 Dr. Robert Epstein is the West Coast Editor and former Editor-in-Chief of Psychology Today magazine, as well as the host of “Psyched!” on Sirius Satellite Radio. He is also a Contributing Editor for Scientific American Mind magazine, a visiting scholar at the University of California, San Diego, and the founder and Director Emeritus of the Cambridge Center for Behavioral Studies. A Ph.D. of Harvard University, Epstein has published thirteen books and more than one hundred articles. His main research interests are in creativity, stress management, adolescence, artificial intelligence, self-control, sexual orientation, and parenting. His most recent books are The Case Against Adolescence: Rediscovering the Adult in Every Teen (Jossey-Bass, 2007) and The Turing Test Sourcebook: Philosophical and Methodological Issues in the Quest for the Thinking Computer (Springer, 2007, with Gary Roberts and Grace Beber). Further information can be found at http://drrobertepstein.com. |
| Abstract: Generativity Theory, first proposed in the mid 1980s, has proved helpful in both understanding and predicting ongoing behavior even novel behavior in both familiar and novel environments, as well as in both static and changing environments. The theory is formal, which means that it can be expressed as a series of equations. Instantiated in a computer model, these equations, called transformation equations, can predict ongoing novel behavior moment-to-moment in time in both animals and humans. Generativity Theory asserts that novel behavior is the result of ongoing interconnections among previously established behaviors. The theory also asserts that simple behavioral processes, such as extinction and resurgence, which are typically studied separately, actually operate simultaneously on the probabilities of many different behaviors, resulting in an ongoing dynamic interaction among such behaviors. On the practical side, the theory suggests that the behavior people often call creative can be accelerated and directed, and, perforce, that people have enormous creative potential. Generativity research has led to the development of a technique (the frequency profile) for providing a graphical display of novel performances in individual subjects in real time, of competency tests that measure skill sets that are essential for creative expression, and of games and exercises that strengthen such competencies. Most recently, training based on principles derived from Generativity Theory has been used to boost creative expression and solve practical problems in the government of a small city in California. |