1. Alternative Uses
Developed by J.P.
Guilford in 1967, the Alternative Uses Test stretches your creativity by giving
you two minutes to think of as many uses as possible for an everyday object
like a chair, coffee mug, or brick. Here’s a sample brainstorm for “paper clip”
uses:
·
Hold papers together
·
Cufflinks
·
Earrings
·
Imitation mini-trombone
·
Thing you use to push that emergency
restart button on your router
·
Keeping headphones from getting tangled
up
·
Bookmark
The test measures divergent
thinking across four sub-categories:
·
Fluency - how many uses you can come up with
·
Originality – how uncommon those uses are (e.g. “router
restarter” is more uncommon than “holding papers together”)
·
Flexibility – how many areas your answers cover (e.g.
cufflinks and earrings are both accessories, aka one area)
·
Elaboration – level of detail in responses; “keeping
headphones from getting tangled up” would be worth more than “bookmark”
Try it yourself:
How many uses can you think of for a spoon? You
have two minutes…
2. Incomplete Figure
Developed in the ’60s by psychologist Ellis Paul Torrance, the
Torrance Test of Creative Thinking (TTCT) sought to identify a
creativity-oriented alternative to IQ testing. One of the most iconic elements
of the TTCT was the Incomplete Figure test, a drawing challenge that’s like a
game of exquisite
corpse.
You’re given a shapes like the below, and then asked to complete
the image.
Try it yourself:
A couple more templates for the development of imagination and
creativity, as well as honing skills of the artist. The inscription on the
transfer form "Come on, Doris." American illustrator David
Dzheblou made of this elementary exercise
personal art project .
Try it yourself:
3. Riddles
“A box without hinges, key, or lid, yet golden treasure inside
is hid. What is it?” asks Bilbo Baggins in Tolkein’s The Hobbit. Riddles pose a
question to which initially there seems to be no answer until, suddenly, the
answer arrives in a flash of insight: “Aha! It’s an egg!”
Psychologists use riddles to measure creative problem solving
potential, orconvergent
thinking. Unlike the Alternative Uses Test, the goal here is to
arrive at a single correct answer (rather than as many answers as possible).
4. Remote Associates
The Remote Associates Test takes three unrelated words, such as
“Falling – Actor – Dust,” and asks you to come up with a fourth word that
connects all three words. In this case, the answer is “star,” as in “falling
star,” “movie star” and “stardust.”
You won’t have much luck solving this type of problem by
methodically going through all the compound words and synonyms for ‘falling’
‘actor’ and ‘dust’ and comparing them to each other. As with riddles, the
solutions typically arise as a flash of insight.
Try it
yourself:
Time – Hair – Stretch
Manners – Round – Tennis
Ache – Hunter – Cabbage
(in order): Long, Table,
Head.
5. The Candle Problem
The Candle Problem is a classic test of creative problem solving
developed by psychologist Karl Duncker in 1945. Subjects are given a candle, a
box of thumbtacks, and a book of matches, and asked to affix the lit candle to
the wall so that it will not drip wax onto the table below.The test challenges
functional fixedness, a cognitive bias that makes it difficult to use familiar
objects in abnormal ways.
The solution is to empty the box of
thumbtacks, put the candle into the box, use the thumbtacks to nail the box
(with the candle in it) to the wall, and light the candle with the match.
