Can you will yourself to be more creative?

By Alex Fradera Surely creativity is about freedom. Dropping your inhibitions – maybe with the help of a few substances – and letting ideas writhe free from the unconscious unfiltered. What to make then of the research showing that creativity is associated with higher levels of executive functioning – the mind’s suite of control processes – which seem to help by inhibiting irrelevant information and combining the rest in novel ways? Does it mean you can use this mental control to make yourself perform more creatively? According to a new study in Psychology of Aesthetics, Creativity, and the Arts involving jazz pianists the answer may depend in part on your creative experience. David Rosen and his team from Drexel University suspected that the need for conscious control may be more acute when creative people are still novices, referencing saxophonist Charlie Parker’s observation that “you’ve got to learn your instrument. Then, you practice, practice, practice. And then, when you finally get up there on the bandstand, forget all that and just wail.” To test this, the researchers recruited 22 mostly male jazz pianists using their number of completed professional gigs – as few as three and as many as 400 – as a measure of their creative expertise. After warming up at the keyboard, the musicians attempted to improvise a pre-recorded track “as you normally would in a jazz setting.” After the first take, they were given three more tries. Crucially, before...
Source: BPS RESEARCH DIGEST - Category: Psychiatry & Psychology Authors: Tags: Cognition Creativity Music Source Type: blogs