Understanding the Creative Mind

We review Margaret Boden's book The Creative Mind, an excellent survey and synthesis of current computational theories of creativity. Boden's stated goal is to explain how creativity (as a psychological phenomenon) is possible, where an explanation of possibility is taken to be a computational process. Although Boden does not deliver a full-edged computational explanation and leaves most details of the underlying processes unexplicated, she provides a strong argument that such an explanation is possible. As part of our critique, we sketch our preferred (case-based) framework for model-ing creativity, in which much of mental life depends on the retrieval and manipulation of past experiences. We focus on ve major innuences on cognition (and thus on creativity): inference, knowledge, task, situation, and strategic control. We also highlight \constructive modeling" which integrates analogical reasoning with visual reasoning and thought experimentation. Our framework, while broadly compatible with Boden's, is more speciic in its suggestions for integrating multiple types of interacting and interactive processes. We emphasize issues of control and the role of experience. By focusing on how mental activity is directed towards a task in some situation, we ensure that the resulting theory addresses pragmatic issues in thinking and control of thinking. In addition, a shorter review of Boden's book by the same authors will appear in the journal Behavioral and Brain Sciences.