The study of mental processes is intended to expose the underlying mechanisms that govern human thought. An accurate characterization of human thought will hopefully make explicit the patterns which categorize these processes, and also reveal flaws in standard rational processes. Many researchers consider the true test of understanding to be a clearly defined algorithm which specifies a Turing computable procedure. This criterion presumes that the mind can be completely described purely in these terms, a point which is hotly debated by all students of the mind. In particular, one process has been singled out by some as proof that we can not be described by a finite number of discrete states: creativity.

The processes that fall under the heading of creativity have remained elusive for thousands of years. In ancient times, poets, musicians, artists and orators were considered divinely inspired1, suggesting that creativity has always been mysterious and revered. Nowadays, their success might be attributed to inspiration and intuition, terms that are about as informative as "prophecy" when it comes to explaining how creativity works. However, before we can address the questions concerning the generation of creative ideas, we must first define this seemingly intuitive concept, and answer the question What is creativity?

In its traditional sense, creativity is identified with creation ex nihilo, the act of generating something out of nothing. This notion seems difficult to apply to the creation of ideas, since all human creators are equipped with a vast compendium of knowledge, and new ideas are not created in a vacuum. A creative idea must be novel, and Margaret Boden2 distinguishes between psychological creativity, where an idea is novel to the individual, and historical creativity, where an idea is novel for the human race. She points out that all historical creativity depends upon psychological creativity, so an explanation of psychological must necessarily explain historical creativity as well. Is novelty enough for an idea to be considered creative?

Some "intuitively" insist that a creative idea must be interesting, as well as novel, but this requirement seems arbitrary considering that the varying standards of what constitutes interesting. We would not want to discredit the creative handiwork of a plumber or a mechanic simply because the academic establishment did not find their work interesting. Furthermore, some academics have found the seemingly mundane to be extremely interesting. Consider the observation of Noam Chomsky, who has argued that virtually all speech acts should be viewed as creative, since most sentences that we utter are psychologically, if not historically novel. Considering his specialty, It is no surprise that Chomsky finds the formation of grammatical sentences interesting, but it seems that no analysis of the concept of creativity will settle the issue of what counts as being creative.

What we can hope for, is a systematic investigation of the various activities generally grouped under the heading of creativity, which will provide us with a basis for categorizing these activities as a function of the way that they work. In many ways, creativity is currently used as a catch all phrase to "explain" activities ranging from problem solving and theorizing, to painting and improvising. Perhaps these activities have little in common save for the fact that, for most, we have no robust model of their workings. Or, perhaps these activities do share certain essential properties, such as the three that Philip Johnson-Laird has proposed: "(1) The result is formed from existing elements, but in a combination that is novel for the individual and perhaps society as a whole. It is not merely percieved3 or remembered. (2) It satisfies a pre-existing criteria. (3) It is not constructed by rote or derived by some simple deterministic procedure. The pocess allows for freedom of choice."4

The difficulty in defining creativity may partially account for many researcher's focus on a few paradigm case studies involving historical geniuses, whose work is indisputably creative. Some drawbacks in studying the works of great geniuses include the relative scarcity of fresh data, and the mythological nature of many of the accounts. Also, the value of phenomenalogical descriptions is unclear, since we have no reliable method for assessing the accuracy of introspection, and furthermore, many creative processes may be unconscious. Given these considerations, it may be fruitful to turn to mundane instances of creativity in the hopes of studying examples of creativity which are plentiful, and relatively easy generate.

"Analyzing humor is like dissecting a frog. Few people are interested in it and the frog dies of it."

E.B. White

One area of creativity which has received little attention from scholars compared to its importance in everyday life is the domain of humor and wit. This domain is a subset of the natural language generation problem, since all verbal jokes must be grammatical members of the language in which they are told. However, a good joke or a witty saying is far less frequent than an ordinary grammatical sentence, although some people certainly have more of a knack for it than others. Using the methodology suggested above, instead of trying to determine the creative effort that goes into a joke only through analysis, we might be better off comparing the mechanisms involved in wit to those involved with other, well studied creative domains. This effectiveness of this strategy will depend upon the resemblance of wit to other forms of creativity, and will allow us to confront the hypothesis that wit involves heuristics that are extremely similar to other domains of creativity.

Since virtually everyone has a sense of humor (or, at least, likes to think that they do) a question central to the study of creativity immediately arises. Do really good comedians think in qualitatively different ways from the average wise guy, or do they just employ the same mechanisms as everybody else, only better? This question has been posed many times concerning different areas of creativity, and an analysis of wit will contribute to this debate. Hopefully, wit and other domains of creativity will mutually shed light upon one another, suggesting new directions of research that will further illuminate human cognition.

"When a thing is funny, search it carefully for a hidden truth."

George Bernard Shaw

Even before we worry about what makes a sentence witty, the problem of wit can first be divided into two categories: (a) the generation of a joke (b) the comprehension of a joke. While these two tasks both seem to be involved in the writing of a joke, a listener's task is to understand and "get" the joke (these two components of comprehension might be distinct). At first glance, the comprehension of a joke might not sound like a creative project, however the comprehension of many jokes and witty sayings can be viewed as a problem solving task, in which the goal is to figure out the humorous content of the sentence. This process often involves exploring various associative paths, in a manner that might mirror the generative procedure that the writer followed. In certain respects, comprehension can be viewed as the inverse process of generation, which leads one wonder whether or not we ought to view the generation of wit as an exercise in problem solving, and if so, what problem is the joke writer trying to solve?

Not all creative tasks can be construed as exercises in problem solving, so there need not be answer to the question posed above. A painter's overall project might be described in grand terms of solving the problem of making a painting, or even solving the problem of ugliness in the world. However, it does not always seem correct to describe the actual task of choosing the next brush stroke as an exercise in problem solving. Similarly, a poet's next word, or a musician's next note also fall into this category. Perhaps, what distinguishes these tasks from clear cut instances of problem solving is the fact that these are all "problems" without a unique solution. While the artist or composer might feel that they have found the only correct continuation for their piece of work, there are actually many solutions to the problem of what comes next. On the other hand, the comprehension of a joke is a well defined task, that of figuring out what the jokester intended to be humorous (this allows for a joke being funny for multiple reasons).

Both the generation and the comprehension of jokes fit the standard general models of creativity proposed in the literature. "A theory that has been applied to every field of creativity and imitated many time with minor variations is the one advanced by Joseph Wallace (1926), who believed that the creative process consists of four stages: preparation, incubation, illumination, and verification."5 These four stages require further elaboration, however, they give us a rough indication we are in the right neighborhood. As we shall see, both the generation and the comprehension of jokes follow these stages of development.

- Find anecdotal evidence of joke writers in action: The punchline that suddenly emerges in a flash, as if from nowhere.

Within the framework of Wallace's stages, theories of creativity often invoke notions such as the ability to form loose associations, and hold several concepts in working memory simultaneously.6 At first glance, many on-liners, such as "Organized crime in America takes in over 40 billion dollars a year, and spends very little on office supplies"7, might commonly be described as making loose associations (in this case, between 'organized crime' and 'office supplies'), however this qualification may be vacuous. Is there a well defined difference between a close association and a loose association?

"What does fish remind you of?"

"Other fish."

"And what do other fish remind you of?"

"Other fish."

-Joseph Heller, Catch-22, xxvii

The notion of two concepts, A and B, being associated is a misleading one. Pavlovian- style conditioning suggests that any two concepts can be associated with one another, (in one or both directions), and there is no basis for claiming that one association is closer than another. Once this type stimulus-response association is forged in a person's memory it may seem as close as any other. For example, up until a decade ago, the association between mouse and computer would have been a far stretch indeed, however new words are coined complete with new associations. In fact , since words are defined in terms of a network of association with other words, new words or senses must always be accompanied by new associations. Since new words and senses are formed all the time, it should come as no surprise that new associations are formed between words frequently as well. If new associations can be formed, then perhaps the conceptual distance between two words can be altered as well. Does the possibility of altering the conceptual distance between two concepts wreak havoc with the notion of a loose association?

What we really need is a way of describing the nature of the relationship that exists between A and B, and perhaps a method of quantifying the semantic distance between certain concepts. One way to determine the closeness of two words is based on the empirical frequency of their association. This data is gathered by researchers who say a word ask their subjects to tell them the first word that comes to mind. Typical responses are considered more closely associated to the word than atypical responses, however, it is unclear whether this type of word association provides the best indication of the type of associativity we are trying to measure. For one, the creative process may involve the associativity between A->B, B->A, and A<->B, not just A->B. Furthermore, researchers are not certain whether the subjects first responses indicates a conceptual closeness, or whether it indicates some other variable, such as the subject's perceived expected response. The notion of similarity has also been studied in relation to the assignment of objects to categories8. However this approach focuses on the typicality of an object within a particular category and is ill suited as a measure of the distance between random concepts. While some jokes may rely on these types of associations, we need to introduce an alternative measure of similarity to provide a robust explanation for loose associations.

It will help if we start with a working definition of a concept, as explained by Paul Thagard. "My proposal then is to think of concepts as complex structures akin to frames, but (1) giving special priority to kind and part-whole relations that establish hierarchies and (2) expressing factual information in rules that can be more complex than simple slots. Schematically, a concept can be thought of as a frame-like structure of the following sort:

CONCEPT:

A kind of:

Subkinds:

A Part of:

Parts:

Synonyms:

Antonyms:

Rules:

Instances:"9

Any measure of the associativity between concepts ought to be a function of the relationship between the features of the concepts in question.

- Discuss the measure of semantic distances in WordNet.

- Are unusual words funnier then frequent ones? The humor in euphamisms.

Even after we have established a working definition of loose associations, our task is not complete. The ability to form loose associations can not be the whole story behind creativity, since many loose associations produce complete nonsense, and amount to a random walk through all concepts that are not closely related. What we are searching for is a heuristic that filters out (pre or post?) the concepts that might be meaningful. Given a map of concepts, could this operation be carried out syntactically?

- Discussion of types of creative algorithms, and the place of wit: "Creativity can be modeled by three sorts of machine. The first sort uses a neo-Darwinian process of arbitrary generation followed by critical evaluation. The evolution of species depends on the recursive use of such a procedure. Despite many claims to the contrary, it is an open question whether ideas evolve this way. The second sort of machine uses a neo-Lamarckian process in which the criteria of a genre are used to generate ideas, and an arbitrary choice is made whenever they generate more than one possibility. This process appears to be unique in those arts and practices of daily life that depend on extempore performance. It makes possible the rapid creation of satisfactory results. The third sort of machine uses a multistage algorithm in which some criteria are used to generate ideas and others are used to evaluate them. This procedure is used in many kinds of artistic and scientific creation."10

Apart from, and perhaps more important than, establishing a connection between two concepts, the comic must search for the perfect wording of their thought. As many joke tellers have discovered (often too late), the gist of the joke is not equivalent to the properly phrased punchline, and often a funny individual is credited with having the ability to tell a joke or a story well. This observation suggests that in addition to choosing funny subject matter, a comic must also be a master wordsmith. The skill of a wordsmith is largely tied up to the wordsmith's ability to conjure up synonyms which playfully convey his intention. Synonyms are definitely not loosely associated with one another, and yet it seems that a mastery of these closely associated words plays an integral part in the generation of wit. What is the relationship between the ability to form loose associations and the a rich knowledge of synonyms?

- Does following a trail of synonyms result in a sentence that would ordinarily be considered loosely connected?

- loose associations vs. multiple associations - strong knowledge of synonyms.

- "Did you ever see a ___?" game - a house fly, a back pack, a gefilte fish, a TV land... race to think up compound nouns which can also be read as <Noun><Verb>. Involves a "double search" by participants.

- Examinations of various classes of "one lines": See Below. Possibility of constructing program to generate restricted classes... Would humor be built into program, or would it emerge?

- Could a program learn to classify one liners into one of these categories?

- Role of mental models in "solving" jokes - When logic breaks down: the humor in illogical sentences.

(False) Antonyms

Life is divided into the horrible and the miserable.

Woody Allen

In love there are two evils: war and peace.

Horace

You've gotta take the bitter with the sour.

Samuel Goldwyn

A "Bay Area Bisexual" to told me that I didn't quite coincide with either of her desires.

Woody Allen

Never mistake endurance for hospitality.

Unknown

Never mistake motion for action.

Ernest Hemingway

There will be a rain dance Friday night, weather permitting.

George Carlin

The optimist proclaims that we live in the best of all possible worlds, and the pessimist fears this is true.

James Branch Cambell

A Fork in the Garden Path

The only time a woman really succeeds in changing a man is when he's a baby.

Natalie Wood

I take my children everywhere, but they always find their way back home.

Robert Orben

My doctor gave me two weeks to live. I hope they're in August.

Ronnie Shakes

I have just returned from Boston. It is the only thing to do if you find yourself there.

Fred Allen

The horse raced past the barn fell.

Unknown

If you are going to try cross-country skiing, start with a small country.

Saturday Night Live

Thomas Jefferson's slaves loved him so much they called him by a special name: Dad.

Mark Russell

My grandmother started walking five miles a day when she was sixty. She's ninety seven now, and we don't' know where the hell she is.

Ellen DeGeneris

Time flies like an arrow, Fruit flies like a banana.

Lisa Grossman

Surprise Instance

I phoned my Dad to tell him I had stopped smoking. He called me a quitter.

Stephen Pearl

The trouble with unemployment is that the minute you wake up your on the job.

Slappy White

Sometimes too much to drink is barely enough.

Mark Twain

Nothing is wrong with Southern California that a rise in ocean level wouldn't cure.

Ross MacDonald

Thanks to the Interstate Highway System, it is now possible to travel from coast to coast without seeing anything.

Charles Kuralt

I'm glad Reagan is President. Of course, I'm a professional comedian.

Will Durst

In spite of the cost of living, its still popular.

Kathleen Norris

Always get married early in the morning. That way if it doesn't work out, you haven't wasted a whole day.

Mickey Rooney

I bought some batteries, but they weren't included.

Steven Wright

I was walking down the street wearing glasses, when the prescription ran out.

Steven Wright

I got food poisoning today. I don't know when I'll use it.

Steven Wright.

Funny/Literal Definition

Jesus was a Jew, yes, but only on his mother's side.

Archie Bunker

Charm is a way of getting an answer yes without a clear question.

Albert Camus

Copy from one its plagiarism; copy from two its research.

Wilson Mizner

The difference between literature and journalism is that journalism is unreadable and literature is not read.

Oscar Wilde

Very few things happen at the right time, and the rest do not happen at all. The conscientious historian will correct these defects.

Herotodus

Life is something that happens when you can't get to sleep.

Cynthia Nelms

Diets are mainly food for thought.

N. Wylie Jones

Most isms are wasms.

Gerald Vision

Logically Valid but Silly Inference, or a Conjunction With Nonsequitur

Organized crime in America takes in over 40 billion dollars a year, and spends very little on office supplies.

Woody Allen

Statistics show that of those who contract the habit of eating, very few survive.

Wallace Irwin

Stuffed deer heads on walls are bad enough, but its worse when their wearing dark glasses and hair streamers and ornaments in their antlers, because then you know they were enjoying themselves at a party when they were shot.

Ellen DeGeneris

The cable TV sex channels don't expand our horizons, don't make us better people, and don't come in clearly enough.

Bill Maher

Good judgment comes from experience, and experience comes from bad judgment.

Barry LePatner

There are three rules for writing a novel. Unfortunately nobody knows what they are.

E. Somerset Maugham

Only two things are infinite: the Universe and human stupidity, and I'm not sure about the former.

Albert Einstein

On a New York Subway you get fined for spitting, but you can puke for free.

George Carlin

The guy who invented the first wheel was an idiot. The guy who invented the other three, he was a genius.

Sid Caesar

Variations on Famous Last Words

I'm not young enough to know everything.

Oscar Wilde

You are where you eat.

Unknown

Never put off until tomorrow what you can do the day after tomorrow.

Mark Twain

If the phone doesn't ring it's me.

Jimmy Buffet

The shortest distance between two points is usually under repair.

Unknown

Curiosity killed the cat, but for a while I was suspect.

Steven Wright

Not-So-Scientific Hypothesis

Life is extinct on other planets because their scientists were more advanced than ours.

Unknown

The length of a movie should be directly related to the endurance of the human bladder.

Alfred Hitchcock

My theory of evolution is that Darwin was adopted.

Steven Wright

When I was born I was so surprised I didn't talk for a year and a half.

Gracie Allen

It is possible that blondes also prefer gentlemen.

Mamie Van Doren

Analogy

Art, like morality, consists of drawing the line somewhere.

G. K. Chesterton

Why should I tolerate a perfect stranger at the bedside of my mind?

Vladimir Nabakov on Psychoanalysis

Analyzing humor is like dissecting a frog. Few people are interested in it and the frog dies of it.

E.B. White

The economy of Houston is so bad right now that two prostitutes that the police arrested turned out to be virgins.

Bill Abeel

Self-Reference/Truism

This sentence no verb.

Unknown

You have to have a talent for having talent.

Ruth Gordon

There are two kinds of people, those who finish what they start, and so on.

Robert Byrne

WYMI-the all philosophy radio station.

Mike Dugan

Observational Humor

It has been my experience that people who have no vices, have very few virtues.

Abraham Lincoln

Some editors are failed writers, but so are most writers.

T. S. Elliot

The average person thinks he isn't.

Father Larry Lorenzoni

Did you ever notice that...

Jerry Seinfeld

Could you Rephrase That

Why is there so much month left at the end of the money?

Unknown

Wise men talk because they have something to say. Fools talk because they have to say something.

Plato

My karma ran over your dogma.

Unknown

Problem Solving

I am sitting in the smallest room in the house. Your review is in front of me. Soon it will be behind me.

Max Reger, Author

Some Mornings it just doesn't seem worth it to gnaw through the leather straps.

Emo Williams

Running off at the Mouth

Some luck lies in not getting what you thought you wanted but getting what you have, which once you have got it you may be smart enough to see is what you would have wanted had you known.

Garrison Keillor

Euphemisms

I don't consider myself bald. I'm simply taller than my hair.

Tom Sharp

Meat is murder, but fish is justifiable homicide.

Jeremy Hardy

Cannibals aren't vegetarians, their humanitarians.

Unknown

The parrot is no more. It has ceased to be. It's expired and gone to meet it's maker. This is a late parrot. It's a stiff. Bereft of life, it rests in peace. If you hadn't nailed it down to the pearch, it'd be pushing up the daisies. It's rung down the curtain and joined the choir invisible. This is an ex- parrot.

Monty Python

Bi-association

We had a quicksand box in our backyard. I was an only child, eventually.

Steven Wright