Is Visual Creativity Embodied? Thinking Aloud While Performing the Creative Mental Synthesis Task

Abstract

Over time, the view that creativity is embodied has emerged. In order to explore if visual creativity is supported by embodied mechanisms, the simulation approach was used as a framework of reference. The idea that visual creativity relies on mental representations that implement motor processes was faced. Participants were instructed to think aloud while carrying out the Creative Mental Synthesis Task, which allows to form pre-inventive structures and interpret them according to a specific category. Two independent judges scored verbal protocols in terms of the number of motor, spatial, and visual thoughts reported during the pre-inventive and inventive phases, and also evaluated the final objects according to originality and appropriateness. Originality was predicted positively by inventive motor thoughts and by pre-inventive spatial thoughts, but negatively by inventive spatial thoughts; appropriateness was only predicted by inventive visual thoughts. These results suggest that actions for future object utilization were simulated while interpreting pre-inventive structures, increasing originality of objects. In addition, spatial transformations are useful to construct the pre-inventive structures, but not to interpret them. Yet, thinking of the pictorial details of the object is also essential to classify it in a given category. Limitations and future research directions are discussed.

The Relationships between Cognitive Styles and Creativity: The Role of Field Dependence-Independence on Visual Creative Production

“…The role of spatial manipulation in creative tasks is also consistent with those studies using the think-aloud method in order to reveal mental processes actively involved in creativity. For instance, Palmiero and Piccardi’s study [ 56 ] revealed that spatial thoughts—containing spatial information of size and rotation—generated during the preinventive phase positively predicted the originality of productions during the invention phase. Although we did not detect mental imagery directly, the assumptions reported above could represent a relevant point to explain our results.…”

On the Application of Developmental Cognitive Neuroscience in Educational Environments

“…We can hypothesize and state that in a theory of mental synthesis—timing is key [ 39 , 40 , 41 ]. If the neuronal ensembles for the dolphin and the pineapple are simultaneously activated, the child could perceive the dolphin and the pineapple simultaneously.…”

The Role of Body in Brain Plasticity

“…Palmiero et al [ 21 ] emphasized that visual creativity related to object originality can be embodied, to some extent, as perceptuo-motor codes, suggesting that simulations and other forms of knowledge representation permeate grounded cognition. Many studies in this Special Issue instead address embodiment in the context of the bodily awareness as the start for the sense of ownership (the sense that one’s body is one’s own) and the sense of agency .…”