"When people are required simultaneously to carry out a focal task, such as trying to track a randomly moving point in the central part of a screen with a cursor, and a task that requires the use of peripheral vision, like detecting small flashes of light at the edges of the screen, then increasing the size of the reward for successful performance leads to a tighter concentration on the tracking task, and a serious fall-off in performance on the peripheral lights, 34 per cent of subjects who were working for large rewards failed to notice them at all, whereas only 8 per cent of those receiving small incentives failed to notice them."

Guy Claxton

"Hare Brain, Turtle Mind" 4th Estate1997, p130 -131

Claxton's clever book offers many examples of a similar nature. His argument is compelling and the evidence overwhelming - human beings learn better when we are relaxed and we can learn without being aware that we are learning. If the techniques and examples I put forward for the teaching of art, music and writing are successful it is because they seek to allow creativity to happen when the subject is busily engaged working within limitations. Creative thinking happens, then, when the subject is not thinking about being creative.