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66 Creativity

Figure 3.1. a combination of multiple cognitive elements at system level N creates a
single element at level N+1.

also emphasized that much conscious and deliberate cognitive work might be
needed to articulate a new, conscious idea for the purpose of communication
to others.
The GenePlore theory proposed by ronald a. Finke, Thomas B. Ward and
Steven M. Smith emphasizes conscious and deliberate thought in both genera-
tion and evaluation. it was formulated in the context of the invention of novel
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gadgets. The creative person begins with a set of basic forms and deliberately
manipulates these, perhaps in the form of visual images. The authors do not
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specify any constraints on the combination process, but the new forms, called
preinventive forms, are evaluated and selected on the basis of whether they are
“appealing,” “interesting” or “intriguing.” Useful functions are then sought for
the selected forms and the end result might be a novel design.
although these three articulations of the combination principle differ in
how they conceptualize the generating and testing processes, they are not con-
tradictory or mutually incompatible. Nothing prevents the mind from contain-
ing both unconscious and conscious generate-and-test mechanisms. a more
fruitful view embeds one mechanism within the other. The subjective expe-
rience of a new idea coming unbidden to mind – unconscious generate-and-
test – can be understood in terms of self-organization at the subsymbolic,
neural level. Once an idea has come to mind, it can participate in further,