WEEK 11 – TUTORIAL 10
Individually answer the following to test your creative thinking. Give explanation to support
your answers. Later share your answers with the class.
1. Alternative Uses Test stretches your creativity by giving yourself two minutes to think
of as many uses as possible for “paper clip” uses. (The test measures divergent
thinking across four sub-categories: Fluency, Originality, Flexibility and Elaboration)
2. Incomplete Figure test: complete the image, give yourself five minutes to see what you
can turn them in to. (Identifies a creativity-oriented alternative to IQ testing)
3. Riddles:
• A box without hinges, key, or lid, yet golden treasure inside is hidden. What is it?
• A man has married 20 women in a small town. All of the women are still alive
and none of them are divorced. The man has broken no laws. Who is the man?
(Psychologists use riddles to measure creative problem solving potential, or
convergent thinking)
4. The Remote Associates Test takes three unrelated words and asks you to come up with a
fourth word that connects all three words
• “Falling – Actor – Dust,” (The answer is “star,” as in “falling star,” “movie star”
and “stardust.”)
• Time – Hair – Stretch
• Manners – Round – Tennis
• Ache – Hunter – Cabbage
5. The Candle Problem
The test presents the participant with the following task: how to fix and light a candle on a
wall (a cork board) in a way so the candle wax won't drip onto the table below.[3] To do
so, one may only use the following along with the candle:
•
a book of matches
•
a box of thumbtack
6. You will be a qualified doctor in the year 2027 and finish your houseman in the year
2029. Think creatively how you intend to offer your services differently in the year 2030
as a medical officer (MO) so that it will be unique and appealing to your patients (clients)
Answers:
3. egg, priest
4. long, table, head
5.
The solution is to empty the box of thumbtacks, use the thumbtacks
to nail the box to the wall, put the candle into the box, and light the
candle with the match.[3] The concept of functional fixedness predicts
that the participant will only see the box as a device to hold the
thumbtacks and not immediately perceive it as a separate and
functional component available to be used in solving the task.