Anna P. Smith

Cognitive Psychology of Creativity and Aesthetics

I am a cognitive scientist whose specialization is in the measurement of “generative thought,” or how the brain deploys past experiences to generate new ideas, as in the case of mind wandering, future thinking, creative cognition, imagination, and meaning-making during aesthetic experience. I am inspired by science writers, autobiographers, and polymaths whose aesthetic attitudes towards the natural world blur the boundaries between artistic composition and objective description. I am interested in the idea that memory can have an aesthetic quality that is both expressed in art and/or interpreted through sensory perception during aesthetic experiences. My dissertation is entitled, "Contributions of Memory to Aesthetic Experiences of Visual Art."

I have extensive experience designing and teaching upper-secondary and bachelors-level neuroscience curricula, including formerly directing and teaching Duke Youth Programs' Neurosciences Camp for high schoolers (in 2018 and 2019, prior to starting graduate school) and working as a Duke Learning Innovation Fellow in the summer of 2023 to re-design and execute the Neuroscience Major's Introduction to Cognitive Neuroscience (NEUROSCI 217) in 2024 as a laboratory-based active learning course.

Outside of work, I like to run and spend time in nature, take care of my cat Wesley, play RPGs, fill journals, do field drawing, and explore.