Dr Anna Kauer
About
My research project
Mind Like a Sieve, or Superpower? Investigating Creative AttentionResearch into creative achievement has looked at the role of diffuse early attention; i.e. leaky sensory gating, that allows seemingly irrelevant information to be noticed. This is believed to enhance creativity by keeping the mind open to a wider range of possibilities, enabling the generation of more original ideas. In my PhD I am investigating the alternative hypothesis that individuals with real-world creative achievements have greater perceptual capacity and are therefore simply able to process more information. A significant roadblock to research in this area is the lack of a simple-to-administer test of this attention type, the development of which is another key aim of this research.
Supervisors
Research into creative achievement has looked at the role of diffuse early attention; i.e. leaky sensory gating, that allows seemingly irrelevant information to be noticed. This is believed to enhance creativity by keeping the mind open to a wider range of possibilities, enabling the generation of more original ideas. In my PhD I am investigating the alternative hypothesis that individuals with real-world creative achievements have greater perceptual capacity and are therefore simply able to process more information. A significant roadblock to research in this area is the lack of a simple-to-administer test of this attention type, the development of which is another key aim of this research.
My qualifications
Affiliations and memberships
ResearchResearch interests
I became interested in creativity as the result of first-hand involvement in the creative process during a career in the creative industries which included book publishing, film and television. I studied for my MSc in Psychology (Conversion) at Surrey where my dissertation focused on the relationship between divergent thinking and creativity as a function of creative achievement. I graduated with a Distinction and am now working on a PhD funded by a departmental studentship, exploring the attention mechanisms underlying real-world creative achievement. I use behavioural methods including eye tracking and you'll typically find me in a lab running in-person experiments. I am also interested in the relationships between creativity and mind wandering/daydreaming, sleep, neurodiversity and sensory processing sensitivity.
I am a member of the Cognitive, Brain and Behaviour and Developmental Research Groups at Surrey.
Research interests
I became interested in creativity as the result of first-hand involvement in the creative process during a career in the creative industries which included book publishing, film and television. I studied for my MSc in Psychology (Conversion) at Surrey where my dissertation focused on the relationship between divergent thinking and creativity as a function of creative achievement. I graduated with a Distinction and am now working on a PhD funded by a departmental studentship, exploring the attention mechanisms underlying real-world creative achievement. I use behavioural methods including eye tracking and you'll typically find me in a lab running in-person experiments. I am also interested in the relationships between creativity and mind wandering/daydreaming, sleep, neurodiversity and sensory processing sensitivity.
I am a member of the Cognitive, Brain and Behaviour and Developmental Research Groups at Surrey.
Teaching
I have taught as a Graduate Teaching Assistant on several Undergraduate modules, including The Psychology of Creativity (PSY3096), Cognitive Psychology with Research Methods (PSY1017), Conceptual and Historical Issues in Psychology (CHIP) (PSY1022), Developmental Psychology with Research Methods (PSY1018) and the Introduction to Statistics and Data Analysis (PSY1020).
Publications
Highlights
Kauer, A. R. and Sowden, P. T., (2020). The role of attention in the development of creativity. In K. Cohen-Kadosh (Ed.), The Oxford Handbook of Developmental Cognitive Neuroscience. Oxford, UK: Oxford University Press. Advance online publication. DOI: 10.1093/oxfordhb/9780198827474.013.15
Kauer, A. R., Sowden, P. T., Cohen Kadosh, K. & Winstone, N. (May 2018). Taking everything in: A new approach to leaky attention and creative achievement. Winner of the Conference Best Poster Prize at the 2018 UK Creativity Researchers' Conference, Canterbury, Kent, UK
Sowden, P.T., & Kauer, A.R. (August 2016) The relationship between divergent thinking and creativity as a function of creative achievement. Paper presented at the 2016 Annual Convention of the American Psychological Association, Denver, Colorado, USA.