title: Contextual focus: A cognitive explanation for the cultural transition of the Middle/Upper Paleolithic
creator: Gabora, Dr. Liane
subject: Cognitive Psychology
subject: Evolutionary Psychology
description: Many elements of culture made their first appearance in the Upper Paleolithic. Previous hypotheses put forth to explain this unprecedented burst of creativity are found wanting. Examination of the psychological basis of creativity leads to the suggestion that it resulted from the onset of contextual focus: the capacity to focus or defocus attention in response to the situation, thereby shifting between analytic and associative modes of thought. New ideas germinate in a defocused state in which one is receptive to the possible relevance of many dimensions of a situation. They are refined in a focused state, conducive to filtering out irrelevant dimensions and condensing relevant ones. 
publisher: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates
contributor: Alterman, Dr. Rick
contributor: Kirsch, Dr. David
date: 2003
type: Conference Paper
type: PeerReviewed
format: text/html
identifier: http://cogprints.org/3417/1/cf.htm
identifier:   Gabora, Dr. Liane  (2003) Contextual focus: A cognitive explanation for the cultural transition of the Middle/Upper Paleolithic.  [Conference Paper]     
relation: http://cogprints.org/3417/