Effects of Prior Knowledge on Generative Tasks Essay -- Philosophy Cre

Effects of Prior Knowledge on Generative Tasks The creation of new ideas plays an important role in the growth of any society. Inventions such as the telephone and automobile have provided the tools for increased levels of communication and widened the access to information. While the modern generation may view these inventions as staples of our society, at the time of their conception they were viewed as revolutionary new concepts. Yet, were they truly revolutionary or were they an extension of prior knowledge? Large proportions of new ideas are based on the properties of an existing concept (Marsh, Ward, & Landau, 1999). Without the concept of the phonograph, for example, we may never have had the benefit of 8-tracks, audio cassettes, or compact discs. These creations, while separate in their levels of advancement, are all based on the initial notion of recorded sound. Researchers recognize the benefits of prior knowledge as adaptive to survival. The fact that humans are able to learn and apply information from previous experience assists in reasoning, problem solving, and comprehension of our environment (Smith, Ward, & Schumacher, 1993). Without the use of prior knowledge it would be impossible to advance cognitively. The benefits notwithstanding, the use of prior knowledge also has the potential of limiting, or constraining, the creative process (Marsh, Bink, & Hicks, 1999; Marsh, Landau, & Hicks, 1996; Marsh, Ward, et al., 1999; Smith, et al., 1993). The theoretical construct of structured imagination proposes that new ... ...iness that expects creative results from its associates. Society may believe an invention is truly revolutionary when, in fact, the creation is most likely a mere extension of a previous thought. References Marsh, R. L., Bink, M. L., & Hicks, J. L. (1999). Conceptual priming in a generative problem-solving task. Memory & Cognition, 27 (2), 355-363. Marsh, R. L., Landau, J. D., & Hicks, J. L. (1996). How examples may (and may not) constrain creativity. Memory & Cognition, 24 (3), 669-680. Marsh, R. L., Ward, T. B., & Landau, J. D. (1999). The inadvertent use of prior knowledge in a generative cognitive task. Memory & Cognition, 27 (1), 94-105. Smith, S. M., Ward, T. B., & Schumacher, J. S. (1993). Constraining effects of examples in a creative generation task. Memory & Cognition, 21 (6), 837-845.