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An entropy modulation theory of creative exploration
Thomas T Hills1, Yoed N Kenett2
1Department of Psychology, University of Warwick.
Psychological Review
|September 19, 2024
Summary
Higher creative individuals exhibit faster-and-further phenomenology by executive modulation of entropy during cognitive search. This entropy modulation theory integrates cognitive structure and executive process accounts of creativity.
Area of Science:
- Cognitive Psychology
- Neuroscience
- Creativity Research
Background:
- Higher creative individuals demonstrate faster-and-further phenomenology, producing ideas more quickly and with greater novelty.
- Traditional explanations involve associative theories (cognitive representation structure) or executive theories (cognitive control).
- Existing theories struggle to formally explain the faster-and-further phenomenology.
Purpose of the Study:
- Introduce entropy modulation theory to integrate structure and process-based creativity accounts.
- Provide a formal process model for how executive abilities contribute to creativity.
- Explain the faster-and-further phenomenology through executive modulation of cognitive entropy.
Main Methods:
- Review and integrate existing evidence from creativity research.
- Propose a theoretical framework: entropy modulation theory.
- Model cognitive search, specifically memory retrieval, using activation dynamics.
Main Results:
- Entropy modulation theory posits that differences in creativity lie in executive modulation of entropy during cognitive search.
- Activation magnitude and variance enhance retrieval entropy and speed, reproducing faster-and-further phenomenology.
- Apparent differences in semantic structure can arise from entropy-modulating retrieval processes.
Conclusions:
- Entropy modulation theory offers a unified account of creativity, integrating structural and process-based factors.
- Executive modulation of cognitive entropy is key to cognitive flexibility and the exploration-exploitation trade-off in creative cognition.
- This framework provides a novel explanation for the cognitive mechanisms underlying enhanced creativity.
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