Variability, constraints, and creativity. Shedding light on Claude Monet.
Recent experimental research suggests 2 things. The first is that along with learning how to do something, people also learn how variably or differently to continue doing it. The second is that high variability is maintained by constraining, precluding a currently successful, often repetitive solution to a problem. In this view, Claude Monet's habitually high level of variability in painting was acquired during his childhood and early apprenticeship and was maintained throughout his adult career by a continuous series of task constraints imposed by the artist on his own work. For Monet, variability was rewarded and rewarding.
Stokes
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Psychology Department, Barnard College, Columbia University, 3009 Broadway, New York, NY 10023, USA. pstokes@barnard.columbia.edu
D003405:Creativity; D005197:Famous Persons; D005602:France; D049672:History, 19th Century; D010151:Paintings / Q000266:history*