A shared novelty-seeking basis for creativity and curiosity

Abstract

Curiosity and creativity are central pillars of human growth and invention. While they have been studied extensively in isolation, the relationship between them has not yet been established. We propose that curiosity and creativity both emanate from the same mechanism of novelty-seeking. We first present a synthesis showing that curiosity and creativity are affected similarly by a number of key cognitive faculties such as memory, cognitive control, attention, and reward. We then review empirical evidence from neuroscience research, indicating that the same brain regions are involved in both curiosity and creativity, focusing on the interplay between three major brain networks: the default-mode network, the salience network, and the executive control network. After substantiating the link between curiosity and creativity, we propose a novelty-seeking model (NSM) that underlies them both and suggest that the manifestation of the NSM is governed by one's state of mind (SoM).

Effects of environmental diversity on exploration and learning: The case of bilingualism.

“…It is also possible that variation in early attentional patterns links to learning styles and the emergence of novelty-related behaviors, such as curiosity and creativity. This in turn may be linked to personality and social factors (for a discussion, see Ivancovsky et al, 2023). Lastly, longitudinal studies would be instrumental in determining causal pathways between bilingual exposure, behavioral derivatives, and neural adaptations.…”

Experiencing more meaningful coincidences is associated with more real-life creativity? Insights from three empirical studies

“…A further target for future research is curiosity, described as the tendency to explore uncertain environments [71]. Following the proposed framework by Ivancovsky [71], curiosity is associated with increased creativity via novelty-seeking.…”

“…A further target for future research is curiosity, described as the tendency to explore uncertain environments [71]. Following the proposed framework by Ivancovsky [71], curiosity is associated with increased creativity via novelty-seeking. This might explain why people who perceive more meaning in randomness might also engage in more creative activities and show more creative achievements (see e.g., [34] for positive schizotypy).…”

A Wandering Mind is Not Always a Creative Mind: How Thought Dynamics Explain the Relationship between Mind Wandering and Creativity

“…Considering the thought context-that is, whether a person is engaged in a task at all, and whether the thought processes that led to a creative idea were related to that task-might therefore provide insight into how mind wandering supports creative thinking. Indeed, many studies have suggested that creativity can benefit from increased distance between thoughts, as evidenced by now-classical empirical evidence of the relationships of spreading activation (Mednick, 1962) and divergent thinking (Guilford, 1967) with creative potential, and more recently the positive effects of cognitive flexibility (e.g., Wu & Koutstaal, 2020) and exploration states (e.g., de Rooij et al, 2018;Ivancovsky, Baror, & Bar, 2023) on creativity. However, such previous research is typically done without controlling for thought context; that is, whether people are on task or whether their minds wander off task or not.…”