Divergent Perception: Framing Creative Cognition Through the Lens of Sensory Flexibility
Antoine Bellemare, Karim Jerbi
The Journal of Creative Behavior December 24, 2024 Peer reviewed DOI: 10.1002/jocb.1525 via OpenAlex
Summary
Perceptual processing, particularly through perceptual flexibility, plays a significant role in fostering creativity. The concept of 'divergent perception' is introduced, highlighting how individuals utilize ambiguous sensory information to generate novel ideas. This framework connects creativity with sensory affordances and discusses the phenomenon of pareidolia as a key mechanism in idea generation. The study also examines how divergent perception relates to cognitive processes in creative thinking and suggests future research directions.
Study at a glance
| Key finding | The study introduces 'divergent perception' as a process by which individuals engage with ambiguous sensory information to enhance creativity. |
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Abstract
ABSTRACT Creativity is a cornerstone of human evolution and is typically defined as the multifaceted ability to produce novel and useful artifacts. Although much research has focused on divergent thinking, growing evidence underscores the importance of perceptual processing in fostering creativity, particularly through perceptual flexibility. The present work aims to offer a framework that relates creativity to perception, showing how sensory affordances, especially in ambiguous stimuli, can contribute to the generation of novel ideas. In doing so, we contextualize the phenomenon of pareidolia, which involves seeing familiar patterns in noisy or ambiguous stimuli, as a key perceptual mechanism of idea generation—one of the central stages of the creative process. We introduce “divergent perception” to describe the process by which individuals actively engage with the perceptual affordances provided by ambiguous sensory information, and illustrate how this concept could account for the heightened creativity observed in psychedelic and psychotic states. Moreover, we explore how divergent perception relates to cognitive mechanisms crucial in creative thinking, particularly focusing on the role of attention. Finally, we discuss future paths for the exploration of divergent perception, including targeted manipulation of stimulus characteristics and the investigation of the intricate interplay between bottom‐up and top‐down cognitive processes.