Albert Rothenberg
- Published in print:
- 2014
- Published Online:
- November 2014
- ISBN:
- 9780199988792
- eISBN:
- 9780190214159
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199988792.001.0001
- Subject:
- Psychology, Cognitive Psychology
Einstein said, “The process of scientific discovery is, in effect, a continual flight from wonder.” This is the first empirical investigation of scientific creativity based on research interviews ...
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Einstein said, “The process of scientific discovery is, in effect, a continual flight from wonder.” This is the first empirical investigation of scientific creativity based on research interviews with living Nobel laureates in physics, chemistry, and physiology or medicine, whose formulations are compared to those of a control group of engineering faculty members. Findings were that three cognitive creative processes described herein—janusian, homospatial, and sep-con articulation—as well as strong motivation, passion, and other accompanying emotions, were responsible for creative breakthroughs leading to outstanding scientific discoveries in the Nobel laureate group. The janusian cognitive process consists of actively conceiving and using multiple opposites simultaneously. The homospatial cognitive process consists of actively conceiving two or more discrete entities in the same mental space or spatial location, a conception leading to the articulation of new identities. The sep-con articulation cognitive process consists of actively conceiving and using separates and connections concomitantly. Primary documents showing creative breakthroughs using these processes are also reviewed for scientists including Albert Einstein, Niels Bohr, Charles Darwin, James Watson, Hideki Yukawa, Paul Dirac, Max Planck, Jacques Hadamard, Henri Poincaré, and Paul Ehrlich.Less
Einstein said, “The process of scientific discovery is, in effect, a continual flight from wonder.” This is the first empirical investigation of scientific creativity based on research interviews with living Nobel laureates in physics, chemistry, and physiology or medicine, whose formulations are compared to those of a control group of engineering faculty members. Findings were that three cognitive creative processes described herein—janusian, homospatial, and sep-con articulation—as well as strong motivation, passion, and other accompanying emotions, were responsible for creative breakthroughs leading to outstanding scientific discoveries in the Nobel laureate group. The janusian cognitive process consists of actively conceiving and using multiple opposites simultaneously. The homospatial cognitive process consists of actively conceiving two or more discrete entities in the same mental space or spatial location, a conception leading to the articulation of new identities. The sep-con articulation cognitive process consists of actively conceiving and using separates and connections concomitantly. Primary documents showing creative breakthroughs using these processes are also reviewed for scientists including Albert Einstein, Niels Bohr, Charles Darwin, James Watson, Hideki Yukawa, Paul Dirac, Max Planck, Jacques Hadamard, Henri Poincaré, and Paul Ehrlich.
Amy L. Landers
- Published in print:
- 2021
- Published Online:
- December 2021
- ISBN:
- 9780198846413
- eISBN:
- 9780191881572
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/oso/9780198846413.003.0011
- Subject:
- Computer Science, Human-Computer Interaction, Systems Analysis and Design
Although many assistive devices are created in advanced economies, the developing world has been responsible for numerous creative solutions. Despite this, according to the World Intellectual ...
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Although many assistive devices are created in advanced economies, the developing world has been responsible for numerous creative solutions. Despite this, according to the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO), the clear majority of patenting activity in this field occurs in developed countries. Developing countries, which generate comparatively few issued patents, engage in significant innovation using forms of creativity that are not rewarded under the Global North’s patent standards. Developing nations can respond to this circumstance through a number of mechanisms. One is to modify the existing patentability standards to capture more types of creative endeavors. Such an approach should be considered thoughtfully, as the patent system has the potential for both positive and negative consequences for developing nations. Alternatively, nations can adopt other forms of incentives (such as grants or other rewards) to encourage the development of new assistive technologies for their domestic creators.Less
Although many assistive devices are created in advanced economies, the developing world has been responsible for numerous creative solutions. Despite this, according to the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO), the clear majority of patenting activity in this field occurs in developed countries. Developing countries, which generate comparatively few issued patents, engage in significant innovation using forms of creativity that are not rewarded under the Global North’s patent standards. Developing nations can respond to this circumstance through a number of mechanisms. One is to modify the existing patentability standards to capture more types of creative endeavors. Such an approach should be considered thoughtfully, as the patent system has the potential for both positive and negative consequences for developing nations. Alternatively, nations can adopt other forms of incentives (such as grants or other rewards) to encourage the development of new assistive technologies for their domestic creators.
Albert Rothenberg
- Published in print:
- 2014
- Published Online:
- November 2014
- ISBN:
- 9780199988792
- eISBN:
- 9780190214159
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199988792.003.0001
- Subject:
- Psychology, Cognitive Psychology
The chapter begins with a discussion of the cognitive creative process of sep-con articulation and the meaning of the term articulation as a way to view creativity and scientific investigation as the ...
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The chapter begins with a discussion of the cognitive creative process of sep-con articulation and the meaning of the term articulation as a way to view creativity and scientific investigation as the operation of how natural or artistic elements join. This exploration is coupled with the concept of “everyday” creativity—new and valuable workday productions—as illustrated by the creative catching style of the New York Yankee, Joe DiMaggio. His ballplaying style, both new and valuable, made fielding the ball an organic process, one in which he seemed to join the ball to himself in a continuous trajectory of motion that nevertheless was composed of clearly identifiable and separate parts. This is similar to the more complex and prolonged sep-con articulation creative process responsible for artistic and scientific creations.Less
The chapter begins with a discussion of the cognitive creative process of sep-con articulation and the meaning of the term articulation as a way to view creativity and scientific investigation as the operation of how natural or artistic elements join. This exploration is coupled with the concept of “everyday” creativity—new and valuable workday productions—as illustrated by the creative catching style of the New York Yankee, Joe DiMaggio. His ballplaying style, both new and valuable, made fielding the ball an organic process, one in which he seemed to join the ball to himself in a continuous trajectory of motion that nevertheless was composed of clearly identifiable and separate parts. This is similar to the more complex and prolonged sep-con articulation creative process responsible for artistic and scientific creations.
Alan J. Rocke
- Published in print:
- 2010
- Published Online:
- March 2013
- ISBN:
- 9780226723327
- eISBN:
- 9780226723358
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- University of Chicago Press
- DOI:
- 10.7208/chicago/9780226723358.001.0001
- Subject:
- History, History of Science, Technology, and Medicine
Nineteenth-century chemists were faced with a particular problem: how to depict the atoms and molecules that are beyond the direct reach of our bodily senses. In visualizing this microworld, these ...
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Nineteenth-century chemists were faced with a particular problem: how to depict the atoms and molecules that are beyond the direct reach of our bodily senses. In visualizing this microworld, these scientists were the first to move beyond high-level philosophical speculations regarding the unseen. This book focuses on the community of organic chemists in Germany to provide the basis for a fuller understanding of the nature of scientific creativity. Arguing that visual mental images regularly assisted many of these scientists in thinking through old problems and new possibilities, it uses a variety of sources, including private correspondence, diagrams and illustrations, scientific papers, and public statements, to investigate their ability to not only imagine the invisibly tiny atoms and molecules upon which they operated daily, but to build detailed and empirically based pictures of how all of the atoms in complicated molecules were interconnected. These portrayals of “chemical structures” both as mental images and as paper tools gradually became an accepted part of science during these years and are now regarded as one of the central defining features of chemistry. In telling this story in a manner accessible to the lay reader, the book also suggests that imagistic thinking is often at the heart of creative thinking in all fields.Less
Nineteenth-century chemists were faced with a particular problem: how to depict the atoms and molecules that are beyond the direct reach of our bodily senses. In visualizing this microworld, these scientists were the first to move beyond high-level philosophical speculations regarding the unseen. This book focuses on the community of organic chemists in Germany to provide the basis for a fuller understanding of the nature of scientific creativity. Arguing that visual mental images regularly assisted many of these scientists in thinking through old problems and new possibilities, it uses a variety of sources, including private correspondence, diagrams and illustrations, scientific papers, and public statements, to investigate their ability to not only imagine the invisibly tiny atoms and molecules upon which they operated daily, but to build detailed and empirically based pictures of how all of the atoms in complicated molecules were interconnected. These portrayals of “chemical structures” both as mental images and as paper tools gradually became an accepted part of science during these years and are now regarded as one of the central defining features of chemistry. In telling this story in a manner accessible to the lay reader, the book also suggests that imagistic thinking is often at the heart of creative thinking in all fields.
Marco Piccolino, Marco Bresadola, and Nicholas Wade
- Published in print:
- 2013
- Published Online:
- June 2014
- ISBN:
- 9780199782161
- eISBN:
- 9780199345182
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199782161.003.0004
- Subject:
- Psychology, Cognitive Neuroscience, Cognitive Psychology
Around 1780 Galvani started a series of experiments on muscular motion using electricity as a stimulating agent and the frogs as experimental animals. This chapter deals with Galvani’s experimental ...
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Around 1780 Galvani started a series of experiments on muscular motion using electricity as a stimulating agent and the frogs as experimental animals. This chapter deals with Galvani’s experimental practice and reconstructs his early investigative pathway in unprecedented detail, thanks to the surviving laboratory notes and other documents kept in the archives of the Academy of Sciences of Bologna. From all this there emerges a new image of Galvani’s science, which shows some important differences with those offered in other historical studies or by Galvani himself. Some insights on how creativity emerges in scientific endeavour are also offered through this historical case.Less
Around 1780 Galvani started a series of experiments on muscular motion using electricity as a stimulating agent and the frogs as experimental animals. This chapter deals with Galvani’s experimental practice and reconstructs his early investigative pathway in unprecedented detail, thanks to the surviving laboratory notes and other documents kept in the archives of the Academy of Sciences of Bologna. From all this there emerges a new image of Galvani’s science, which shows some important differences with those offered in other historical studies or by Galvani himself. Some insights on how creativity emerges in scientific endeavour are also offered through this historical case.
