Four Mental Operations in Creative Cognition: The Importance of Abstraction

ABSTRACT In reviewing existing theories of creativity, 4 mental operations seem to account for creative cognition: application, analogy, combination, and abstraction. The defining characteristics and the resulting products of these 4 operations are discussed and broad implications for understanding cultural movements, such as surrealism and renaissance, and scientific revolutions, such relativity theory, are explored. These operations form an ordinal scale of innovation, but are not predictive of the impact or success of the creative product. The abstraction operation is stressed, having been relatively neglected in the literature on creative cognition. Careful distinction between these 4 operations may shed new light on the sudden-gradual and special–ordinary controversies that exist in the field. Further, the often-used insight problem methodology is insufficient for studying the full range of creative operations. Examples of a more adequate methodology are provided.