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Cited by 75Creativity in Education and NeuroscienceMind wandering and attentionCognitive Science and Education Research

Metacognition, Mind Wandering, and Cognitive Flexibility: Understanding Creativity

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Preiss, David D.·2022·Journal of Intelligence
DOI 10.3390/jintelligence10030069PMC PMC9500634
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Abstract

The goal of this article is to review work on mind wandering, metacognition and creativity in order to consider their relationship with cognitive flexibility. I introduce a model of the role that mind wandering and metacognition have in the generation and exploration of novel ideas and products in the creative process. I argue that managing the interaction between metacognition and mind wandering is the main role of cognitive flexibility in creativity. Furthermore, I claim that balancing the influence of metacognition during the generation and exploration of pre-inventive structures is a quintessential part of creativity, probably in almost any domain. Thus, I advance a general framework that can be applied to understanding how creators monitor and think about their own cognition when they engage in the generation and exploration of ideas. Additionally, I discuss the evolution of controlled and spontaneous cognition and metacognitive judgements during the development of a creative person.

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  • Metacognitive flexibility is a hallmark of creative problem-solving and has been deemed essential for organizing and integrating a rapidly changing body of information.

    “It is a hallmark of creative problem-solving [144] and has been deemed essential for organizing and integrating a rapidly changing body of information [120].”

    From The Metacognitive Demands and Opportunities of Generative AI (2024) · cites this paper as [144]

  • HCI has so far considered metacognition mainly in the context of computer science education.

    “Nevertheless, the field of humancomputer interaction (HCI) has so far considered metacognition mainly in the context of computer science education [107,142].”

    From The Metacognitive Demands and Opportunities of Generative AI (2024) · cites this paper as [142]

    Section 2 discusses metacognition in relation to mind wandering and creativity, while Section 4 discusses its development in school. Searches for HCI, human-computer interaction, and computer science education found no passage assessing where HCI has mainly considered metacognition. (LLM, conf=0.75)

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Research works printed but not linked: 57

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Cited by

Sorted by citations

Authors
Preiss, D. D.
Affiliations
Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile (CL)
Corresponding author
Preiss, David D.
ORCID
Preiss, David D.
Venue
Journal of Intelligence
Publisher
MDPI AG
Published
2022-09-16
Volume
10
Issue
3
Pages
69
ISSN
2079-3200 (ISSN-L)
DOI
10.3390/jintelligence10030069
PMC
PMC9500634
OpenAlex
W4296351524
Cited by
75
References
9
Citations by year
2026: 25 · 2025: 20 · 2024: 16 · 2023: 13 · 2022: 1
FWCI
11.50
Type
journal article
Language
en
Open access
Licence
Locations
  • Journal of Intelligence (publishedVersion, cc-by)
  • PubMed Central (publishedVersion, cc-by)
  • PubMed (publishedVersion)
  • DOAJ (DOAJ: Directory of Open Access Journals) (submittedVersion, cc-by-sa)
Funders
ANID (FONDECYT 1181095)
Topics
  • Social Sciences › Psychology › Experimental and Cognitive Psychology › Creativity in Education and Neuroscience
  • Life Sciences › Neuroscience › Cognitive Neuroscience › Mind wandering and attention
  • Life Sciences › Neuroscience › Cognitive Neuroscience › Cognitive Science and Education Research
Keywords
metacognition, mind wandering, cognitive flexibility, creativity, creative process, idea generation, idea exploration, creativity development

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