Unconscious Thought, Intuition, and Visual Imagery - A Critique of 'Working Memory, Cerebellum, and Creativity'

摘要

Larry Vandervert, Paul Schimpf, and Hesheng-Liu (this issue) present an intriguing model for creativity based on the "collaboration between working memory and cognitive functions of the cerebellum." They include "updated and expanded neuroimaging research on working memory ... and the cognitive functions of the cerebellum." Vandervert et al. postulate that feedback loops in working memory provide the basis for understanding creative thinking as well as for "intuition" (also known as "insight"). These feedback loops presumably allow continued attempts at solving a problem. Metaphorically, they describe working memory as "the blackboard of the mind" - replete with "visuospatial sketchpads" - on which attempts and reattempts at problem solving are manipulated, discarded, and retried toward solution. They refer to the adaptive cerebellar architecture as MOSAIC (Modular Selection and Identification for Control) and to the layered hierarchy of such a structure as HMOSAIC, which is supposed to come into play in solving highly abstract problems. Vandervert et al. go on to apply MOSAIC and HMOSAIC to "get 'inside'" some of Einstein's accounts of his creative thinking that was dependent on mental imagery. I will comment on this "applied" aspect of their article. Although Vandervert et al.'s article has value for the theoretical side of cognitive scientific models of the mind, it falls short on application. Like Herbert Simon's discovery programmes it promises too much instead of saying straightaway that it is a first approximation. Their model cries out for the interdisciplinary approach and more details as well (see, e.g., Langley, Simon, Bradshaw, & Zytkow, 1987).