This essay explores the nature and neurological basis of creativity in technical production. After presenting a model of expert
technical cognition based in cognitive anthropology and cognitive psychology, the authors propose that craft production has three
inherent sources of novelty — procedural drift, serendipitous error and fiddling. However, these are quite limited in their
creative potential, which may help explain the virtual absence of innovation over the long millennia of the Palaeolithic.
Innovation can be far more rapid and effective via invention, which requires folk theories of causation and adequate working
memory capacity, all fairly recent evolutionary developments. The neurological basis of expert technical cognition lies in
well-known cortical and sub-cortical structures, but recent research has established a provocative role for the cerebellum in the
formulation of novel arrangements.
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