Embodied metaphors and creative "acts"

Creativity is a highly sought-after skill. Prescriptive advice for inspiring creativity abounds in the form of metaphors: People are encouraged to “think outside the box,” to consider a problem “on one hand, then on the other hand,” and to “put two and two together” to achieve creative breakthroughs...

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Main Authors: Kim, Suntae, Polman, Evan, Qiu, Lin, Sanchez-Burks, Jeffrey, Ong, Lay See, Goncalo, Jack A., Leung, Angela K.-y.
Other Authors: School of Humanities and Social Sciences
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: 2013
Online Access:https://hdl.handle.net/10356/97977
http://hdl.handle.net/10220/12275
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Institution: Nanyang Technological University
Language: English
id sg-ntu-dr.10356-97977
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spelling sg-ntu-dr.10356-979772020-03-07T12:10:40Z Embodied metaphors and creative "acts" Kim, Suntae Polman, Evan Qiu, Lin Sanchez-Burks, Jeffrey Ong, Lay See Goncalo, Jack A. Leung, Angela K.-y. School of Humanities and Social Sciences Creativity is a highly sought-after skill. Prescriptive advice for inspiring creativity abounds in the form of metaphors: People are encouraged to “think outside the box,” to consider a problem “on one hand, then on the other hand,” and to “put two and two together” to achieve creative breakthroughs. These metaphors suggest a connection between concrete bodily experiences and creative cognition. Inspired by recent advances in the understanding of body-mind linkages in the research on embodied cognition, we explored whether enacting metaphors for creativity enhances creative problem solving. Our findings from five studies revealed that both physical and psychological embodiment of metaphors for creativity promoted convergent thinking and divergent thinking (i.e., fluency, flexibility, or originality) in problem solving. Going beyond prior research, which focused primarily on the kind of embodiment that primes preexisting knowledge, we provide the first evidence that embodiment can also activate cognitive processes that facilitate the generation of new ideas and connections. 2013-07-25T07:35:09Z 2019-12-06T19:48:58Z 2013-07-25T07:35:09Z 2019-12-06T19:48:58Z 2012 2012 Journal Article Leung, A. K.-y., Kim, S., Polman, E., Ong, L. S., Qiu, L., Goncalo, J. A., et al. (2012). Embodied metaphors and creative "acts". Psychological science, 23(5), 502-509. https://hdl.handle.net/10356/97977 http://hdl.handle.net/10220/12275 10.1177/0956797611429801 en Psychological science © 2012 The Authors.
institution Nanyang Technological University
building NTU Library
country Singapore
collection DR-NTU
language English
description Creativity is a highly sought-after skill. Prescriptive advice for inspiring creativity abounds in the form of metaphors: People are encouraged to “think outside the box,” to consider a problem “on one hand, then on the other hand,” and to “put two and two together” to achieve creative breakthroughs. These metaphors suggest a connection between concrete bodily experiences and creative cognition. Inspired by recent advances in the understanding of body-mind linkages in the research on embodied cognition, we explored whether enacting metaphors for creativity enhances creative problem solving. Our findings from five studies revealed that both physical and psychological embodiment of metaphors for creativity promoted convergent thinking and divergent thinking (i.e., fluency, flexibility, or originality) in problem solving. Going beyond prior research, which focused primarily on the kind of embodiment that primes preexisting knowledge, we provide the first evidence that embodiment can also activate cognitive processes that facilitate the generation of new ideas and connections.
author2 School of Humanities and Social Sciences
author_facet School of Humanities and Social Sciences
Kim, Suntae
Polman, Evan
Qiu, Lin
Sanchez-Burks, Jeffrey
Ong, Lay See
Goncalo, Jack A.
Leung, Angela K.-y.
format Article
author Kim, Suntae
Polman, Evan
Qiu, Lin
Sanchez-Burks, Jeffrey
Ong, Lay See
Goncalo, Jack A.
Leung, Angela K.-y.
spellingShingle Kim, Suntae
Polman, Evan
Qiu, Lin
Sanchez-Burks, Jeffrey
Ong, Lay See
Goncalo, Jack A.
Leung, Angela K.-y.
Embodied metaphors and creative "acts"
author_sort Kim, Suntae
title Embodied metaphors and creative "acts"
title_short Embodied metaphors and creative "acts"
title_full Embodied metaphors and creative "acts"
title_fullStr Embodied metaphors and creative "acts"
title_full_unstemmed Embodied metaphors and creative "acts"
title_sort embodied metaphors and creative "acts"
publishDate 2013
url https://hdl.handle.net/10356/97977
http://hdl.handle.net/10220/12275
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