Subjective valuation as a domain-general process in creative thinking

Is a talented painter also a proficient writer? The ongoing discourse on whether creativity operates through domain-general or domain-specific mechanisms has yielded challenges in our understanding of the creative process. It is admitted that creativity comprises two phases: generation and evaluation. Recent research has proposed a new framework according to which the evaluation phase involves valuation processes upstream selection. In this framework, the value of ideas, i.e., how much one likes an idea, energizes their production and drives their selection. The role of valuation was demonstrated in verbal semantic creativity, and its domain generality remains to be tested. In this study, we assessed whether valuation is a domain-general or domain-specific process. Seventy-three participants engaged in three creativity tasks (producing semantic associations, alternative object uses, and drawings) followed by rating tasks. Computational modelling revealed a consistent valuation mechanism governing idea evaluation across domains with shared value functions and valuation parameters across word associations, object uses, and drawing completions. These findings advance our understanding of the evaluation phase of creativity, portraying it as inherently domain-general. Identifying such core components of creative ideation contributes to elucidating the cognitive mechanisms underlying creativity and provides empirical support for including valuation as a core process in creativity.