The Emergence of Novel Attributes in Concept Modification

Abstract

: An important source of creativity in concept combination is emergence: Novel features are often attributed to a concept combination that are not attributed to either of its constituent concepts. For instance, a Harvard-educated carpenter is judged to be nonmaterialistic, though neither Harvard-educated people nor carpenters in general are thought to be nonmaterialistic. Emergent attributes may thus be considered creative in that they are novel to the combination. This investigation examined 2 linguistic factors believed to promote such emergence. The relevance and typicality of modifiers were inversely related to the emergence of novel attributes, such that irrelevant and atypical modifications increased emergence. Antonymous and anomalous combinations produced the most emergent attributes. The cognitive mechanisms by which novel attributes emerge, and their relation to creative cognition, are discussed.

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