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The evolutionary roots of creativity : mechanisms and motivations
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dc.contributor.author | Wiggins, Geraint A. | |
dc.contributor.author | Tyack, Peter Lloyd | |
dc.contributor.author | Scharff, Constance | |
dc.contributor.author | Rohrmeier, Martin | |
dc.date.accessioned | 2016-02-02T00:11:49Z | |
dc.date.available | 2016-02-02T00:11:49Z | |
dc.date.issued | 2015-03 | |
dc.identifier | 165196833 | |
dc.identifier | d3edb222-4847-4d1e-aae2-2a3e96e25520 | |
dc.identifier | 84922121097 | |
dc.identifier | 000350537300012 | |
dc.identifier.citation | Wiggins , G A , Tyack , P L , Scharff , C & Rohrmeier , M 2015 , ' The evolutionary roots of creativity : mechanisms and motivations ' , Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society. B, Biological Sciences , vol. 370 , no. 1664 . https://doi.org/10.1098/rstb.2014.0099 | en |
dc.identifier.issn | 0962-8436 | |
dc.identifier.other | ORCID: /0000-0002-8409-4790/work/60887939 | |
dc.identifier.uri | https://hdl.handle.net/10023/8111 | |
dc.description | Funding: MASTS pooling initiative (The Marine Alliance for Science and Technology for Scotland). MASTS is funded by the Scottish Funding Council (grant reference HR09011) and contributing institutions. | en |
dc.description.abstract | We consider the evolution of cognition and the emergence of creative behaviour, in relation to vocal communication. We address two key questions: (i) what cognitive and/or social mechanisms have evolved that afford aspects of creativity?; (ii) has natural and/or sexual selection favoured human behaviours considered ‘creative’? This entails analysis of ‘creativity’, an imprecise construct: comparable properties in non-humans differ in magnitude and teleology from generally agreed human creativity. We then address two apparent problems: (i) the difference between merely novel productions and ‘creative’ ones; (ii) the emergence of creative behaviour in spite of high cost: does it fit the idea that females choose a male who succeeds in spite of a handicap (costly ornament); or that creative males capable of producing a large and complex song repertoire grew up under favourable conditions; or a demonstration of generally beneficial heightened reasoning capacity; or an opportunity to continually reinforce social bonding through changing communication tropes; or something else? We illustrate and support our argument by reference to whale and bird song; these independently evolved biological signal mechanisms objectively share surface properties with human behaviours generally called ‘creative’. Studying them may elucidate mechanisms underlying human creativity; we outline a research programme to do so. | |
dc.format.extent | 9 | |
dc.format.extent | 209879 | |
dc.language.iso | eng | |
dc.relation.ispartof | Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society. B, Biological Sciences | en |
dc.subject | Creativity | en |
dc.subject | Vocal communication | en |
dc.subject | Music | en |
dc.subject | Computational modelling | en |
dc.subject | Information theory | en |
dc.subject | QH301 Biology | en |
dc.subject | T-NDAS | en |
dc.subject.lcc | QH301 | en |
dc.title | The evolutionary roots of creativity : mechanisms and motivations | en |
dc.type | Journal article | en |
dc.contributor.institution | University of St Andrews. School of Biology | en |
dc.contributor.institution | University of St Andrews. Marine Alliance for Science & Technology Scotland | en |
dc.contributor.institution | University of St Andrews. Sea Mammal Research Unit | en |
dc.contributor.institution | University of St Andrews. Sound Tags Group | en |
dc.contributor.institution | University of St Andrews. Bioacoustics group | en |
dc.contributor.institution | University of St Andrews. Scottish Oceans Institute | en |
dc.identifier.doi | 10.1098/rstb.2014.0099 | |
dc.description.status | Peer reviewed | en |
dc.date.embargoedUntil | 2016-03-01 |
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