This seminar course will examine recent research findings from psychology and cognitive neuroscience to arrive at a better understanding of the conditions that foster, or impede, flexible thinking or 'mental agility.' Two key questions will be examined throughout. First, what are the relative roles of predominantly controlled or deliberate modes of cognitive processing versus more automatic (or spontaneous) processes in enabling and sustaining creatively adaptive thinking? Second, how do mental representations at differing levels of specificity highly abstract versus highly specific contribute to flexible thinking?