Liane Gabora Ph.D.

About

Liane Gabora, Ph.D., is a full professor of psychology at the University of British Columbia. She has almost 200 publications in scholarly books and journals. She has given lectures worldwide on creativity and in what sense culture constitutes an evolutionary process. She holds or has held grants from the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada (NSERC), the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada (SSHRC), Foundation for the Future, and the Flemish Government of Belgium. She is working on a book titled 'Dawn of the Creative Mind: The Origin and Evolution of Human Innovation'.

Recent Posts

Catalyzing Creative Cultural Change

Social learning and individual learning play similar roles; they transmit existing knowledge and catalyze the creative generation of new knowledge and, thereby, cultural change.

Why Creativity Is Distinct From Individual Learning

To build the cultural equivalent of evolutionary trees, it is necessary to distinguish the individual learning of existing information from the creation of new information.

Is the Framework of Quantum Mechanics Needed for Creativity?

Further exploring creative thinking, familiarity, and quantum models.

Creative Thinking, Familiarity, and Quantum Models

We use a strange yet well-established phenomenon—that people's answers depend on the order of the questions—to determine whether quantum math is needed to model creative thought.

Documenting Cultural Lineages

By entering your own actions and ideas, you’ll see how they pave the way for other cultural developments, and see where they fit into the interwoven tapestry of human achievements.

The Ultimate Meaning of Life: Leaving a Legacy

One hundred thousand years ago, cultural evolution became cumulative when human minds acquired an integrated network structure. This happens anew in every child's mind.

The Ultimate Meaning of Life

The desire to leave a cultural legacy is neither innate nor learned; it emerges from within during the first few years of life as memories coalesce into an integrated network.

How to Get From 'AI Tools’ to ‘AI Selves’

Until artificial intelligence possesses autocatalytic structure, it isn't a "self." It may be creative, but it's merely a tool, and its creativity is but an expression of us.

Can Psychology Tell Us About Someone’s Essence?

When someone crosses your mind, how do you know it’s them you’re thinking of? It’s likely something more abstract than their appearance: the feeling they evoke.

Why I Don't Believe in Bucket Lists

Whatever is on your mind affects what part of the new experience you pay attention to, how you react to it, how it gets etched into your memory, and how you derive meaning from it.