Presents an overview of the four component parts of the activity of problem solving. These are the types of problems to be solved, the necessary prerequisites, the strategies, and the elements used in applying the strategies. (HM)

The development of the formal operations and creativity from early to middle adolescence was investigated across high and average levels of school achievement. Two sixth grade classes (sixth-high and sixth-average) and two tenth grade classes (tenth-high and tenth-average) were given formal thinking and creativity tests at separate sessions.…

A survey of 98 college professors regarding their creative writing habits and productivity found that creative productivity was significantly correlated with the use of forced incubation (deliberate time delay to allow naturally unenhanced incubation of ideas to occur). Professors who intentionally set aside manuscripts for a period of time to…

Subjects (n=156) completed the Kirton Adaptation-Innovation Inventory as well as Guilford's Consequences and Alternate Uses tests. Compared to adaptors, innovators produced a higher number of uncommon responses on the Consequences test and produced more responses on the Alternate Uses test. Results are discussed with reference to the distinction…

Two hypotheses derived from the theory of action identification, which predicts that people are more likely to adopt a novel course of action if they concentrate on the "how" rather than the "why" aspects of their behavior, were tested with 95 undergraduate students. Hypotheses examined how the level of action identification…

Problem statement: Professional education is the principle means of the developing the human resource. Students who do not perform well in professional courses are not in any way better than those who do not have professional knowledge, because their chances of employment and efficient working are bleak. The present study attempted to examine…

This article draws on the conclusion of the Commission on the Humanities in "The Humanities in American Life" that the aim of a liberal arts education is to foster critical reasoning through the use of language or discourse. This paper maintains that the "critical method" is in itself insufficient to achieve its purpose. Its failure is in its…

The study evaluated a theory of gender specialization by J. H. Block that postulates that gender differences in personality and cognitive functioning are closely linked, both arising from the same sex-differentiated socialization experiences. This study tested the theory as it applies to creativity in children. Subjects were 244 children in grades…

Creativity is a natural skill, but one that can be lost in the pursuit of linear knowledge in the academic classroom. There are historical reasons why the development of natural creativity has been suppressed (the Enlightenment, for example, with its emphasis on scientific method and empirical proof). Right brain/left brain research and…

In an attempt to find out more about how creative people engage in thinking, more than 50 men and women considered to be prominant in the humanities, the arts, and the sciences were interviewed. Letters, diaries and autobiographies of other creative individuals were examined in an effort to provide a broad base for studying the psychology of…

Drawn from several comprehensive bibliographies and computer searches of volumes by speakers at the Conference on Thinking, this brief bibliography presents resources for researchers and practitioners interested in the areas of cognitive and critical thinking skills. The materials are divided into the following topic areas: (1) general, (2)…

A testing procedure used by J. W. Getzels and M. Csikszentmihalyi (1964) to gauge the relationship between problem finding and creativity in art students was employed in a study designed to determine if the same relationship existed in writers. Subjects were middle school students identified as either creative or noncreative by two separate…

Focusing on the process by which intentions get expressed in written form, this article presents a theory of communicative competence based on the development of the "part-whole" thinking process. Specific topics discussed in the article are: speech act theory; speech act theory and theories stressing the importance of subject cognition; genetic…

Six experiments were conducted to determine whether idea checklists increased idea quantity and quality. College students were allowed 10 or 20 minutes or unlimited time to find ideas for product improvement problems. Results indicated that the only checklist which significantly stimulated productivity was composed of just seven general categories…

Two studies were conducted, one using 80 university students and the other 140 fifth through seventh graders, to examine the relationship between problem-solving strategies (leaping and flexibility) and measures of insight and scholastic aptitude. Relationships among insight, leaping, and quantitative scholastic aptitude were found. A…