What improvisers can learn from confabulation

An article about confabulation by Tom Stafford, a lecturer in psychology at the University of Sheffield, has just been reprinted in the Australian Financial Review. Confabulation is a rare disorder caused by severe brain damage. Confabulators cannot distinguish between their memories and things that just come into their minds. They then create elaborate stories to make sense of their situation. For example a 50 year old woman claimed to be only 20 years old; when challenge why her face was so old she explained that her brother had pushed her into a ditch and she landed on her face.

Confabulation suffers demonstrate that all humans need to make sense of their situation and this sense-making releases creativity. Improvisation is an example of creativity being released as the improvisers need to justify their situation. The human need to make sense of our surroundings can lead to very entertaining performances. Improvisers are also taught not to overload a scene otherwise the new information will be dropped as it becomes too difficult to justify all the new material. When information is dropped the audience finds the performance less satisfying.

Confabulation suffers will do obvious things that are completely inappropriate. An experiment in the 1980s involved a doctor placing a syringe on a table in front of a confabulation suffer. The doctor then turned around and dropped his pants. Without hesitation the patient injected the doctor in the buttocks. Improvisors are also taught to do the obvious and it often results in funny performances.

So if you want to release your inner creativity try a course in improvisation - it is much more fun than the alternative.