The Imagery‐Creativity Connection

Abstract

Abstract This paper reviews historical and contemporary highlights of the role of imagery in creativity. Plato linked imagery to memory, while Aristotle felt images provided substance for thought. Simonides and renaissance philosophers recognized imagery as a useful memory aid. Imagery was replaced by a focus on words in both the Protestant Reformation period and behavioristic psychology. Imagery appears in the theories of Freud, Jung, Piaget, Guilford, and Gardner; the prescriptions of educators Pestalozzi and Montessori; and contemporary cognitive psychology. Quotes from Beethoven, Einstein, and others confirm their imagery in all sensory modes and often cross‐modal imagery. Recent creativity models emphasize voluntary (executive) and involuntary control of imagery, including decoupling of perceptual mechanisms. Creativity techniques and imagery exercises seem to aid creative thinking. Our common‐sense and dictionary definitions of creativity include the concept of imagination, the ability to form a mental image of something not present. Anecdotal reminiscences by Einstein, Beethoven, and other eminent innovators confirm the obvious — that mental imagery and creativity are related intimately. For example, creative writing has been conceived as creating images based on memories and/or current experiences and combining and synthesizing them in novel ways. The writing is described as a recursive process of moving back and forth between these representations and the prose itself (Flower & Hayes, 1984; Long & Hiebert, 1985). Despite the self‐evident general connection, a debate continues in education and psychology regarding the precise role that imagery plays in learning, thought, and creativity. For example, Forisha (1978, p. 209) noted that “we have tended to ignore the variability and complexity of imagery — as well as the varieties of creativity — and thus have only skirted the complexities and multiplicities of the interrelationships.” In this report we will review some historical highlights of the imagery‐creativity connection, including early and contemporary accounts, along with some notable examples of imagery in the creative process. We also will look at cross‐modal imagery (synesthesia); a model of image‐based creativity and the creative process; and some implications for strengthening creativity by fostering imagination.

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