On Cognitive Foundations of Creativity and the Cognitive Process of Creation

Introduction

Creativity is a gifted ability of human beings in thinking, inference, problem solving, and product development (Beveridge, 1975; Csikszentmihalyi, 1996; Holland, 1986; Matlin, 1998; Smith, 1995; Sternberg & Lubart, 1995; Wang et al., 2006; Wilson & Keil, 1999). Human creativity may be classified into three categories known as the abstract, concrete, and art creativities. A scientific (abstract) creation is usually characterized by a free and unlimited creative environment where the goals and paths for such a creation is totally free and unlimited; while an engineering (concrete) creation is characterized by a limited creative environment where a creative problem solving is constructed by a certain set of goals, paths, and available conditions. The third form of creation is the art (empirical) creation that generates a novel artifact that attracts human sensorial attention and perceptual satisfactory.

Creativity has been perceived diversely and controversially in psychology, intelligence science, and cognitive science (Csikszentmihalyi, 1996; Guiford, 1967; Leahey, 1997; Mednich & Mednich, 1967; Matlin, 1998; Sternberg & Lubart, 1995; Wallas, 1926; Wang et al., 2009a, 2009b). Creativity may be treated as a form of art that generates unexpected results by unexpected paths and means. It may also be modeled as a scientific phenomenon that generates unexpected results by purposeful pursuits. In 1998, Matlin perceived that creativity is a special case of problem solving (Matlin, 1998). From this perspective, he defined creativity as a process to find a solution that is both novel and useful. However, problem solving often deals with issues for a certain goal with unknown paths. Therefore, creation is much more divergent that deals with issues of both unknown goals and unknown paths for a problem under study.