A remembered foreign experience matters as much as the experience itself for creative priming

Evidence

In addition, because all of our previous priming studies included only participants who had previously lived abroad, we also tested whether it is necessary to have actually had the experience of living abroad for our priming manipulations to have an effect. On the one hand, it is possible that when participants have not lived abroad and are asked to reflect on a functional multicultural learning experience, they will extrapolate from whatever cross-cultural experience they have had (e.g., via others’ experiences, or from books, movies, music, research, or travel) to simulate such an experience, which could potentially impact creativity. On the other hand, it is also possible that a concrete and highly impactful foreign experience (such as actually having lived in a foreign country) in which learning of underlying functions occurred is necessary for enhanced creativity. This hypothesis is based on the distinction between mental availability and accessibility: for a process to be made accessible, it must first be available in memory (e.g., Higgins, 1996). — Roderick M. Kramer, Geoffrey J. Leonardelli, Robert W. Livingston, Social Cognition, Social Identity, and…, 2245

Categorization

• XREF: Connects to the availability-versus-accessibility memory distinction from cognitive psychology (Higgins), a parallel to the note on how merely being primed can activate knowledge.
• CANDY: Fun elevator fact: recalling a bicultural lesson in detail, even as homework, temporarily boosts your puzzle-solving creativity.