Interestingly, these studies used quite contrasting approaches to test whether creativity is learnable. In the Stanford study, participants exercised cognitive flexibility to generate creative solutions in the classroom. Meanwhile, the meditative training of the Dalian-Oregon study was an exercise in cognitive persistence, the main focus being on... See more

divergent thinking is how scientists measure creativity; in real life, we can think divergently every day – concocting a recipe from whatever’s in the fridge, navigating a car through heavy traffic, making art from nontraditional materials using items from the recycling bin

psychologists from the Netherlands proposed the ‘dual pathway to creativity model’, suggesting that creative ideation occurs when cognitive flexibility is married to cognitive persistence