Wallas's Four Creativity Stages, Campbell's Two‐Stage BVSR, and the Three‐Criterion Definition of Creativity

The Wallas four‐stages and Campbell's two‐stage Blind‐Variation and Selective‐Retention (BVSR) represent two classic stage conceptions of creative thought. However, these two stage conceptions can be integrated by taking advantage of a quantitative definition of personal creativity, which is taken as the multiplicative product of originality, utility, and surprise. The three parameters that underlie these criteria (initial probability, final utility, and prior knowledge of that utility) can then form the basis for an eightfold typology of variations, four “blind” and four “sighted.” These variations in ideas or responses are then incorporated into the Wallas stages of Preparation, Incubation, Illumination, and Verification. The resulting integration has important implications for understanding individual creativity. For example, the quantitative analysis predicts that the occurrence of the Incubation stage is positively correlated with the personal creativity of the outcome.