Creativity and Reason in Cognitive Development

To what extent do creativity and imagination decline in childhood? What factors might influence a decline? Is there something about the development of one kind of thinking that undermines imaginative and creative thinking? Is it perhaps the process of schooling itself, with its focus on the acquisition of knowledge and the production of correct (rather than imaginative) answers, which promotes this decline? This book explores these questions from a variety of perspectives. Essays from psychologists and educators from diverse backgrounds discuss the relationships among creativity, reason, and knowledge.

James C. Kaufman is an Assistant Professor of Psychology at the California State University at San Bernardino, where he is also the director of the Learning Research Institute. He received his B.A. in Psychology from the University of Southern California and his Ph.D. from Yale University in Cognitive Psychology, where he worked with Robert J. Sternberg. Kaufman's main area of expertise is creativity. With Sternberg and Jean Pretz, he developed the propulsion model of creative contributions, outlined in The Creativity Conundrum (Psychology Press, 2002). He coined 'the Sylvia Plath Effect', based on an analysis of female poets, in a paper in Journal of Creative Behavior, and his recent work on poets dying young has been featured in the New York Times, NPR, BBC, CNN, and newspapers and magazines across the world. His other books include International Handbook of Creativity, Intelligence, Applied Psychology and Free Will, Creativity Across Domains: Faces of the Muse, Gender Differences in Mathematics, and The Evolution of Intelligence.

John Baer (Ph.D.) is Professor of Educational Psychology at Rider University. He earned his B.A. at Yale, where he double majored in psychology and Japanese Studies and graduated magna cum laude. He received his Ph.D. from Rutgers in developmental and cognitive psychology. He won the American Psychological Foundation's Berlyne Prize for his research on creativity in 1993, and in 1997 the Eighth National Conference on College Teaching and Learning presented Dr Baer with its annual Award for Innovative Excellence in Teaching, Learning, and Technology. He has published seven books, including Creativity and Divergent Thinking: A Task-Specific Approach; Creative Teachers, Creative Students; and Creativity Across Domains: Faces of the Muse (with James C. Kaufman).