The author discusses the phenomenon of incubation in creative problem solving, distinguishes it from "creative worrying" and "tip of the tongue" experiences, and reviews research to indicate a lack of evidence of incubation's existence in well-controlled studies. Note: For related information, see EC 120 232-238. (CL)

Findings indicated that, among college students, problem finding ability is independent of intelligence and field dependence. (Author/SBH)

Meta-analyses of the hypotheses that relationships exist between play and problem solving, and between play and creativity, were conducted. The data set for the meta-analyses included studies designed to investigate the relationship between play and fluency or originality, or between play and problem-solving behavior. The meta-analyses of…

Exploratory studies of the role of hemisphericity in creative functioning were made of graduate students. Results from instruments assessing hemisphericity, creative style or personality, and creative ability or level indicate that measures of creative style are positively related to the right hemisphere style of information processing. (CJ)

The present study examines the role of conceptual tempo on creativity and problem solving. It was hypothesized that reflective children would do well on tasks involving an evaluation component, while impulsive children would do well on typical creativity tasks. Measures of creativity, assessing fluency, flexibility, and originality, as well as…

In this study, 143 creativity researchers completed a survey to rate the importance of various traits and developmental influences on creative achievement. Behaviors in the Motivational Composite were rated as most important for recognized creative achievement, followed by problem finding and questioning skills, and traits reflecting adaptive…

Studies of creativity have generally dealt with the creative act, typically defined as the statistically infrequent approach to problem solving. A study was conducted to determine whether a relationship exists between problem discovery and originality of the written product, and whether problem-finding behavior may be observed in student writers.…

If education is concerned with imagination, it is important to know how educators perceive the term. For this purpose, an attempt was made to categorize ways in which teachers conceptualize imagination. Responses were obtained in a survey from 120 teachers who were registered in a graduate course on creative thinking. Participants ranged in age…

Forty New Zealand children (ages 3-4) were given false-belief and creativity tasks to investigate whether those with a Theory of Mind outlook are better at searching their own minds for creative answers. The numbers of appropriate and original responses in the creativity test correlated positively with performance on false-belief tasks. (Author/CR)

A major component of the creative problem solving process is divergent production, or the generation of alternative solutions to an open ended problem. Such solutions may be expressed in different forms or creative response styles: the verbal mode of expression involves stating solutions; the kinetic mode involves demonstrating solutions; and the…

Eight sixth grade gifted students verbalized their thoughts as they worked on figural task drawings. Analysis of resulting data indicated that the process variables of Story Weaving, Association Shifting, and Vantage were more frequently evidenced by subjects producing more original products, whereas Content Bound Linking was associated with…

Reports on a study that analyzed students' chain of music decisions from problem perception to problem solution. Found that highly involved problem solvers explored and organized sound for its musical expressiveness, while uninvolved problem solvers rarely based their decisions on musical concerns. Concludes with implications for music teaching.…

An experiment was conducted to test the hypothesis that recent theories connecting creative problem solving with cerebral specialization might explain why some writers compose much more effectively than others. Specifically, the experiment was designed to find ways composition teachers can help students to transform writer-based prose into…

This project developed as an effort to investigate how the school could become more actively involved in educational innovation. This final report highlights work conducted over the period 1972-75 in the nineteen Organization for Economic Cooperation and Innovation member countries that took part in the project. The first two chapters summarize…

A study of 74 undergraduates examined whether creativity training and interpersonal problem-solving training are equivalent or complementary. Results showed the training programs were complementary. Each training program specifically affected performance only on related measures of performance. A combination of the training programs affected both…