Wallas's model of creative thought: A Centennial commentary
Abstract
This paper presents a constructive critique of the still highly influential four-stage model (Preparation; Incubation; Illumination; Verification) for creative thinking which was presented a century ago by Wallas in his book The Art of Thought. Possible confusions arising from different words and phrases regarding consciousness being used for the same concept in Wallas’s presentation are pointed out and clarified. Wallas used the vocabulary of “will” and “volition”; these are re-interpreted in terms of “executive functions” and “goal representations”. A close reading of Wallas’s presentation supports a four rather than a five stage model. Although appropriate phenomenological studies are lacking, neuroscience and Feeling of Warmth studies are consistent with the reality of Intimation. To explain incubation effects beneficial forgetting is a clear possibility. If unconscious work is taken as meaning extended autonomous goal directed operations, the unconscious work hypothesis is unlikely. It is argued that highly parallel spreading activation over a knowledge network leading to solution-relevant remote or uncommon associations is a viable explanation for some incubation effects. A revised flexible model is presented incorporating executive processes and allowing generation of novel ideas in the Preparation and Verification stages as well as during Incubation.
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BibTeX
@misc{gilhooly2026wallass,
title = {{Wallas's model of creative thought: A Centennial commentary}},
author = {Ken Gilhooly},
howpublished = {PsyArXiv},
year = {2026},
month = sep,
doi = {10.31234/osf.io/afw9x_v1},
url = {https://osf.io/preprints/psyarxiv/afw9x_v1/},
note = {CC BY 4.0},
}
RIS
TY - UNPB
TI - Wallas's model of creative thought: A Centennial commentary
AU - Ken Gilhooly
PY - 2026
DA - 2026/09/03
PB - PsyArXiv
DO - 10.31234/osf.io/afw9x_v1
UR - https://osf.io/preprints/psyarxiv/afw9x_v1/
AB - This paper presents a constructive critique of the still highly influential four-stage model (Preparation; Incubation; Illumination; Verification) for creative thinking which was presented a century ago by Wallas in his book The Art of Thought. Possible confusions arising from different words and phrases regarding consciousness being used for the same concept in Wallas’s presentation are pointed out and clarified. Wallas used the vocabulary of “will” and “volition”; these are re-interpreted in terms of “executive functions” and “goal representations”. A close reading of Wallas’s presentation supports a four rather than a five stage model. Although appropriate phenomenological studies are lacking, neuroscience and Feeling of Warmth studies are consistent with the reality of Intimation. To explain incubation effects beneficial forgetting is a clear possibility. If unconscious work is taken as meaning extended autonomous goal directed operations, the unconscious work hypothesis is unlikely. It is argued that highly parallel spreading activation over a knowledge network leading to solution-relevant remote or uncommon associations is a viable explanation for some incubation effects. A revised flexible model is presented incorporating executive processes and allowing generation of novel ideas in the Preparation and Verification stages as well as during Incubation.
ER -