Creativity assessment

Creative Flexibility - L Mode pull

What's it all about?

You probably drew your first face profile rapidly - drawing symbolic shapes from memory. But the second profile forming the vase requires a different process - you need to check the ‘space’ between the profiles that you are making - angles, inwards or outwards, making constant adjustments. This is R-mode thinking where parts are not named - it is easier not to think at all!

The reason that we have discomfort when completing the vase is that the two thinking modes interfere. The L-mode as the predominently dominant mode tries to take over - the effect is that your hand stops, paralysed by the ‘internal’ disruption that is taking place.

This, Betty believes is what limits people’s drawing ability and she outlines ‘tricks’ to confuse the L-mode in her book.

The effect is metaphorically similar to the thinking that you need in a brainstorm. Freeflow. Unfortunately, interference from the L mode often stops us in our tracks as we evaluate on the fly.