1964 Art School Experiment Reveals Problem-Finding as Key to Creativity

A landmark 1964 study by psychologist Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi and Jacob Getzels at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago found that art students who spent more time exploring and formulating a visual problem—rather than quickly solving one—produced more original and aesthetically compelling work. The experiment involved 31 students given one hour to sketch a still life from 27 objects. Those who experimented for up to 50 minutes before drawing were later judged by a board of art critics as more creative. A follow-up five years after graduation showed that problem-finding artists were far more successful, with eight of the 11 least problem-finding students having abandoned art entirely. The findings were published in the 1976 book The Creative Vision, now out of print but considered a seminal text in creativity research. Keith Sawyer, a leading creativity researcher and author of Learning to See, highlights the study's enduring influence and notes that the best art professors teach students to carve their own path, echoing Csikszentmihalyi's insight that creativity begins with problem formulation, not solution.