnected—makes sense in evolutionary terms because it provides organisms with an efficient way of adapting previously established behavior to novel situations. Unfortunately, rather than analyze novel behavior in animals using the formal quantitative methods of the natural sciences, researchers who study such behavior often engage in a century-old and largely pointless debate about the role that cognitive processes play in the emergence of such behavior.