Three PhD's whose specialty is cognitive pyschology put together a summary in 1995 of research on creativity. It makes very interesting reading because this cognitive research approach can control variables and determine what are the actual causal factors that lead to creating great ideas or products.

It easy to read and contains lots of good footnotes and discussion about what makes a practical good idea. I would have given the book a 5 if it had organized and discussed the techniques more. I had to work hard to pull out and organize their main recommended techniques. However, I'm glad I bought the book.

This book is recommended for those who want a background on creativity from researchers... and that is somewhat easy to read. If you are looking for a list of creativity techniques to immediately apply, you might find this book to be interesting but not enough of a cookbook... although they do offer some great ideas. Many of the ideas were proposed by others, but these authors show some of the research behind why they work.

John Dunbar
Sugar Land, TX