Metacognition, Mind Wandering, and Cognitive Flexibility: Understanding Creativity

Abstract

The goal of this article is to review work on mind wandering, metacognition and creativity in order to consider their relationship with cognitive flexibility. I introduce a model of the role that mind wandering and metacognition have in the generation and exploration of novel ideas and products in the creative process. I argue that managing the interaction between metacognition and mind wandering is the main role of cognitive flexibility in creativity. Furthermore, I claim that balancing the influence of metacognition during the generation and exploration of pre-inventive structures is a quintessential part of creativity, probably in almost any domain. Thus, I advance a general framework that can be applied to understanding how creators monitor and think about their own cognition when they engage in the generation and exploration of ideas. Additionally, I discuss the evolution of controlled and spontaneous cognition and metacognitive judgements during the development of a creative person.

Age-related differences in creative cognition: The mediating role of executive functions and associative processes.

“…Other authors also highlight the importance of controlled and spontaneous processes, and how the trade-offs between the two forms of processing may explain age-related differences in creativity. For example, Preiss (2022) proposed that controlled cognition becomes more influential as creativity develops. Thus, the second objective of this study was to determine to what extent possible age-related changes in both types of creativity are mediated by changes in executive functioning and associative processing.…”

Measuring flexibility: A text-mining approach

“…Operationalized as shifting or switching in the process of ideation (Torrance, 1974;Yu et al, 2019;Preiss, 2022) or the number of unique categories to which ideas belong (Guilford, 1975;Runco, 1986a;Runco and Okuda, 1991;Runco, 2013;Johnson et al, 2021).…”

“…For the last century, psychologists have emphasized the importance of cognitive flexibility in creative thinking. Flexibility of thought is a metacognitive process related to shifting in thinking and alternating between controlled and spontaneous cognitive processes ( Yu et al, 2019 ; Preiss, 2022 ). Shifting between different processes is central to creative idea generation and has been compared to mindful mind wandering ( Martindale, 1999 ; Preiss and Cosmelli, 2017 ; Murray et al, 2021 ).…”

“…In this context, flexibility is operationalized as the number of unique categories to which ideas belong ( Guilford, 1975 ; Runco, 1986a ; Runco and Okuda, 1991 ; Runco, 2013 ; Johnson et al, 2021 ). An alternate view of flexibility has focused on the shifting or switching in the process of ideation ( Torrance, 1974 ; Yu et al, 2019 ; Preiss, 2022 ).…”

Metacognitive Feelings as a Source of Information for the Creative Process: A Conceptual Exploration

“…The examination of metacognition is an exciting field of inquiry with multiple contributions from meta-memory (e.g., Dunlosky and Metcalfe 2009 ; Koriat 2012 ), meta-reasoning (e.g., Ackerman and Thompson 2017 ), decision-making (e.g., Evans 2020 ; Stanovich 2011 ), social psychology (e.g., Schwarz 2018 ), educational psychology ( Moshman 2015 ; Preiss 2022 ; Tarricone 2011 ), and creativity ( Beghetto and Madison 2022 ; Kaufman and Beghetto 2013 ; Karwowski et al 2020 ). As is often the case, when there is widespread excitement, there is also confusion as to what metacognition is, its main components, and its utility as a construct (see Kuhn 2022 for a recent discussion).…”