ABSTRACT
Cognition can be considered ‘higher order mental processes including attention, memory, learning, reasoning, problem-solving, and decision making’ (Henley 2014), and cognitive psychology is the study of these mental processes (Stevens, Malloch, and McKechnie 2001, 55-67). Although many cognitive processes are involved in all areas of dance,1 as dance is a generative art form valued for its creative aesthetics, the specific area of cognitive psychology that this chapter will be focused on is in the area of creativity, which is traditionally defined as generating a product that is both novel and useful (Amabile 1996; Campbell 1960: 380-400; Koestler 1964). Researching creativity in dance requires a multidisciplinary perspective, blending methods of dance and scientific research for a holistic study of the phenomenon(s) surrounding the generation of novel and useful movement. As Glenna Batson and Margaret Wilson state, “[s]cience needs the perspective of dancers, those whose cognitive problem solving arises out of the movement moment. . . . dance offers a radically anti-reductionist approach to investigating the processes of cognition” (Batson and Wilson 2014: 20).
