Forward flow”

A new measure to quantify free thought and predict creativity

Bibliographic Data

ID8722241
AuthorsKurt Gray (0000-0001-5816-2676, corresponding author), Stephen A Anderson (0000-0003-4421-5911), Eric Evan Chen (0000-0001-7909-000X), John Michael Kelly (0000-0003-1441-5701), Michael S Christian (0000-0001-9801-2197), John Patrick (0000-0002-9965-0796), Laura Huang (0000-0002-9760-370X), Yoed N Kenett (0000-0003-3872-7689), Kevin Lewis
Year2019
Volume74
Issue5
Pages539-554
Publication date2019-01-22
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessNo
TypeARTICLE
VenueAmerican Psychologist (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0003-066X • E-ISSN: 1935-990X
PublisherAmerican Psychological Association (PUBLISHER • US)
DOI10.1037/amp0000391
PMID30667235
OpenAlexW2911315752
LanguageEN
Citations received45
References cited4

When the human mind is free to roam, its subjective experience is characterized by a continuously evolving stream of thought. Although there is a technique that captures people's streams of free thought-free association-its utility for scientific research is undermined by two open questions: (a) How can streams of thought be quantified? (b) Do such streams predict psychological phenomena? We resolve the first issue-quantification-by presenting a new metric, "forward flow," that uses latent semantic analysis to capture the semantic evolution of thoughts over time (i.e., how much present thoughts diverge from past thoughts). We resolve the second issue-prediction-by examining whether forward flow predicts creativity in the lab and the real world. Our studies reveal that forward flow predicts creativity in college students (Study 1) and a representative sample of Americans (Study 2), even when controlling for intelligence. Studies also reveal that membership in real-world creative groups-performance majors (Study 3), professional actors (Study 4) and entrepreneurs (Study 5)-is predicted by forward flow, even when controlling for performance on divergent thinking tasks. Study 6 reveals that forward flow in celebrities' social media posts (i.e., on Twitter) predicts their creative achievement. In addition to creativity, forward flow may also help predict mental illness, emotional experience, leadership ability, adaptability, neural dynamics, group productivity, and cultural success. We present open-access online tools for assessing and visualizing forward flow for both illustrative and large-scale data analytic purposes. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2019 APA, all rights reserved)

Cognitive psychology · Creativity · Flow (mathematics · Latent semantic analysis · Metric (unit · PsycINFO · Computer Science · Creativity in Education and Neuroscience · Flow Experience in Various Fields · Mind wandering and attention · Psychology · Artificial Intelligence · Law · Social Psychology

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