Creativity fundamentally comes from memorization

Re:Creativity fundamentally comes from memorization by barrkel on Wednesday July 31, 2024 @06:34AM (#41117904)

What do you call it when you remember things so you can repeat them but you can't generalize? E.g. if you learn a poem or phrase in a foreign language, but can't reuse the words in different contexts? Or being able to recite a rule, but not automatically applying it?

Is there a word for this?

Similarly, we should have a word for knowing how to reuse something in a different context, but not recall its origin or its canonical portrayal. Being able to apply a rule, without being able to recite it.

Do you think there's one word which means both of these things, which are opposites, as I've stated them?

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Re:Creativity fundamentally comes from memorization by Izkata on Wednesday July 31, 2024 @08:20AM (#41118582)

> What do you call it when you remember things so you can repeat them but you can't generalize? E.g. if you learn a poem or phrase in a foreign language, but can't reuse the words in different contexts? Or being able to recite a rule, but not automatically applying it?

"Rote memorization"

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Re:Creativity fundamentally comes from memorization by barrkel on Wednesday July 31, 2024 @01:21PM (#41121130)

Rote means learning by repetition.

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Re:Creativity fundamentally comes from memorization by Izkata on Wednesday July 31, 2024 @01:34PM (#41121280)

And "rote memorization" is a compound term that means what you were asking for. It's one of those things you can't get the exact meaning of by just looking at the components.

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Re:Creativity fundamentally comes from memorization by kiba on Wednesday July 31, 2024 @11:59PM (#41126026)

Transfer learning.

Transferring skills from one context to another is surprisingly hard to do, but not impossible. AFAIK, contexts must be similar to each other for transfer to take place.

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