CREATIVITY FOR GOOD�(A PRESENTATION NOT ABOUT JAZZ)

Hannah M. Merseal

10.13.2021

PSU Cognitive Area Brownbag

OUTLINE

1. Why?
2. One problem: The state of sampling
3. Sonophilia and the Creativity Factbook
4. Measuring child creativity development with ootiboo
5. Cultural well-being, creativity, and the workforce
1. What can I contribute to these projects?
2. What can these projects contribute to me?

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WHY AM I DOING THIS?

TO BE BLUNT:

• It’s been a long year (or two years) (or four years).
• Academia is probably not for me.
• For the grads: this is fine.

ALL IS NOT LOST!

• Quite the opposite.

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• How to be a cool scientist and also promote social change?

SCIENCE AND POLICY

�"SCIENTISTS TEND TO STAY AWAY FROM POLITICS AND EVEN POLICY UNLESS IT DIRECTLY AFFECTS THEIR LIVELIHOOD” – RUSH HOLT JR. (D-NJ, AAAS & SCIENCE)

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HTTPS://WWW.AAAS.ORG/FOCUS-AREAS/SHAPING-SCIENCE-POLICY

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One problem: equity in human subjects research

• Sampling
• Reproducibility
• Outcomes beyond research
• Science communication

CREATIVITY AND DIVERSITY

• Recent dissertation by Jones (2021)
• BIPOC, LGBTQIA+, disabled individuals are underrepresented in creativity research due to sampling bias; identity frequently unreported
• Researchers themselves are largely White (68%) & male (60%)
• Creativity studied in capitalist contexts (work & education)
• Use of Western creativity constructs/metrics (e.g., divergent thinking) in non-Western contexts

WE NEED TO GET BETTER AT SAMPLING

• Not just a creativity issue ☹
• All fields that collect/harness data from human subjects
• Psychology (Reynolds, Altman, & Allen, 2021; Carter et al., 2019; Buchanan et al., 2021)
• Health data (Feldman et al., 2019; Ledford, 2019; Panch, Mattie, & Atun, 2019)
• Census data (Antonie et al., 2020; Rothbaum & Bee, 2021; Wang et al., 2019)
• Machine learning (Raji et al., 2020)

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SAMPLING CONT’D

• Studies in psychology are very WEIRD (Henrich, Heine, & Norenzayan, 2010).
• Research specifically studying BIPOC groups often requires a White comparison group (Buchanan et al., 2021).
• If we only conduct research on college students aged 18-22, we can only expect to replicate in college students aged 18-22.

SAMPLING CONT’D

• Our research has downstream consequences for policy decisions that impact historically marginalized groups (Halpern, 2013; Paxton & Tullet, 2019).
• AGAIN: If research is based on WEIRD college students aged 18-22, we can only expect to replicate in WEIRD college students aged 18-22 in the real world.
• This is an urgent problem requiring concrete action and work (Buchanan et al., 2021).
• It is easy to run subject pool studies; to solve this problem, we must do the work of sampling responsibly.

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ENTER SUMMER 2021

THE SONOPHILIA FOUNDATION

SONOPHILIA: �THE CREATIVITY FACTBOOK

“THE DEFAULT MODE NETWORK AND EXECUTIVE CONTROL NETWORKS OF THE BRAIN, WHICH ARE TYPICALLY ANTICORRELATED, ACT TOGETHER DURING DIVERGENT THINKING TO DIRECT THE SEARCH PROCESS TOWARDS BETTER, MORE NOVEL ASSOCIATIONS BETWEEN CONCEPTS.”

“CREATIVITY IS SUPPORTED IN THE BRAIN BY THE LINKING OF THE DEFAULT AND EXECUTIVE CONTROL NETWORKS - TWO SYSTEMS THAT DO NOT TYPICALLY WORK TOGETHER.

CREATIVE PEOPLE ARE GOOD AT CASTING A WIDE NET FOR IDEAS, THEN PICKING THE BEST ONES.”

Benedek et al., 2021

PARTNERING WITH SONOPHILIA

I give them:

• Scientific consulting (“what is good research?”)
• Translation of science writing into real person language
• Scientific credibility
• (the ability to put the word neuroscience on their website)

They give me:

• Networking!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
• Publishing a book I wrote
• Some money
• Help to highlight my work and draw attention to the bigger field

OOTIBOO: LARGE-SCALE ASSESSMENT OF CHILD CREATIVITY

• Creativity is a “21^st century skill”, included in PISA assessment
• After-school arts intervention program, estimated N > 10,000
• Primary school children aged 8-14
• Kent, London areas – heavily immigrant populations, many ESL students & disadvantaged families
• Creativity, grades, well-being, self-concept (among other things)

STEALTH ASSESSMENT & GAMIFICATION

OOTIBOO OPPORTUNITIES

BIG STUDY

This is important research; ootiboo is getting the expert scientific advice they need. We get to work on some cool research tools.

FUNDING

A reciprocal relationship in applying for funding, grants between the company and the research team.

REALLY COOL DATA

A really large, comprehensive dataset that will be made openly available to the SfNC community.

CULTURAL WELLBEING AND CREATIVITY

• Assessing inclusion and wellbeing via hope, trust, and belonging
• Intersection between creativity, cultural wellbeing, and identity construction
• US Chamber of Commerce study targeting small business owners located across the US
• Senator Hickenlooper?
• Creativity and the Workforce summit at CU Denver next summer
• Open dataset

SUMMARY

• You should really think about working with a non-profit
• Networking opportunities with interesting people/potential collaborators
• Enormous samples
• Diverse samples
• Feeling like you’re making a difference
• As graduate researchers and cognitive psychologists, we are very valuable to these orgs
• Writing
• Study design
• Communicating research in accessible ways

THANK YOU

The CNCL:

Dr. Roger Beaty

Daniel Zeitlen

Simone Luchini

Brendan Baker

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Sonophilia:

Seda Röder

Mathias Röder

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Ootiboo:

Angus “Goose” Cameron

Michelle Tasker

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CU Denver:

Theo Edmonds

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Crea:

Janet Rafner

Dr. Jacob Sherson

Dr. Seyedahmad Rahimi

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SfNC:

Dr. Adam Green

Dr. Yoed Kenett

Dr. Thalia Goldstein

Dr. Mathias Benedek