Note that this results in the prediction that there is, in fact, a correlation between the ratio of creative to total ideas and total output: because later products are more creative, not only do those who generate more ideas generate more original ideas, but the ratio between original ideas and total ideas will also increase with total output. The general idea that creative processes involve memory retrieval also underlies models of creative ideation, such as the matrix model and Search for Ideas in Associative Memory (SIAM; Nijstad & Stroebe, 2006). According to these models, the production of ideas is to some extent predictable. For example, both models predict that, because of the associative nature of long-term memory from which previous concepts are retrieved, successively generated ideas will often be semantically related . SIAM also predicts that such semantic clustering is very efficient: semantically related ideas can be generated more quickly than semantically unrelated ideas. These and other predictions have been confirmed in experimental research . Creativity as special cognition: Remote associations While most researchers would agree that creativity involves cognitive processes such as retrieval and the formation of new associations, some argue that creative thinking is qualitatively different from ‘‘ordinary'' THE DUAL PATHWAY TO CREATIVITY MODEL 39 Downloaded by at 09:29 08 October 2017 problem solving . While problem solving requires focused attention, effort, and systematic, analytical processing, creativity benefits from defocused attention and unsystematic processes . Analytical thinking, in this view, would primarily lead to ideas that are highly accessible and closely related to existing concepts and ideas . Defocused, random processes would result in the generation of associations that are more remotely related to existing ideas . One prediction is that creativity benefits from an intellectual and dispositional capacity to generate and use remote associations . According to this viewpoint, people differ in the steepness of association hierarchies. Whereas for less-creative individuals stimuli are generally strongly associated with a few responses, and much less strongly associated with other responses , for creative individuals the differences in the strengths of associations are smaller . Thus creative individuals are more likely to come up with an unusual response to a stimulus, whereas less-creative individuals are more likely to come up with habitual, uncreative responses. For example, for most people the concept ‘‘cat'' is strongly associated with the concept ‘‘dog'', but for creative people this association may be less strong, whereas associations with other more remote concepts may be stronger . Indeed, research indicates that creative scientists give more original word associations than uncreative scientists . One mechanism through which this might work is latent inhibition. Latent inhibition refers to the capability of the brain to filter out from current attentional focus those stimuli previously experienced as irrelevant, which in general is highly adaptive . However, creative individuals, according to this reasoning, have attenuated levels of latent inhibition. As a result, more seemingly irrelevant stimuli are allowed to enter attention, which in turn increases the availability of elements to work with during a creative task, leading to more original responses . Evidence does indeed indicate that an attenuated level of latent inhibition is predictive of creative performance , and this seems to be the case especially for people with high general mental ability (i.e., high IQ; Carson et al., 2003). The hypothesis that attenuated levels of latent inhibition are associated with flat association hierarchies and creativity can explain some findings regarding the relation between individual differences and creativity. NIJSTAD ET AL. Downloaded by at 09:29 08 October 2017 For example, reductions in latent inhibition are associated with the Big Five personality trait Openness to Experience and Openness to Experience is positively related to creativity . Furthermore, attenuated latent inhibition is also associated with susceptibility to, for example, schizophrenia , and schizophrenia has in turn been linked to higher levels of creativity .