Hostname: page-component-76fb5796d-25wd4 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-04-27T01:01:24.563Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Is considering true possibilities a truly explanatory principle for imaginative thought?

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  06 March 2008

Thomas B. Ward
Thomas B. Ward
Affiliation:
Department of Psychology, University of Alabama, Tuscaloosa, AL 35487. tward@bama.ua.eduhttp://bama.ua.edu/~tward
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

Byrne (2005) demonstrates that reasoning and imagination are logical and governed by the same processing principles. In extending those principles to other forms of imaginative functioning, however, problems arise. The meaning of “true possibility” is stretched, and the causal role of the principles is not well established. Nevertheless, consideration of the extent to which ordinary cognitive processes govern creative functioning is valuable.

Type
Open Peer Commentary
Information
Behavioral and Brain Sciences , Volume 30 , Issue 5-6 , December 2007 , pp. 468 - 469
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2008

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Bock, J. & Clifton, C. (2000) The role of salience in conceptual combination. Memory and Cognition 28:1378–86.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Byrne, R. M. J. (2005) The rational imagination: How people create alternatives to reality MIT Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Costello, F. J. & Keane, M. T. (2000) Efficient creativity: Constraint-guided conceptual combination. Cognitive Science 24:299–349.Google Scholar
Costello, F. J. & Keane, M. T. (2001) Testing two theories of conceptual combination: Alignment and diagnosticity in the comprehension and production of combined concepts. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Learning, Memory, and Cognition 27:255–71.Google ScholarPubMed
Donaldson, S. R. (1991) The gap into conflict: The real story Bantam.Google Scholar
Estes, Z. (2003) A tale of two similarities: Comparison and integration in conceptual combination. Cognitive Science: A Multidisciplinary Journal 27:911–21.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Finke, R. A., Ward, T. B. & Smith, S. M. (1992) Creative cognition: Theory, research and applications MIT Press.Google Scholar
Gagné, C. (2000) Relation-based combinations versus property-based combinations: A test of the CARIN theory and the dual-process theory of conceptual combination. Journal of Memory and Language 42:365–89.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Gagné, C., Spalding, T. & Ji, H. (2005) Re-examining evidence for the use of independent relational representations during conceptual combination. Journal of Memory and Language 53:445–55.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Murphy, G. & Wisniewski, E. (2006) Familiarity and plausibility in conceptual combination: Reply to Gagné and Spalding (2006) Journal of Experimental Psychology: Learning, Memory, and Cognition 32:1438–42.Google Scholar
Rothenberg, A. (1979) The emerging goddess University of Chicago Press.Google Scholar
Scott, G., Lonergan, D. & Mumford, M. (2005) Conceptual combination: Alternative knowledge structures, alternative heuristics. Creativity Research Journal 17:79–98.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Sternberg, R. J. & Lubart, T. I. (1996) Investing in creativity. American Psychologist 51:677–88.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Sternberg, R. J. & Lubart, T. I. (1999) The concept of creativity: Prospects and paradigms. In: Handbook of creativity, ed. Sternberg, R. J., pp. 3–15. Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Thagard, P. (1984) Conceptual combination and scientific discovery. In: Philosophy of Science Association (PSA), vol. 1, ed. Asquith, P. & Kitcher, P.. Philosophy of Science Association.Google Scholar
Ward, T. B. (1994) Structured imagination: The role of category structure in exemplar generation. Cognitive Psychology 27:1–40.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Ward, T. B. (2001) Creative cognition, conceptual combination, and the creative writing of Stephen R. Donaldson. American Psychologist 56:350–54.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Ward, T. B., Patterson, M. J., Sifonis, C. M., Dodds, R. A. & Saunders, K. N. (2002) The role of graded category structure in imaginative thought. Memory & Cognition 30:199–216.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Ward, T. B., Smith, S. M. & Finke, R. A. (1999) Creative cognition. In: Handbook of creativity, ed. Sternberg, R. J.. Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Wilkenfeld, M. & Ward, T. (2001) Similarity and emergence in conceptual combination. Journal of Memory and Language 45:21–38.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Wisniewski, E. (1997) When concepts combine. Psychonomic Bulletin and Review 4:167–83.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Wisniewski, E. & Love, B. (1998) Relations versus properties in conceptual combination. Journal of Memory and Language 38:177–202.CrossRefGoogle Scholar