Test For Creativity

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).

Try it yourself: see here

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.

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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.

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