| Nonlinear Dynamics, Psychology, and Life Sciences, Vol. 15, Iss. 2, Apr, 2011, pp. 175-206 @2011 Society for Chaos Theory in Psychology & Life Sciences Constraints-induced Emergence of Functional Novelty in Complex Neurobiological Systems: A Basis for Creativity in Sport Abstract: In this paper we present a model of creativity captured as
exploration and production of novel and functionally efficient behaviors,
based on the statistical mechanics of disordered systems. In support
of the modelling, we highlight examples of creative behaviors from our
research in sports like boxing and rugby union. Our experimental results
show how manipulation of practice task constraints changes the exploratory
breadth of the hierarchically soft-assembled action landscape. Because of
action metastability and differing task constraints, the specificity of
each assembled movement configuration is unique. Empirically, a movement
pattern's degree of novelty may be assessed by the value of the order
parameter describing action. We show that creative and adaptive movement
behavior may be induced by at least two types of interven-tions, based on
relaxing task constraints which we term direct and indirect. Direct relaxing
is typically a function of changing task constraints so that the number of
affordances that can satisfy goal constraints increases. Indirect relaxing
of constraints occurs when a habitual action is suppressed by, for example,
stringent instructional constraints during sports training. That suppression
simultaneously relaxes other correlated constraints that enable larger exploratory
capacity and new affordances to emerge for the athlete or team. Keywords: sports creativity, motor creativity, ecological dynamics, affordances, action soft-assembly, replica symmetry breaking |