This experiment examines people’s ability to invent creative
outcomes to simple event sequences. We report a study where
participants are given everyday event descriptions and asked
to describe either a predictable outcome (Predictable group)
or a creative outcome (Creative group). Following the
Creative Cognition approach (Finke, Ward & Smith, 1992),
we expected that though those instructed to be creative might
generate novel and interesting outcomes, they would also be
bound by their knowledge of the outcomes that typically
occur. The results support this prediction, in that while the
Creative group manifested more inventive variability in their
outcomes relative to the Predictable group, their proposed
outcomes still overlapped in part with those of the Predictable
group. These results show that although creativity may take
people beyond their knowledge, they can never fully break
free from that knowledge
