We asked Associate Professor Donna Rose Addis at the University’s Centre for Brain Research to explain why people might be at their most creative while taking a shower. Donna Rose is a cognitive neuroscientist specialising in the neural networks mediating memory and future thinking, using both neuroimaging and neuropsychological approaches. This is what she told us:
“When we are engaged in monotonous or routinised tasks, such as showering, our minds are free to wander. We call this state the ‘default mode’, when spontaneous thought or mind-wandering is the most dominant form of cognition. Often our minds turn to memories or future plans, or problems we are working on. The brain network most engaged when we are in the default mode of thought is that which underpins the ability to generate new ideas and connect disparate pieces of information from memory, something known as divergent creative thinking. This means that when showering, our brains are well placed to be creative, and ideas and solutions often come to mind.”
Another important insight on the relationship between taking a shower and creative thinking comes from Professor Nancy Andreasen, who is to be our inaugural Creative Thinking Fellow. She points out that showering is the type of activity that features as part of the “incubation” period of creative thinking. This is the second in a four-stage process of creativity:
First stage: preparation – assembling basic skills, resources and information
Second stage: incubation – letting the idea germinate while doing something else – contemplating, walking, showering
Third stage: inspiration – the “a-ha” moment, when the creative spark strikes
Fourth stage: production – the application of skills and process to realise the creative vision, that spark or idea or insight that began the process.
Significantly, this process is much the same for all creative activities, from visual arts to science to theatre to engineering to literature to music to dance to entrepreneurship to innovation – and beyond.
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