Effects of Prior Knowledge on Generative Tasks Essay -- Philosophy Cre

Effects of Prior Knowledge on Generative Tasks The creation of new ideas plays an important billet in the growth of any society. Inventions such as the telephone and automobile have provided the tools for increased levels of communication and widened the access to information. While the modern extension may view these inventions as staples of our society, at the time of their conception they were viewed as revolutionary new concepts. Yet, were they truly revolutionary or were they an consultation of prior noesis? heavy(a) proportions of new ideas are based on the properties of an existing concept (Marsh, Ward, & Landau, 1999). Without the concept of the phonograph, for example, we may never have had the benefit of 8-tracks, audio cassettes, or compact discs. These creations, plot of ground sepa rate in their levels of advancement, are all based on the initial notion of recorded sound. Researchers recognize the benefits of prior knowledge as adaptive to survival. The accompaniment that humans are able to learn and apply information from previous experience assists in reasoning, problem solving, and comprehension of our environment (Smith, Ward, & Schumacher, 1993). Without the use of prior knowledge it would be impossible to advance cognitively. The benefits notwithstanding, the use of prior knowledge also has the potential of limiting, or constraining, the creative process (Marsh, Bink, & Hicks, 1999 Marsh, Landau, & Hicks, 1996 Marsh, Ward, et al., 1999 Smith, et al., 1993). The theoretical construct of structured supposition proposes that new ... ...iness that expects creative results from its associates. Society may believe an invention is truly revolutionary when, in fact, the creation is most likely a mere extension of a previous thought. Refere nces Marsh, R. L., Bink, M. L., & Hicks, J. L. (1999). Conceptual priming in a generative problem-solving task. Memory & Cognition, 27 (2), 355-363. Marsh, R. L., Landau, J. D., & Hicks, J. L. (1996). How examples may (and may not) constrain creativity. Memory & Cognition, 24 (3), 669-680. Marsh, R. L., Ward, T. B., & Landau, J. D. (1999). The accidental use of prior knowledge in a generative cognitive task. Memory & Cognition, 27 (1), 94-105. Smith, S. M., Ward, T. B., & Schumacher, J. S. (1993). Constraining effects of examples in a creative generation task. Memory & Cognition, 21 (6), 837-845.