Thinking, Intelligence and Creativity Questions and Answers

Answer: A

Raven's Progressive Matrices is the key's example of simultaneous processing in the PASS model (Planning, Attention, Simultaneous and Successive processing). Simultaneous processing means grasping several pieces of information together as one whole pattern, which is what completing a matrix of figures demands.

The 16 PF is a self-report personality inventory, not a processing task. An immediate memory test, which asks for items to be recalled in order, is the usual example of successive processing, and the pattern drawing test is not one the key accepts.

Answer: D

An algorithmic approach is a step-by-step rule that guarantees a solution if followed correctly, so it is a problem-solving strategy and not a technique for creative thinking. Brainstorming (generating many ideas without judging), mind mapping (diagramming ideas around a centre) and lateral thinking (de Bono's approach of looking at a problem from unusual directions) are all recognised creative techniques.

An algorithm guarantees an answer by following fixed steps, which is the reverse of the open, idea-generating nature of creative techniques.

Answer: C

The matching is 1-D, 2-C, 3-B, 4-A. An artificial concept is well defined and has precise, rigid rules. A concept is a category used to refer to a number of objects and events. A rule is an instruction to do something. A natural concept is a category that is usually ill-defined.

Options 1, 2 and 4 each mismatch at least two pairs, for example by pairing 'rule' with a category definition.

A natural concept is a loose category such as 'bird', whereas an artificial concept, such as a triangle, has exact defining rules.

Answer: B

Spatial intelligence is the ability to form, use and transform mental images, in Gardner's theory of multiple intelligences, and it is used by architects, sailors, painters and pilots. Logical-mathematical intelligence is about reasoning with numbers and abstract patterns. 'Abstract intelligence' is not one of Gardner's types, and componential intelligence belongs to Sternberg's triarchic theory, where it means analytic thinking.

Gardner's spatial intelligence is shown by sailors, sculptors and surgeons, who all work with mental images of space and form.

Answer: B

The student is planning the solution. Writing a resume, investigating the job market and consulting friends and teachers are the steps chosen to reach the goal, which is the planning stage. Identifying the problem would be recognising that a job is needed, representation of the problem is forming a picture of it, and evaluating the plan comes after acting, to see whether it worked.

Evaluating the plan comes after the plan has been carried out, so it is wrong here, and the student has not yet acted. The student has already identified the problem (needing a job), so planning is the stage he is in.

Answer: C

'Creative' intelligence is not one of the types in Gardner's theory of multiple intelligences. His types are linguistic, logical-mathematical, spatial, musical, bodily-kinaesthetic, interpersonal, intrapersonal and naturalistic. Intrapersonal, interpersonal and logical-mathematical are all on that list, so the options naming them are wrong.

Gardner later added a naturalist intelligence to the original seven, but he did not add creativity as a separate intelligence.

Answer: A

Expressing the information as visual imagery belongs to the representation of the problem stage. Here the problem solver forms a mental picture, a diagram or a set of symbols that captures the problem. In planning the solution one chooses the steps to take, in evaluating the plan one checks the result, and in identifying the problem one recognises that a problem exists.

Representing the problem means putting it in a form that can be worked on, such as a picture, a diagram, a table or a verbal description.

Answer: C

'Eff-C' is not a category of creativity. The commonly used categories are mini-c, little-c, Pro-C and Big-C. Big-C is eminent creativity of great figures, Pro-C is professional-level creativity, and little-c is everyday creativity, which is why those three are not the answer.

Answer: C

Functional fixedness, seeing an object only in its usual function, is a Gestalt obstacle to problem solving, from its work on productive thinking and insight (Duncker's candle problem). It is not from behaviourism, which concerns observable stimulus-response learning, nor psychoanalysis, which concerns the unconscious, nor humanism, which concerns personal growth.

Karl Duncker's candle problem of 1945 is the classic Gestalt demonstration: people fail to use the box of tacks as a platform because they see it only as a container.

Answer: C

She overcame functional fixedness, so the answer is Only 3. Functional fixedness is seeing an object only in its usual use, and she used a plastic ruler as a cutting tool for paper, a use it is not meant for. Mental set, the tendency to keep using a method that worked before, is not what the stem shows, and she is described as highly inspired, so a deficiency of motivation was not the obstacle either.

She used the ruler for a purpose other than its usual one, as a cutting edge, which shows that she overcame functional fixedness.