Creative Cognition as a Bandit Problem

Noémi Berlin, Jan Dul, Marco Gazel, Louis L vy-Garboua () and Todd Lubart ()
Additional contact information
Louis L vy-Garboua: Universit Paris 1 Panth on-Sorbonne, Paris School of Economics, Centre d'Economie de la Sorbonne and CIRANO (Montreal)
Todd Lubart: Université de Paris Cité, LaPEA (Laboratoire de Psychologie et d'Ergonomie Appliqu es)
Authors registered in the RePEc Author Service: Louis Lévy-Garboua

Documents de travail du Centre d'Economie de la Sorbonne from Université Panthéon-Sorbonne (Paris 1), Centre d'Economie de la Sorbonne

Abstract: This paper characterizes creative cognition as a multi-armed bandit problem involving a trade-off between exploration in sequential decisions from experience taking place in novel uncertain environments. Creative cognition implements an efficient learning process in this kind of dynamic decision. Special emphasis is put on the optimal sequencing of divergent and convergent behavior by showing that divergence must be inhibited at one point to converge toward creative behavior so that excessive divergence is counterproductive. We test this hypothesis in two behavioral experiments, using both novel and well-known tasks and precise measures of individual differences in creative potential in middle and high school students. Results in both studies confirmed that a task-dependent mix of divergence and convergence predicted high performance in a production task and better satisfaction in a consumption task, but exclusively in novel uncertain environments. These predictions were maintained after controlling for gender, personality, incentives, and other factors. As hypothesized, creative cognition was shown to be necessary for high performance under the appropriate conditions. However, it was not necessary for getting high grades in a traditional school system

Keywords: Creative cognition; Multi-armed bandit problem; Exploration-exploitation trade-off; Individual differences in creative potential; Adolescents' behavior; Necessary Condition Analysis (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: C11 C91 C93 I25 O31 Z10 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 44 pages
Date: 2023-01
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

Downloads: (external link)
http://mse.univ-paris1.fr/pub/mse/CES2023/23002.pdf (application/pdf)
https://shs.hal.science/halshs-03972871

Related works:
Working Paper: Creative cognition as a bandit problem (2024)
Working Paper: Creative Cognition as a Bandit Problem (2023)
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:mse:cesdoc:23002

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