Toward a Cognitive Theory of Creativity Support Nicholas Davis School of Interactive Computing Georgia Institute of Technology ndavis35@gatech.edu Holger Winnemöller, Mira Dontcheva Adobe Systems, Inc. {hwinnemo, mirad}@adobe.com Ellen Yi-Luen Do Industrial Design & Interactive Computing, Georgia Tech & CUTE Center @ IDMI, NUS ellendo@acm.org ABSTRACT We present the beginnings of a Cognitive Theory of Creativity Support aimed specifically at understanding novices and their needs. Our theory identifies unique difficulties novices face and reasons that may keep them from engaging in creative endeavors, such as fear of failure, time commitment, and lack of skill. To test our theory, we use it to analyze existing creativity support tools from multiple domains. We also describe the design and initial implementation of a creativity support tool based on our theory. The creativity support tool, called StorySketch, is designed to empower storytellers without graphical skills to engage in visual storytelling. Author Keywords Creativity; Human Computer Interaction; Creativity Support Tools; Cognitive Science ACM Classification Keywords H.5.m. Information interfaces and presentation (e.g., HCI): Miscellaneous. General Terms Human Factors; Design; Measurement. INTRODUCTION Creativity is a learnable skill that leverages common cognitive mechanisms [6]. Researchers in the field of Human Computer Interaction (HCI) have begun to develop tools that influence, support, and enhance creativity called Creativity Support Tools (CST) [19]. Most of these tools are aimed at creative professionals [19] as these are traditionally the individuals engaging in creative activities [16]. Some researchers argue that non-professionals do not engage in creative tasks because they are not capable of creative expression [1]. However, there is evidence that suggests that novices can be creative [16]. When it comes to supporting creativity, experts require tools that enable them to rapidly iterate through and document many different ideas early in the creative process [19]. Novices, on the other hand, require a low threshold of entry into the creative domain because they may not have the confidence, skill, or motivation to sustain engagement with the tool [19]. We present the Cognitive Theory of Creativity Support aimed specifically at understanding novices and their needs. Our approach helps identify potential difficulties for novices and reasons they may disengage with CST tools, such as fear of failure, time commitments, and lack of skill. Evaluation metrics for professionally oriented CSTs typically measure creative performance with and without the tool [15]. However, CSTs that introduce completely novel experiences cannot be measured with this metric [15]. We argue that evaluating novice use of CSTs requires a new understanding of how CSTs affect cognitive processes. In our analysis, we use cognitive theories to explain how CSTs can address the needs of novices. We use the cognitive science theories of embodiment, situated activity, and distributed cognition to build the concepts of embodied creativity, situated creativity, and distributed creativity. These three perspectives of creative cognition [6] form the foundation of the Cognitive Theory of Creativity Support and provide insight into how technology can be used to support the creativity of novices. Embodiment describes how the human body—our sensory apparatus and how we interact with the environment— largely influences cognition [22]. The processes and mechanisms involved in creative cognition are therefore rooted in interaction. Embodied creativity outlines methods to make novice’s creative ideas more concrete and interactive. Situated Activity describes how routine actions are constraint-based improvisations with the environment guided by real time sensory feedback [1, 17]. Tool use in the creative process can detract from the situated nature of activity when novices are unaware of how to use tools to accomplish an action. Situated creativity describes a continuum of competency that shows how tools can become an extension of the body and allow individuals to focus on creative expression rather than consciously controlling tools. Distributed Cognition proposes that humans can offload cognitive tasks onto other people, the environment, and tools to ease cognitive load [11]. Offloading creative tasks Permission to make digital or hard copies of all or part of this work for personal or classroom use is granted without fee provided that copies are not made or distributed for profit or commercial advantage and that copies bear this notice and the full citation on the first page. 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