2003 by Oxford University Press, Inc. All rights reserved. This chapter focuses on the rare form of creative cognition, that which leads to revolutionary ideas. The case is made, with supporting empirical evidence, that prior experience can sometimes block or impede cognitive operations in memory, problem solving and creative thinking, and that similar cognitive processes are involved in all three domains. Such constraints can have profound effects on the creative ideas generated not only in individuals but in groups of people as well.
