Relaxation broadens attention and enables right hemisphere flexibility of thought
One of the standard psychological tests that is supposed to measure creativity is the Remote Association Test, an expression of the belief that creativity requires the ability to make associations between widely different ideas or concepts. The right frontal lobes allow for flexibility in thought and behavior, and since efforts of will focus attention and deliberately narrow its range, it may be that relaxation favours creativity because it permits lantern consciousness, and, with the expansion of the attentional field, engagement of the right hemisphere.
From what has been said it can be seen that relatively more remote or tenuous associations of thought are made more easily by permitting lantern consciousness, which may also explain the ‘tip of the tongue’ phenomenon: the harder we try, the more we recruit the narrow spotlight consciousness of the left hemisphere, and the less we can remember the word. Once we stop trying, the word comes to us unbidden.
References
- Mcgilchrist, Iain. (2010). The Master and His Emissary Chapter 2 What Do the Hemispheres Do (87). London, UK: Yale University Press.
Metadata
Type:🔴 Tags: Biology / Neuroscience / Neuropsychology Status:☀️