CHAPTER 5Insight in Practice
In The Art of Thought, Graham Wallas presented one of the first models of the creative process. It consists of four steps:
Preparation: where the mind focuses on the problem and explores its dimensions
Incubation: where the problem is internalized into the unconscious mind and nothing appears to be happening externally
Illumination/insight: where the creative idea bursts forth from its preconscious processing into conscious awareness
Verification: where the idea is consciously verified, elaborated, and then applied1
Fresh thoughts and memory thoughts can be found in each of these steps. Fresh and memory thoughts, learning and recall, and intuition and analysis are all employed in various combinations. We take in information ...
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