Memory

from a NYT article:

In a 2003 study at Harvard, Dr. Carson and other researchers tested students’ ability to tune out irrelevant information when exposed to a barrage of stimuli. The more creative the students were thought to be, determined by a questionnaire on past achievements, the more trouble they had ignoring the unwanted data. A reduced ability to filter and set priorities, the scientists concluded, could contribute to original thinking.

This phenomenon, Dr. Carson said, is often linked to a decreased activity in the prefrontal cortex. Studies have found that people who suffered an injury or disease that lowered activity in that region became more interested in creative pursuits.

Here is the whole article

Interestingly, an overfocus on a singular interpretation of a text leads to a lessened ability to use certain details. This is why a technical article in a field one is familiar with, if read with a specific purpose, can be read quickly, whereas a poem- a good one, anyway- shouldn't be.

Every use of language has a multiplicity of interpretations and "purposes". The brain has evolved for a multiplicity of outcomes...