About Cognitive Innovation

Cognitive Innovation is a theoretical framework that describes the nested, dynamic, evolving relationship between living organisms and their environment. It is concerned with creativity, adaptation, and evolution along multiple scales of organization "from cell to society" (Gummerum and Denham, 2014). Cognitive innovation can be understood as "a recursive process in which an individual probes its boundaries to seek out new knowledge, selects promising avenues for more extensive exploitation, and synthesizes what it learns within its growing body of knowledge, which includes knowledge of how to act in the world and how to interact with other individuals" (Denham and Punt, 2017). It draws from a range of theories, approaches, and disciplines: psychology, neuroscience, education, the arts, humanities, philosophy, design, computational sciences, anthropology, biology, cybernetics, autopoeisis, and systems theory.

Learn more about Cognitive Innovation by exploring the resources on this page.

Gummerum, M., & Denham, S. (2014). Cognitive Innovation: From Cell to Society. Europe’s Journal of Psychology, 10(4), 586–588. https://doi.org/10.5964/ejop.v10i4.879

Fulltext of Cognitive Innovation: From Cell to Society

CogNovo was an innovative Doctoral Training Programme, funded by the EU Marie Skłodowska Curie initiative and the University of Plymouth, to foster research training in the emerging field of Cognitive Innovation. Between 2014 and 2017, CogNovo offered transdisciplinary training that combined scientific studies of the neural correlates and mechanisms of creativity, with investigations into the role of creativity in human cognition, and their application in sustainable technological and social innovation.

CogNovo website

Denham, S. L., & Punt, M. (2017). Abstract of “Cognitive Innovation: A View from the Bridge.” Leonardo, 50(2), 184–185. https://doi.org/10.1162/LEON_a_01386.

Fulltext of Cognitive Innovation: A View from the Bridge

Off the Lip: Collaborative Approaches to Cognitive Innovation. Special issue of Avant, Volume VIII, Special Issue. ISBN: 978-83-944622-04-6.