Can Creativity Be Mapped? From Words to Multiplex Networks
- Day - Time: 14 October 2026, h.12:00
- Place: Area della Ricerca CNR di Pisa - Room: C-29
Speakers
Referent
Abstract
Creativity may be easy to recognise, but surprisingly difficult to measure. In this ISTI-TALK, I will show how simple language tasks can be used to study the way knowledge is organised and accessed in the mind. Starting from words and short texts produced by participants, I will explain how these responses can be transformed into networks of connected concepts. These networks provide a way to study not only what people say, but also how their ideas are structured and how information may spread between relatedconcepts. Using data collected across several countries, including during my researchstay at the National University of Singapore, I will introduce the idea of multiplex networks, where different types of language tasks are represented as different but connected layers. I will also present spreading activation as away to model how information moves through these networks, and an exploratory machine-learning approach to test whether network-based features can help predict individual originality scores.
Thetalk will focus on the main ideas and results, without assuming previous knowledge of cognitive science or creativity research.