Neroni reframes creativity's unit of explanation from isolated factors to cross-level dynamic configurations, offering four mechanisms—constraint, affordance, regulation, feedback/selection—and testable propositions
In this Perspective in Frontiers in Cognition, Neroni integrates biopsychosocial, systemic, sociocultural, and interactionist approaches to reconceptualize creativity as a multilevel, developmentally situated, sociotechnically mediated phenomenon emerging from interactions among biological, psychological, developmental, sociocultural, and technological processes, arguing that no single factor is inherently creative and that its contribution depends on how it combines with other factors under particular conditions, and proposing four cross-level mechanisms—constraint, affordance, regulation, and feedback/selection—along with four testable propositions: configurational dependence, temporal specificity, cross-level divergence, and developmental reconfiguration.