The creative mind: Toward an evolutionary theory of discovery and innovation

Abstract

Abstract The creative mind remains largely uncharted despite the efforts of investigators from many fields. Discussions arising from the perspective of evolutionary biology have helped somewhat to clarify the problems surrounding human creative activity. However, even the most advanced evolutionary treatments are unable to provide thorough explanations of creative activity or to deal productively with its effects on behavior and society. Moreover, it appears that such explanations will not be forthcoming within the current evolutionary paradigm. Our purpose in this report is to present a potentially new evolutionary approach to human creativity. We begin by introducing the concept of a system in which the components of individual cognition, including intelligence, learning, memory, personality and motivation interact with features of the sociocultural environment such as social stratification, educational policies and modes of communication to influence the creative process, discovery and innovation. Implicit in this concept is the assertion that a productive characterization of the creative process cannot be stated solely by reference to a single level of organization. Empirical evidence corroborating this assertion is examined. Our system concept is then integrated with current theories of biocultural dynamics, leading to the hypothesis that creative activity is an evolved strategy in which rules of cognitive development act through the joint inheritance of genetic and cultural information. Data from cognitive science, social anthropology and behavior genetics, testing the hypothesis of genetic involvement in creative development, are presented and discussed. Building on previous investigations, we suggest that creative potential in particular problem domains relates to the organization of semantic networks through the forging of links among previously dissociated elements. Formalization of this linking thesis in turn generates several quantitative predictions about domain specificity, the relationship between creative potential and age, environmental complexity, and various aspects of the sociocultural environment. A central problem in our theory of discovery and innovation is how creative activity is instantiated in the functional architecture of the brain. We develop a model in which creative activity is related to the patterns of activation among collections of neurons that are innately predisposed to respond to particular patterns of electrochemical excitation. In this formulation, the creative process — manifested at the cognitive level by the establishment of new linkages among nodes in the existing knowledge structure — arises as a consequence of the elaboration of a novel sequence of group selection events. The model is found to generate a number of testable predictions concerning, for example, the relationship between creative potential and temporal environmental heterogeneity. Moreover, it appears to offer an explanation for such individual characteristics as the domain-specificity of creative potential. A particularly intriguing prediction arising from the model is that above some basal level of sensorimotor activity, creativity may well be independent of the primary information transduction capacities of the organism. The concluding sections of the report develop two related themes. First, we suggest that current mathematical models of cultural change and gene-culture coevolution have difficulty dealing with intervals of history containing successive innovations. In the existing formulations, creative potentials, innovation rates, etc. are likely to enter as extrinsic parameters or driving forces similar to mutation rates, rather than as causal outcomes of developmental and behavioral events within the system. This limits their usefulness in applications to culturally transmitted novelty. However, it is possible at least to begin construction of improved formal frameworks, the so-called superspace theories, which can better accomodate unforeseen discoveries and their consequences. This step makes possible improved macroevolutionary treatments of social change. Second, we consider in some detail the possibility that the formidable problems posed by creative diversity can be surmounted or at least eased. Our analysis suggests that all types of creative products may well be accommodated within a single multidimensional space of basic properties, with individual elements differing according to the particulars of their associated symbol systems and sustaining cognitive processes. Some tentative taxonomic principles are developed and applied. Preliminary evaluation of these classifications suggests that human creativity will be further clarified by the continued synthesis of evolutionary biology with the cognitive sciences.