Thinking, Intelligence and Creativity Questions and Answers

Answer: C

A concept is a mental category in which we place objects, activities and abstractions, and events that have essential features in common. A prototype is the best example of a category, a proposition is a statement combining concepts, and a schema is a broader organised framework of knowledge. Concepts help us to think and to remember by organising information, as when we group a robin and an eagle under the concept bird.

Answer: B

Three functional units of the brain are explained in the PASS theory, taken from Luria's work: the first regulates arousal and attention, the second receives and codes information in simultaneous and successive ways, and the third handles planning. So the number is three, not four, two or five. Luria's three functional units are the brain stem and reticular formation (arousal), the posterior cortex (coding of information) and the frontal lobes (planning), and the PASS theory of Das and Naglieri builds on them.

Answer: D

Logical is not a part of the triarchic theory of intelligence, which has analytical, creative and practical parts, as proposed by Robert Sternberg. Sternberg's analytical intelligence is the ability to analyse and evaluate, creative intelligence is the ability to deal with novelty and practical intelligence is the ability to adapt to everyday situations.

Answer: A

Algorithms are the formulas or precise sequences of procedures that automatically generate a solution to a problem. Heuristics are rules of thumb that may fail, means-ends analysis reduces the gap between present and goal states, and subgoal analysis breaks a problem into smaller steps. Following the steps of an algorithm, such as the formula for the area of a circle, always gives the right answer if the steps are carried out correctly, but it may take long.

Answer: C

The correct sequence is framing the problem, generating potential solutions, testing the solution and evaluating the result. The other sequences put generating or testing before framing, which makes no sense, since the problem must be framed before solutions are generated. Framing the problem, which means understanding its goal and limits, comes first because the quality of the solutions depends on how well the problem is defined.

Answer: B

Functional fixedness is thinking about objects in terms of only their typical activities, such as seeing a screwdriver only as a screw-turning tool. Mental set is a habit of using methods that worked before, confirmation bias is seeking supporting evidence, and fixation is a general stuck state. Duncker's candle problem is the classic example: people fail to use the box as a candle holder because they see it only as a container.

Answer: B

Benjamin Lee Whorf opined that language shapes thought, in the linguistic relativity hypothesis (Sapir-Whorf). Chomsky argued for an innate language ability, Slobin worked on how language affects thought in development and Vygotsky held that thought and language develop together. The linguistic relativity hypothesis has a strong form, that language determines thought, and a weak form, that language influences thought.

Answer: C

Howard Gardner proposed the theory of multiple intelligences. John Mayer is known for emotional intelligence with Salovey, Robert Sternberg for the triarchic theory, and John Carroll for the three-stratum theory of cognitive abilities. Gardner's theory, set out in Frames of Mind in 1983, proposed several relatively independent intelligences rather than a single general intelligence.

Answer: C

Motivating oneself is not one of the tasks in the Mayer-Salovey-Caruso Emotional Intelligence Test, which measures four abilities: perceiving emotions, using emotions to facilitate thought, understanding emotions and managing emotions. The MSCEIT is an ability test of emotional intelligence with four branches, perceiving, using, understanding and managing emotions, which differs from trait models that include motivation.

Answer: A

A search for accuracy is not related to divergent thinking, which aims at many different ideas. Brainstorming, freewriting and subject mapping are techniques for producing many ideas, whereas a search for accuracy belongs to convergent thinking. Divergent thinking aims to produce many ideas and to explore many possible answers, so freewriting and brainstorming are techniques for it.