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      The evolutionary roots of creativity: mechanisms and motivations.

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          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.

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          Author and article information

          Journal
          Philos. Trans. R. Soc. Lond., B, Biol. Sci.
          Philosophical transactions of the Royal Society of London. Series B, Biological sciences
          The Royal Society
          1471-2970
          0962-8436
          Mar 19 2015
          : 370
          : 1664
          Affiliations
          [1 ] School of Electronic Engineering and Computer Science, Queen Mary University of London, Mile End Road, London E1 4FZ, UK geraint.wiggins@qmul.ac.uk.
          [2 ] Sea Mammal Research Unit, School of Biology, University of St Andrews, St Andrews KY16 8LB, UK.
          [3 ] Animal Behavior, Freie Universität Berlin, Takustraße 6, Berlin 14195, Germany.
          [4 ] Institut für Kunst- und Musikwissenschaft, Technische Universität Dresden, August-Bebel-Straße 20, Dresden 01219, Germany.
          Article
          rstb.2014.0099
          10.1098/rstb.2014.0099
          4321140
          25646522
          e5901f0e-dc61-41a3-bc2f-216bb04d12ec
          History

          creativity,computational modelling,vocal communication,music,information theory

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