Presented by

P. Pon Rajesh Kumar

College Of Engineering-Guindy,Chennai

Models of Brain Creativity

Freuds Model of Levels of the Mind
Brain-Dominance Theory
Information Processing and Computational Modeling

Thinking Processes leading to Creative Ideas

Creativity and Problem Solving
Creative Thinking Methods

Brainstorming
Idea Generating Techniques Beyond Brainstorming
Random Input Technique
Synectics: An Inventive Method Based on Analogy
Concept Map

Most innovative products = remembering useful design concepts +

recognizing promising concepts
Best engineers will use creative thinking methods and design
processes
Creative thinking is highly valued across many fields of endeavor
No engineering activity requires more creativity than design
Ability to identify concepts that will achieve particular functions
required by a product is a creative task.

Todays fierce worldwide competition for markets, new products,

and engineering dominance is changing that mindset.
Organizations that create Innovative products can only survive in
today's market.
Societys view of creativity has changed over time
Scholars believed creativity to be an unexplainable personal talent
present at the birth of an artist
Creativity was measurable and, therefore, controllable.
Creativity is a teachable skill for individuals and groups
Example: Transparent trucks

It is not possible to observe and examine the steps that a creative

persons brain follows but One can only study the results of the
process (e.g., a problem solution or a design) and any commentary
on how they developed as stated or recorded by the producer.
Advances in medicine and technology have expanded the
boundaries of the activities of the brain that are observable and can
be studied in real time.
Modern neuroscience uses sophisticated tools such as Functional
MRI and Positron Emission Tomography to observe the brain in
action. The field is making great strides in revealing how the brain
works by identifying which parts of the brain are responsible for
particular actions. Understanding thinking is the realm of cognitive
scientists and psychologists

Functional MRI

Positron Emission Tomography

Thinking is the execution of cognitive processes like the activities

of collecting, organizing, finding, and using knowledge.
Cognitive psychology is the more specialized study of the
acquisition and use of knowledge by humans in their activities.
The psychological aspects of human behavior must be considered in
helping us to understand a persons thinking because cognitive
processes are naturally influenced by an individuals perceptions
and representations of knowledge.
Skills for developing creative thinking come from sciences that
study human thinking, actions, and behavior

Sigmund Freud developed a topographical model of the

mind consisting of three levels:
Conscious mind :The part of the mind where our current thinking
and objects of attention take place. The conscious mind has
relatively small capacity for storage of information in its memory.
This memory can be categorized as immediate memory, lasting only
milliseconds, and working memory lasting about a minute.
Preconscious mind : The long-term memory, lasting anywhere
from about an hour to several years. This is a vast storehouse of
information, ideas, and relationships based on past experience and
education. While things stored here are not in the conscious, they
can be readily brought into the conscious mind.

Subconscious mind : The content of this

mind level is out of reach of the conscious
mind. Thus, the subconscious acts
independently of the conscious mind. It may
distort the relation of the conscious and
preconscious through its control of symbols
and the generation of bias.
Freud developed his model to
explain personality types and their behaviors
based on his own training, experience, and
beliefs about cognition. Freuds work led to
the important conclusion that much behavior
is driven directly from the subconscious
mind, and these actions cannot be controlled
by the conscious mind.

Nobel Prize winner Roger Sperry studied the relationships between

the brains right and left hemispheres
Thinking that utilizes the left hemisphere of the brain is called
critical or convergent thinking. Other terms for left-brained
thinking are analytic or vertical thinking
Thinking that utilizes the right hemisphere of the brain is called
creative or divergent thinking. Other terms for right-brained
thinking are associative or lateral thinking
Study of the brain physiology has revealed that there are
connections between the two hemispheres of the brain and within
the same hemisphere
In general, women appear to have a higher number of these cross
connections, and this difference is noted as one explanation for
womens higher capacity for multitasking.

Researchers like Herrmann have developed a means of

characterizing how individuals think according to the preference
with which they seem to access different areas of the brain
Herrmanns instrument is a standardized test, the Herrmann Brain
Dominance Instrument (HBDI).
It is similar in nature to the Kolb Learning Style Inventory or the
MBTI personality classification instruments. Using tests like these,
engineers often test as being as left-brained, preferring to think in
logical, linear, and convergent ways.
The brain-dominance model of thinking seems to fall short of giving
concrete steps that one can follow to think up a creative idea when it
is needed. However with study and practice, there is no reason that
you cannot become facile with using both sides of your brain

In todays world, it is natural to compare the workings of the brain

to those of a computer. For example, like the computer, the brain has
different types of memory storage (short term and long term).
The brain stores information according to a scheme of categories or
classes and uses those memory structures to retrieve information
when queried
The human brain can picture or grasp only about seven or eight
things at any instant. Thus, the mind can be characterized as a
device with extremely low information-processing capacity
combined with a vast subliminal store of information.
It is impossible to connect with the information stored in the
preconscious mind. Thus, an important step in problem solving is to
study the problem from all angles and in as many ways as possible
to understand it completely.

Most problems studied in that way contain more than the seven or
eight elements that the mind can visualize at one time.
Thus, the elements of the problem must be chunked together until
the chunks are small enough in number to be conceptualized
simultaneously.
Decomposition of a creative task is a strategy found in many
methods for design such as functional decomposition
Humans are prone to using heuristics and mental models extracted
from similar past experiences.
Association is the practice of organizing new information by
categorizing it or relating it to things that are already known. These
association paths can be traveled again when searching memory.
Unique Association is seen in a brainstorming session and
associationism is another creativity enhancement method .

Creativity is a characteristic of a person that is assigned based on

what the person does.
Then the creativity question becomes, How can some people use
their brains to be more creative than others? A group of researchers
in the sciences named the successful use of thought processes and
existing knowledge to produce creative ideas creative cognition.
creative thinking can be accomplished by deliberate use of
particular techniques, methods, or in the case of computational
tools, software programs
The study of creativity usually focuses on both the creator and the
created object.

Creative thinkers are distinguished by their ability to synthesize new

combinations of ideas and concepts into meaningful and useful
forms.
A creative engineer is one who produces lot of ideas can be
completely original ideas inspired by a discovery. More often,
creative ideas result from putting existing ideas together in novel
ways.
There is the popular myth that creative ideas arrive with flash-like
spontaneitythe flash of lightning and clap of thunder routine.
Students of the creative process assure us that most ideas occur by a
slow, deliberate process that can be cultivated and enhanced with
study and practice.

A characteristic of the creative process is that initially the idea is

only imperfectly understood
The creative process can be viewed as moving from an amorphous
idea to a well-structured idea, from the chaotic to the organized.
We need also to recognize that the flow of creative ideas cannot be
turned on upon command
Therefore, we need to recognize the conditions and situations that
are most conducive to creative thought.

Develop a creative attitude

Unlock your imagination
Be persistent
Develop an open mind
Suspend your judgment
Set problem boundaries

Some psychologists describe the creative thinking process and

problem solving in terms of a simple four-stage model.
Preparation (stage 1): The elements of the problem are examined
and their interrelations are studied.
Incubation (stage 2): You sleep on the problem. Sleep disengages
your conscious mind, allowing the unconscious mind to work on a
problem freely.
Inspiration (stage 3): A solution or a path toward the solution
emerges.
Verification (stage 4): The inspired solution is checked against the
desired result.

Before we look at formal methods of enhancing creativity, it is

important for you to understand how mental blocks interfere with
creative thinking.
A mental block is an event that inhibits the successful use of normal
cognitive processes to come to a solution.

Perceptual Blocks
Stereotyping :Thinking conventionally or in a formulaic way
about an event, person, or way of doing something and not
thinking out of the box.
Information overload :You become so overloaded with minute
details that you are unable to sort out the critical aspects of the
problem.
Limiting the problem unnecessarily : Broad statements of the
problem help keep the mind open to a wider range of ideas.

Fixation: Peoples thinking can be influenced so greatly by

their previous experience or some other bias that they are not
able to sufficiently recognize alternative ideas.
Priming or provision of cues:If the thinking process is started
by giving examples or solution cues, it is possible for thinking
to stay within the realm of solutions suggested by those initial
starting points. This is known as the conformity effect.
Emotional Blocks:
These are obstacles that are concerned with the psychological
safety of the individual. They reduce the freedom with which you
can explore and manipulate ideas.
Fear of risk taking: This is the fear of proposing an idea that is
ultimately found to be faulty. This is inbred in us by the
educational process.
Unease with chaos : People in general, and many engineers in
particular, are uncomfortable with highly unstructured situations

Unable or unwilling to incubate new ideas : In our busy lives,

we often dont take the time to let ideas lie dormant so they can
incubate properly. It is important to allow enough time for ideas
to incubate before evaluation of the ideas takes place.
Motivation: People differ considerably in their motivation to seek
creative solutions to challenging problems.
Cultural Blocks:
People acquire a set of thought patterns from living in a culture
Certain industries are tradition bound and are reluctant to change,
even in the face of decreasing profitability.
Countries even differ in their attitudes toward creative problem
solutions. This can be traced to differences in political and
educational systems, and business culture

Intellectual Blocks
Intellectual blocks arise from a poor choice of the problemsolving strategy or having inadequate background and knowledge.
Poor choice of problem-solving language or problem
representation
Memory block
Insufficient knowledge base
Incorrect information
Environmental Blocks
Physical environment
Criticism

Improving creativity is a popular endeavor. Creative

methods are aimed to improve

Sensitivity: The ability to recognize that a problem exists

Fluency: The ability to produce a large number of alternative
solutions to a problem
Flexibility: The ability to develop a wide range of approaches to a
problem
Originality: The ability to produce original solutions to a problem

Brainstorming

Brainstorming is the most common method used by design teams

for generating ideas.
This method was developed by Alex Osborn to stimulate creative
magazine advertisements, but it has been widely adopted in other
areas such as design
Brainstorming is a carefully orchestrated process. It makes use of
the broad experience and knowledge of groups of individuals.
The brainstorming process is structured to overcome many of the
mental blocks.
A well-done brainstorming session is an enthusiastic session of
rapid, free- flowing ideas.
Brainstorming is used for generating ideas for design concepts in
conceptual design.
In doing this the best approach is to think of all the possible
limitations or shortcomings of the product, in what might be
termed reverse brainstorming

 One way to help the brainstorming process is to break up the

normal thought pattern by using a checklist to help develop new
ideas.
SCAMPER checklist is used as a stimulant when the flow of ideas
begins to fall off during the brainstorming activity.

Idea Generating Techniques Beyond Brainstorming:

This section presents simple methods that address other mental
blocks to creativity
These methods consist of prompting new thinking or blocked
thinking by providing questions that lead team members to
considered new perspectives on a problem or creative task

Checklists
Checklists of various types often are used to help stimulate
creative thoughts. Osborn was the first to suggest this method.

Fantasy or Wishful Thinking

A strong block to creativity is the minds tenacious grip on reality.
One way to stimulate creativity is to entice the mind to think in a
flight of fancy, in the hope of bringing out really creative ideas.

Random Input Technique

Edward de Bono is a long-time developer of creativity methods
He stresses the importance of thought patterns, and he coined the
term lateral thinking for the act of cutting across thought patterns.
One of the key tenets of lateral thinking is the concept that an act
of provocation is needed to make the brain switch from one
pattern of thought to another

The provocative event interrupts the current thinking process by

introducing a new problem representation, providing a new probe
for a memory search, or leading to a restructuring of the solution
plan.
Ideas can be stimulated by reading technical journals in fields
other than your own, or by attending technical meetings and trade
shows in fields far from your own.
Synectics: An Inventive Method Based on Analogy
The designer recognizes the similarity between the design under
study and a previously solved problem.Whether it is a creative
solution depends on the degree to which the analogy leads to a
new and different design
The method proposed by the group for improving creativity was
called Synectics

 It assumes that the psychological components of the creative

processes are more important in generating new and inventive
ideas than the intellectual processes.
Synectics is a formalized process led by a highly trained
facilitator that proceeds in stages
First Step - Understand the problem
Second Step - Searches for creative solutions based on
four types of analogies
The objective is to distance your mind from the problem using
analogies, and then to couple them with the problem in the last
phase of Synectics.
Direct analogy: The designer searches for the closest physical
analogy to the situation at hand. This is a common approach that we
have all used at one time or another.
Fantasy analogy : The designer disregards all problem limitations and
laws of nature, physics, or reason. Instead, the designer imagines or
wishes for the perfect solution to a problem.

 Personal analogy : The designer imagines that he or she is the device

being designed,associating his or her body with the device or the
process under consideration.
Symbolic analogy : This is perhaps the least intuitive of the
approaches. Using symbolic analogy the designer replaces the
specifics of the problem with symbols and then uses manipulation of
the symbols to discover solutions to the original problem.

Concept Map
A very useful tool for the generation of ideas by association, and
for organizing information in preparation for writing a report, is
the concept map and its close relation the mind map.
A concept map is good for generating and recording ideas during
brainstorming
Because it is a visual method instead of a verbal one, it
encourages left brained thinking

Exercise Can Improve Your Creativity

Ambient Noise Levels Are Best For Creativity
Travelling Might Improve Your Creative Thinking
Blue And Green Can Improve Your Performance On Creative
Tasks
Sometimes Constraints Can Be Beneficial To Creative Work
A Separate Workspace Can Improve Your Creativity
Being Sleepy Can Make You More Creative