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Creativity in Puzzles, Inventions, and Designs: Sudden Mental Insight Phenomenon

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Encyclopedia of Creativity, Invention, Innovation and Entrepreneurship

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Synonyms

Design; Expert; Façade design; Frame of reference; Musical composition; Mutilated checkerboard puzzle; Nine-dot puzzle; Novel; Novice; Periodic table of elements; Puzzle; Scientific invention; Sudden mental insights; Valuable; Writing

Introduction

There are many definitions of creativity. Here, one based on commonly held beliefs about creativity and observations from studies designed to unravel its secrets will be used (Akin and Akin 1996): creativity is the act of producing novel and valuable things. A creative product is different from existing ones on account of one or more features and adds exceptional valueto human purposes. Creativity is readily associated with art. Caravaggio’s realism, Van Gogh’s impressionism, and Vermeer’s depiction of light are just a few examples. In the annals of human civilization, some of the most valued human products include not only artistic but also scientific ones. Hence, developing a unifying theory of the creative process is illusive....

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. School of Architecture, Carnegie Mellon University, Pittsburgh, PA, 15213, USA

    Prof. Ömer Akın

Authors
  1. Prof. Ömer Akın
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Ömer Akın .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Information Systems & Technology, Management, School of Business, George Washington University, Washington, DC, USA

    Elias G. Carayannis

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Akın, Ö. (2013). Creativity in Puzzles, Inventions, and Designs: Sudden Mental Insight Phenomenon. In: Carayannis, E.G. (eds) Encyclopedia of Creativity, Invention, Innovation and Entrepreneurship. Springer, New York, NY. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4614-3858-8_385

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4614-3858-8_385

  • Publisher Name: Springer, New York, NY

  • Print ISBN: 978-1-4614-3857-1

  • Online ISBN: 978-1-4614-3858-8

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