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Ricerche di Psicologia/Psychological Research Journal - Open Access

FORUM: “IL CONTRIBUTO DI MARCELLO CESA-BIANCHI ALLO SVILUPPO DELLA PSICOLOGIA IN

No. 1 (2021): The contribution of Marcello Cesa Bianchi to the growth of psychology in Italy

Thinking, mental imagery, and creativity in different states of vigilance: The contribution of Marcello Cesa-Bianchi school

DOI
https://doi.org/10.3280/rip1-2021oa11597
Submitted
aprile 6, 2021
Published
2021-04-06

Abstract

Marcello Cesa-Bianchi played an important role in fostering the experimental studies of Italian psychologists on the function of visual images within the process of creative thinking during distinct states of vigilance (wakefulness, resting state, sleep onset, and REM sleep). He moved from the observation that finding innovative solutions for novel artistic, scientific, or everyday-life problems requires a flexible and creative recombination of some items of prior knowledge.
This paper outlines the items of experimental evidence supporting his presupposition that intentionally generated and transformed mental images can facilitate the solution of problems and the subsequent hypotheses as to how innovative and intuitive strategies of manipulating mental images can work during wakefulness and other states of vigilance. After sketching the findings of studies in waking supporting a close relationship between the ability to mentally manipulate images in a holistic way and creative thinking, the findings of several recent studies showing that an insight heralding the solution may occur during sleep, resting, mind wandering, and sleep onset are reported. All these states of vigilance foster
both spreading activation of items of episodic and semantic knowledge along associated networks (involved also in dream generation during sleep) and restructuring of problem representation through a transfer of relationships between different types of information. Overall REM sleep may work as an incubation period capable to enhance solution rates in discovery of hidden mathematical rules and solving anagrams. Almost all the items of evidence converge to support the notion that a period of sleep – as well of resting, mind wandering, or sleep onset – is beneficial for solving problems regardless of their artistic, scientific, or everydaylife characteristics.

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