posted 3/28/06
Reading Assignment:  Chapter 13

What is creativity?

• What counts as a creative solution to a problem?
• Novel/unique & valuable/functional
• Example: broccoli chip ice cream is _______, but not __________
• Automobile cup-holders are valuable but not ________ (although they were when first invented)

• Assume that a steel pipe is embedded in the concrete floor of a bare room. The inside diameter is 0.06 inches larger than the diameter of a ping- pong ball (1.5 inches) that is resting gently at the bottom of the pipe. You are one of six people in the room, along with the following objects: 100 feet of clothesline A carpenters hammer A chisel A box of Wheaties A file A wire coat hanger A monkey wrench A light bulb
• _______________ means failing to think of some solutions because they violate assumed constraints on the problem.
• Often these contraints are not real
• Some constraints are _________ that, if violated, would lead to more solutions

• A = 21, B = 127, C = 3, Solve for 100; Solution is 127 - 21 - 3 - 3
• A = 14, B = 163, C = 25, Solve for 99 ;Solution is 163 - 14 - 25 - 25
• A = 23, B = 49, C = 3, Solve for 20
• Solution is _______________
• Better solution is  ______________
• Is this rigidity or mindlessness? Or is it ________________?

• E.g,
• snow, down, out
• ache, sweet, burn
• Perhaps creativity has to do with noticing ______________ that work in this situation
• Indication of not being _______________
• Dyad of triads task
• Say which of two triads had a common remote associate (even if you cant give the associate)
• Suggests intuition -- maybe related to creativity?

• How many uses can you think of for a ________? A _____? A ________?
• Measures ___________ thinking
• ________ – how many different ideas
• ________ – how many different types of uses
• ________ – how different answers were from those of other people.
• Like the RAT, measures remotely associated uses.
• Thinking of an _____________ use could provide a novel solution
• Hierarchy of responses: list of uses starting with the most obvious (usually thought of first)
• Creative people respond more _______ (because thinking of more possibilities)
• Think of unusual uses as easily as common uses
• And, of course, think of more ________ uses

• __________: problem is formulated
• __________: not thought about consciously
• __________: solution emerges (suddenly)
• __________: check solution
• Examples
• Mathematician Poincare finds mathematical solution in a flash while on vacation.
• Poet Coleridge wrote Kubla Khan after having it appear to him in a dream
• Critique:
• Not a lot of empirical support for this
• Describes _________________, not cognitive process
• _______________ state not necessary
• Hard to tell if person isn't consciously thinking of problem

• Smith & Blankenship (1991)
• Try RAT with or without ___________
• Incubate while __________ or not
• Try RAT again

Creativity as Problem Finding

• Getzels Problem Finding theory
• Creativity is about _________ problems, not solving problems that are already given
• Artists who produced more creative paintings (as rated by judges) spent more time __________ a problem (examing and selecting items for a still life)
• Problem formulation
• Creativity comes in reformulating the problem after a failed attempt (e.g., Dunbar, 1995)

• Solution comes all at once, rather than as a result of a sequence of steps toward the goal state.
• ____________________ is an example of insight, according to Dunker
• Example insight problems:
• Joanne married 5 men in one day. She did not divorce any of the men, none of them died, and she did not break any laws.
• Describe how to put 27 pigs in 4 pens in such a way that there is an odd number of pigs in each pen.
• A man walks into a bar and asks for a glass of water. The bartender points a shotgun at the man. The man says Thank you and walks out.
• Janet Metcalfe found that non-insight problems show gradual increase in __________ over solution time, while insight problems show dramatic rise.
• Subject can accurately predict which _______ problems they will be able to solve, but not which ________ problems
• Key to insight solutions may be
• Thinking of a ____________
• Thinking of unusual _________ for words
• Ability to select relevant information
• Open question as to whether insight is different from other problem solving processes