Clues to Human Creativity

Creativity is one of the defining features of humanity. However, the mechanisms involved in the generation of novel and interesting ideas are not, at least from this perspective, extensively studied. Creativity as a property is easily (if subjectively) identified but notoriously hard to do define. One aspect on which most definitions agree is the necessity for domain knowledge: to be significantly creative in an area of endeavor, one needs knowledge of that area. Such a need entails the involvement of human memory and learning as a precursor to creative activity. In this chapter, the authors discuss the relationship between memory and creativity, looking at the potential for mathematical models and empirical study to elucidate the connections between them.