The Imagination Institute, based at the University of Pennsylvania’s Positive Psychology Center, has announced the recipients of nearly $3 million worth of grants to researchers at 16 institutions. These grants are aimed at the development of better ways of assessing and promoting imagination and creativity.
Cognitive
Identifying the Role of Simulation in Imagination Expertise
Princeton University This project will explore imagination by studying imagination experts – artists, musicians, and creatives with a proven ability to generate highly imaginative output. Using neural, behavioral, and linguistic measures of their capacity for...
The Benefits of Daydreaming for Creativity & Creative Writing
University of California, Santa Barbara This project investigates how daydreaming—a form of imaginative thought we all routinely engage in—affects creativity, and in particular creative writing. While daydreaming fills a substantial portion of our everyday life, and...
Development
Fantasy Orientation: Measuring Individual Differences, Improving Imaginative Play, & Assessing Mechanisms of Cognitive Development
University of Alabama This research, funded by the Imagination Institute, will answer two important questions to propel research in childhood imagination: (1) How is children’s imagination best defined and measured, and (2) Can we stimulate imagination to enhance...
Assessing & Fostering Visual Imagination through Drawing
Brooklyn College Visual imagination involves the ability to generate, manipulate, and transform images mentally, and requires going beyond the information given to the senses. This kind of ability is prized in STEM fields (architecture, engineering, physics, surgery)...
Education
Measuring & Improving Adolescents’ Social-Emotional Imagination to Foster Flourishing: A Mixed-Method Neuroimaging & Psychosocial Longitudinal Study with School-Based Interventions
University of Southern California Adolescents need imagination to adaptively navigate their expanding social worlds and to build and enact identities and strategies that move them toward attaining their desired future self. Here we integrate the expertise of the PIs...
The School Imagination, Creativity, & Innovation (ICI) Index & Portfolio
University of Connecticut Policy makers and educators at all levels have finally turned their attention to the importance of imagination, creativity, and innovation (ICI) as vital outcomes of schooling. These qualities are considered to be essential to the cultural,...
A Motivational Approach to the Enhancement of Imagination & Human Flourishing
College of William & Mary We are investigating the motivational and imaginative processes that underlie inspiration, action, and flourishing-related outcomes. Our project focuses on (a) instrument development and validation, (b) model and theory development, and...
Language
Creativity & the Quantification of Free Thought
University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill We will quantify the imaginative creativity inherent in free thought by using sophisticated semantic analysis metrics. We expect that these metrics will predict real-world creativity, will allow simple creativity-improving...
Measurement & Development of Narrative Imagination (NI)
Pace University & Yale University; University Paris Descartes The goal of this project is twofold: 1) to develop a tablet-based measure of imagination that captures multiple facets of this ability (e.g., resources involved in evoking the past, anticipating the...
Neuro
The Neurological Correlates of Creativity in Geniuses
Thomas Jefferson University & Hospital The goal of this study is to use magnetic resonance imaging to determine the anatomical correlates related to creative thinking in a group of masters/geniuses compared to normal controls. We also hope to determine how...
Structural & Functional Biomarkers of Aesthetic Creativity & Imagination
Wesleyan University We propose the world’s first longitudinal study on the neural substrates of aesthetic imagination and creativity. Collaborating with artists from the Center for the Arts at Wesleyan University, we plan to follow a course on jazz improvisation,...
The Four Factor Imagination Theory (4FIT): Strategy, Methodology, & Anticipated Results
Northwestern University The first goal of the proposed research is to develop an Imagination Quotient (ImQ) scale, which will include the ability to assess a person’s entire imagination capacity, as well as four different aspects of imagination, such as frequency of...
Transcranial Direct Current Stimulation to Enhance Creative Uses for Objects
University of Pennsylvania In prior work our team has shown that quieting frontal lobe activity using a safe noninvasive form of neuromodulation called transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS) can induce temporary improvement in the ability to conceive of...
Measuring Imagination with Functional Network Connectivity
University of North Carolina, Greensboro How does the brain come up with creative ideas? This project examine how two different brain networks influence creativity. One network—the default mode network—is associated with spontaneous, imaginative thought. The other—the...
Personality
Introducing imQ: Assessing & Improving Imagination
Goldsmiths University of London, UK Imagination is key to psychological development, but measures of imagination are scarce and little is known about the construct itself. Our research will overcome these issues: first, we will develop a new test battery to assess...
Self-Regulation in Creativity: The Difference Between Having an idea & Doing Something With It
Yale University How do original ideas become creative products or performances? Transformation from creative potential – an imagined idea – to product or performance requires self-regulation of demands on one’s time and attention, regulation of behavior associated...