Creativity and the Paradox of Attention
“I like to wander. I like to let my mind go wherever it wants to go, and see what happens.”
Have you ever found yourself completely absorbed in a task, fully focused and attentive to what you are focusing on, only to have a sudden flash of inspiration that completely changes your approach? Or have you ever struggled to focus on a task, feeling your mind wander and become easily distracted, only to have a breakthrough moment of insight when you least expect it? If so, you've experienced firsthand the complex and multifaceted relationship between attention and creativity.
Creativity is often about dichotomies and finding balance, and the relationship between attention and creativity is complex and often paradoxical, as attention can both facilitate and hinder different types of creative thinking. On one end of the spectrum, having narrow and focused attention is necessary for solving well-defined problems, completing practical tasks, and executing creative visions, but it can also limit your ability to come up with new and creative ideas. On the end of the spectrum letting your mind wander and be flexible and open to new information can lead to new creative insights, but it can also make it harder to stay on track and focus on specific tasks. This paradox highlights the importance of finding the right balance between focus and flexibility in order to facilitate creative thinking, an intriguing insight that has fueled extensive research in the fields of psychology and neuroscience.
One main source of this paradox lies in creativity itself. Creativity, the ability to generate new and original ideas, products, or solutions to problems, requires two main types of thinking, convergent and divergent thinking. Divergent thinking underpins our ability to generate a wide range of creative ideas, while convergent thinking, unpins our ability to solve well-defined problems using existing knowledge and skills. Among many things, these two types of thinking are both crucial during differing phases of the creative process to help bring creative ideas into the world, but these distinct processes have vastly different cognitive mechanisms underpinning them.
Divergent thinking is associated with greater activity in the default mode network (DMN), which is a set of brain regions that are active when the brain is at rest or engaged in self-referential or creative thinking. This suggests that divergent thinking may be supported by a more diffuse and flexible attentional style. In fact, research has shown that individuals with higher scores on measures of divergent thinking tend to have more flexible and leaky attention, which allows for the integration of diverse and unrelated information.
Convergent thinking on the other hand is associated with greater activity in the executive control network (ECN), which is a set of brain regions involved in problem-solving and decision-making. This suggests that convergent thinking may be supported by a more focused and selective attentional style. However, some research has found convergent thinking may also be facilitated by a balance between focus and flexibility in attention.
To further explain these relationships, Darya Zabelina proposed the Model of Creativity and Attention (MOCA). This psychological model suggests that creativity benefits most from flexible and leaky attention. Flexible and leaky attention is characterized by a lack of focus and an ability to shift attention easily allowing for the integration of diverse and unrelated information that forms a rich foundation for the generation of novel and creative ideas.
The MOCA model is supported by research findings that show divergent thinking and insight-based creative thinking is linked to flexible attention that allows you to rapidly focus, and then inhibit and shift attentional focus quickly. While elaborative creative thinking and real-world creative achievements are more associated with leaky attention, indicating perceptual open-mindedness which may help individuals take in more information that may help spark creative ideas, when others may have discarded this information as irrelevant.
This propensity to not filter out or ignore irrelevant or redundant sensory input, is called lowered latent inhibition and has been repeatedly linked to individuals with more flexible and leaky attention as well as to higher levels of creativity. However, lowered latent inhibition requires individuals to have a high degree of cognitive control in order to not be overwhelmed by the excess of information. When excess information and sensory input is too high, individuals may be at risk for certain attention disorders and psychopathologies.
The interaction between creativity and attention is intricate and multifaceted, with both narrow and broad, flexible and leaky attention playing crucial roles in the creative process. By understanding how different patterns of attention influence creative thinking, we can better fine-tune our attentional style to facilitate our own creative endeavors. So don't be afraid to let your mind wander and embrace a more open and flexible attentional style－it just might spark your next great idea.
Further Reading
Mastria, S., Agnoli, S., Corazza, G. E., Grassi, M., & Franchin, L. (2022). What Inspires Us? An Experimental Analysis of the Semantic Meaning of Irrelevant Information in Creative Ideation. Thinking & Reasoning, 1-28. Peterson, J. B., Smith, K. W., & Carson, S. (2002). Openness and Extraversion are Associated with Reduced Latent Inhibition: Replication and commentary. Personality and Individual Differences, 33(7), 1137-1147. Zabelina, D. L. (2018). Attention and Creativity. In R. E. Jung & O. Vartanian (Eds.), The Cambridge Handbook of the Neuroscience of Creativity (1st ed., pp. 161-179). Cambridge University Press. Zabelina, D. L., & Beeman, M. (2016). Flexible or Leaky Attention in Creative People? Distinct Patterns of Attention for Different Types of Creative Thinking. Journal of Experimental Psychology: General, 145(6), 759-773.
About the Author
Kaile Smith is a creativity researcher, creative director, and Ph.D. student in New York City. Her research explores the dynamic relationships between creativity, inspiration, emotions, and well-being in everyday life.
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