Creative Outcome as Implausible Utility
Abstract
Two perspectives are used to reframe Simonton’s recent three-factor definition of creative outcome. The first perspective is functional: that creative ideas are those that add significantly to knowledge by providing both utility and learning. The second perspective is calculational: that learning can be estimated by the change in probabilistic beliefs about an idea’s utility before and after it has played out in its environment. The results of the reframing are proposed conceptual and mathematical definitions of (a) creative outcome as the product of two overarching factors (utility and learning) and (b) learning as a function of two subsidiary factors (blindness reduction and surprise). Learning will be shown to depend much more strongly on surprise than on blindness reduction, so creative outcome may then also be defined as “implausible utility.”
- Authors:
-
- Sandia National Laboratories, Albuquerque, NM, USA
- Publication Date:
- Research Org.:
- Sandia National Lab. (SNL-NM), Albuquerque, NM (United States)
- Sponsoring Org.:
- USDOE National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA)
- OSTI Identifier:
- 1543062
- Alternate Identifier(s):
- OSTI ID: 1574811
- Report Number(s):
- SAND-20195800J
Journal ID: ISSN 1089-2680
- Grant/Contract Number:
- AC04-94AL85000; NA0003525
- Resource Type:
- Published Article
- Journal Name:
- Review of General Psychology
- Additional Journal Information:
- Journal Name: Review of General Psychology Journal Volume: 23 Journal Issue: 3; Journal ID: ISSN 1089-2680
- Publisher:
- SAGE Publications
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
- Subject:
- 60 APPLIED LIFE SCIENCES; creativity; utility; learning; blindness; surprise; implausibility
Citation Formats
Tsao, J. Y., Ting, C. L., and Johnson, C. M. Creative Outcome as Implausible Utility. United States: N. p., 2019.
Web. doi:10.1177/1089268019857929.
Tsao, J. Y., Ting, C. L., & Johnson, C. M. Creative Outcome as Implausible Utility. United States. https://doi.org/10.1177/1089268019857929
Tsao, J. Y., Ting, C. L., and Johnson, C. M. Wed .
"Creative Outcome as Implausible Utility". United States. https://doi.org/10.1177/1089268019857929.
@article{osti_1543062,
title = {Creative Outcome as Implausible Utility},
author = {Tsao, J. Y. and Ting, C. L. and Johnson, C. M.},
abstractNote = {Two perspectives are used to reframe Simonton’s recent three-factor definition of creative outcome. The first perspective is functional: that creative ideas are those that add significantly to knowledge by providing both utility and learning. The second perspective is calculational: that learning can be estimated by the change in probabilistic beliefs about an idea’s utility before and after it has played out in its environment. The results of the reframing are proposed conceptual and mathematical definitions of (a) creative outcome as the product of two overarching factors (utility and learning) and (b) learning as a function of two subsidiary factors (blindness reduction and surprise). Learning will be shown to depend much more strongly on surprise than on blindness reduction, so creative outcome may then also be defined as “implausible utility.”},
doi = {10.1177/1089268019857929},
journal = {Review of General Psychology},
number = 3,
volume = 23,
place = {United States},
year = {2019},
month = {7}
}
Free Publicly Available Full Text
Publisher's Version of Record
https://doi.org/10.1177/1089268019857929
https://doi.org/10.1177/1089268019857929
Other availability
Search WorldCat to find libraries that may hold this journal
Save to My Library
You must Sign In or Create an Account in order to save documents to your library.
Works referenced in this record:
Creativity
journal, January 2010
- Hennessey, Beth A.; Amabile, Teresa M.
- Annual Review of Psychology, Vol. 61, Issue 1
The Cognitive-Evolutionary Model of Surprise: A Review of the Evidence
journal, September 2017
- Reisenzein, Rainer; Horstmann, Gernot; Schützwohl, Achim
- Topics in Cognitive Science, Vol. 11, Issue 1
Solid-state lighting: ‘The case’ 10 years after and future prospects
journal, September 2010
- Haitz, Roland; Tsao, Jeffrey Y.
- physica status solidi (a), Vol. 208, Issue 1
Exploration and Exploitation in Organizational Learning
journal, February 1991
- March, James G.
- Organization Science, Vol. 2, Issue 1
The Standard Definition of Creativity
journal, January 2012
- Runco, Mark A.; Jaeger, Garrett J.
- Creativity Research Journal, Vol. 24, Issue 1
Idea Generation and the Quality of the Best Idea
journal, April 2010
- Girotra, Karan; Terwiesch, Christian; Ulrich, Karl T.
- Management Science, Vol. 56, Issue 4
Of bits and wows: A Bayesian theory of surprise with applications to attention
journal, June 2010
- Baldi, Pierre; Itti, Laurent
- Neural Networks, Vol. 23, Issue 5
Separate neural representations of prediction error valence and surprise: Evidence from an fMRI meta-analysis
journal, March 2018
- Fouragnan, Elsa; Retzler, Chris; Philiastides, Marios G.
- Human Brain Mapping, Vol. 39, Issue 7
The structure of creative cognition in the human brain
journal, January 2013
- Jung, Rex E.
- Frontiers in Human Neuroscience, Vol. 7
Evaluative and generative modes of thought during the creative process
journal, January 2012
- Ellamil, Melissa; Dobson, Charles; Beeman, Mark
- NeuroImage, Vol. 59, Issue 2
Innovation and Learning: The Two Faces of R & D
journal, September 1989
- Cohen, Wesley M.; Levinthal, Daniel A.
- The Economic Journal, Vol. 99, Issue 397
Creative thought as blind variation and selective retention: Why creativity is inversely related to sightedness.
journal, January 2013
- Simonton, Dean Keith
- Journal of Theoretical and Philosophical Psychology, Vol. 33, Issue 4
Defining Creativity: Don't We Also Need to Define What Is Not Creative?
journal, January 2016
- Simonton, Dean Keith
- The Journal of Creative Behavior, Vol. 52, Issue 1
The selection of creative ideas after individual idea generation: Choosing between creativity and impact
journal, February 2010
- Rietzschel, Eric F.; Nijstad, Bernard A.; Stroebe, Wolfgang
- British Journal of Psychology, Vol. 101, Issue 1
Technological paradigms and technological trajectories
journal, June 1982
- Dosi, Giovanni
- Research Policy, Vol. 11, Issue 3
Creativity, Automaticity, Irrationality, Fortuity, Fantasy, and Other Contingencies: An Eightfold Response Typology
journal, June 2016
- Simonton, Dean Keith
- Review of General Psychology, Vol. 20, Issue 2
In Praise of Convergent Thinking
journal, July 2006
- Cropley, Arthur
- Creativity Research Journal, Vol. 18, Issue 3
Unpacking the exploration–exploitation tradeoff: A synthesis of human and animal literatures.
journal, July 2015
- Mehlhorn, Katja; Newell, Ben R.; Todd, Peter M.
- Decision, Vol. 2, Issue 3
Creative thought as blind-variation and selective-retention: Combinatorial models of exceptional creativity
journal, June 2010
- Simonton, Dean Keith
- Physics of Life Reviews, Vol. 7, Issue 2
A Proposed Structure For The Nucleic Acids
journal, February 1953
- Pauling, L.; Corey, R. B.
- Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, Vol. 39, Issue 2
Exploration versus exploitation in space, mind, and society
journal, January 2015
- Hills, Thomas T.; Todd, Peter M.; Lazer, David
- Trends in Cognitive Sciences, Vol. 19, Issue 1
Creative Cognition and Brain Network Dynamics
journal, February 2016
- Beaty, Roger E.; Benedek, Mathias; Silvia, Paul J.
- Trends in Cognitive Sciences, Vol. 20, Issue 2
Spaces of the possible: universal Darwinism and the wall between technological and biological innovation
journal, August 2014
- Wagner, Andreas; Rosen, William
- Journal of The Royal Society Interface, Vol. 11, Issue 97
Creativity: Yesterday, Today and Tomorrow
journal, January 1967
- Guilford, J. P.
- The Journal of Creative Behavior, Vol. 1, Issue 1
Nurturing transformative U.S. energy research: Two guiding principles
journal, January 2018
- Narayanamurti, Venkatesh; Tsao, Jeffrey Y.
- MRS Energy & Sustainability, Vol. 5
Creativity and Discovery as Blind Variation: Campbell's (1960) BVSR Model after the Half-Century Mark
journal, June 2011
- Simonton, Dean Keith
- Review of General Psychology, Vol. 15, Issue 2
Molecular Structure of Nucleic Acids: A Structure for Deoxyribose Nucleic Acid
journal, April 1953
- Watson, J. D.; Crick, F. H. C.
- Nature, Vol. 171, Issue 4356
Formal Theory of Creativity, Fun, and Intrinsic Motivation (1990–2010)
journal, September 2010
- Schmidhuber, Jürgen
- IEEE Transactions on Autonomous Mental Development, Vol. 2, Issue 3
Blind variation and selective retentions in creative thought as in other knowledge processes.
journal, January 1960
- Campbell, Donald T.
- Psychological Review, Vol. 67, Issue 6
Is evolvability evolvable?
journal, January 2008
- Pigliucci, Massimo
- Nature Reviews Genetics, Vol. 9, Issue 1
Why Isn't Creativity More Important to Educational Psychologists? Potentials, Pitfalls, and Future Directions in Creativity Research
journal, June 2004
- Plucker, Jonathan A.; Beghetto, Ronald A.; Dow, Gayle T.
- Educational Psychologist, Vol. 39, Issue 2
Novelty or Surprise?
journal, January 2013
- Barto, Andrew; Mirolli, Marco; Baldassarre, Gianluca
- Frontiers in Psychology, Vol. 4