Creativity & Decision-Making (College Board AP® Psychology): Revision Note

Decision-making is the process of selecting a course of action from among multiple options

• It is influenced by both the context in which choices are presented and prior experiences

Several factors influence how decisions are made:

• Framing: the way a problem or question is presented can significantly alter the decision made, even when the objective information is identical

  • E.g. people are more likely to choose a medical procedure described as having a "90% survival rate" than one described as having a "10% mortality rate", even though the information is the same

• Priming: exposure to one stimulus influences the response to a subsequent stimulus, often without conscious awareness

  • E.g. seeing the word "yellow" makes you slightly faster to recognize the word "banana" because the two concepts are closely linked in memory

• Mental set: past successful experiences can predispose a person toward a particular solution or approach, even when it is not the most appropriate option in the current situation

Two cognitive fallacies that lead to poor decision-making:

• Gambler's fallacy: the mistaken belief that a random event is more or less likely to occur based on the results of previous independent events

  • E.g. believing that after a coin lands heads ten times in a row, tails is "due." In reality each flip is independent and the probability remains 50/50

• Sunk-cost fallacy: the tendency to continue investing time, money, or effort into something because of resources already spent, even when continuing is not the rational choice

  • E.g. continuing to sit through a terrible film at the cinema because you paid for the ticket

Overcoming these biases and fallacies requires executive functions

• Executive functions are cognitive processes that allow individuals to generate, organize, plan, and carry out goal-directed behaviors and critical thinking

  • E.g. planning a revision schedule, switching between tasks, and inhibiting impulsive responses all require executive function

• The prefrontal cortex is primarily involved in executive functions

Creativity is a way of thinking that involves generating novel, original ideas that are both new and appropriate or useful in a given context

Two types of thinking underpin problem-solving and creativity:

• Convergent thinking: systematic, logical, and focused thinking that works toward a single correct answer

  • E.g. solving a math problem or answering a multiple-choice question requires convergent thinking

• Divergent thinking: thinking that generates multiple possible answers or solutions by exploring many different directions simultaneously. It is more closely associated with creativity

  • E.g., brainstorming as many uses as possible for a paperclip is an example of divergent thinking

Functional fixedness is a key obstacle to creative thinking

• This is the inability to see objects or ideas beyond their conventional use, which limits the generation of novel solutions

Creative people tend to share several characteristics:

• Extensive knowledge of their area of interest

• A willingness to challenge conventional rules and expectations

• Intrinsic motivation, i.e. driven by the joy of creating rather than external rewards

  • E.g. Copernicus challenged the common belief that the Earth was the center of the solar system, demonstrating both deep knowledge and a willingness to nonconform