Science and Technology Production
Training to Generate Creative Metaphors by Reviving Dormant Analogies

Article

Authorship
TRENCH, JUAN MAXIMO ; RICARDO MINERVINO
Date
2015
Publishing House and Editing Place
Routledge/Taylor & Francis
Magazine
CREATIVITY RESEARCH JOURNAL, vol. 27 (pp. 188-197) Routledge/Taylor & Francis
Summary Information provided by the agent in SIGEVA
Most creativity techniques encourage breaking away from stored knowledge and known solutions. Counter to this approach, the present study assessed the effectiveness of an intervention based on introducing minimal variations to well-established knowledge structures. Participants of two groups were tasked with generating creative metaphorical titles for short essays. While the experimental group had been trained in extending and reinstantiating conceptual metaphors (Lakoff & Turner, 1989), th... Most creativity techniques encourage breaking away from stored knowledge and known solutions. Counter to this approach, the present study assessed the effectiveness of an intervention based on introducing minimal variations to well-established knowledge structures. Participants of two groups were tasked with generating creative metaphorical titles for short essays. While the experimental group had been trained in extending and reinstantiating conceptual metaphors (Lakoff & Turner, 1989), the control group had been trained on creativity techniques unrelated to the task. Training increased the number of novel metaphorical titles derived from conceptual metaphors, and these titles were more creative than novel metaphorical titles not derived from conceptual metaphors. Finally, the titles generated via the deliberate use of the trained heuristics were as creative as those of the same type that were spontaneously produced by the control group. The implications of these results for interventions to promote creativity are discussed.
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Key Words
ANALOGYCONCEPTUAL METAPHORCREATIVITYTRAINING