John Metz Baer

John Baer is a Professor of Educational Psychology at Rider University in New Jersey. He earned his B.A. from Yale University (double major, psychology and Japanese Studies, magna cum laude) and his Ph.D. in cognitive and developmental psychology from Rutgers University. His research on the development of creativity and his teaching have won national awards, including the American Psychological Association's Berlyne Prize and the National Conference on College Teaching and Learning’s Award for Innovative Excellence. His primary research focus is the domain specificity of creativity, which argues that creativity is not a general set of skills but rather that creative-thinking skills vary by domain, making creativity in one domain not predictive of creativity in other domains. He developed the Amusement Park Theory of creativity (with James C. Kaufman)