Creativity and Problem Solving

Amy TillJenn Risch

Jennifer Elpers

Problem Solving

• Definition: A cognitive act where people reach a conclusion by forming responses and selecting the best response for a particular dilemma.

• Functional Fixedness: arises when abstract and abnormal ways of thinking do not occur to a person.

Problem Solving

• Easy• Medium

• Hard

– Example: Trace the lines of this house without going over the same line more than once and without lifting your pencil off the paper. Please number each line that you draw.

Creativity

• Convergent Thinking: Drawn on previously encoded information.

• Divergent Thinking: Flexibility and abstraction in cognition.

– How can you use a shoebox?• Convergent: Put shoes in it.• Divergent: Use it as a toilet.

Ideational Fluency

• Require people to generate as many responses as they can to a particular stimulus, as is done in brainstorming.

– For example: List many types of uses for a shoebox.

Ideational Flexibility

• Flexibility in thought that allows people to create many different categories for a particular item.

– For example: A shoebox can be used as a hat, a diorama, and a shield.

– These items are in three different categories: clothing, art, and toy.

Research Questions

1. Does creativity influence a person’s problem solving ability?

2. Will ideational fluency and ideational flexibility influence the types of problems people answer correctly?

3. Will certain categories predict the types of problems people answer correctly?

Participants

• Small, Midwestern Liberal Arts College

• Participants: 18 Total– Males = 3

– Females = 15

• Ages Ranged From 18-22

Procedure

• Consent Form: Gained permission• Creativity Task: Participants had 4

minutes to write as many uses for a shoebox.

• Problem Solving Task: Participants had 30 minutes to complete the problem solving set.

• Debriefing Form: Explain purpose for study and future contact information.

Measures

• Creativity Task: open-ended section– Ideational Fluency: the total number of uses

for a shoebox.– Ideational Flexibility: the total number of

categories created for uses of a shoebox.

• Problem Solving: 12-item questionnaireExample: A goat is tied to a rope. The rope is only

5 feet long, yet the goat can reach a pile of hay that is 10 feet away. How is this possible?

Reliability

Interrater

1.00

Easy

alpha = .77

Medium alpha = .82

Hard alpha = .86

Results

Subscales/Scales Mean SD

Total Creative Items 12.89 0.47

Total Categories 4.33 0.76

Art 1.89 1.32

Clothing 1.17 0.92

Container 5.94 2.31

Destroy 0.56 0.70

Furniture 1.78 3.26

Toy 1.56 2.06

Category

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Problem Solving Task

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Easy Medium Hard

Problem Difficulty

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Creativity and Problem Solving

• Ideational Fluency and Flexibility: r = .41, p < .10

• Ideational Fluency and Total Problems Correct: r = .44, p < .10

• Ideational Flexibility and Total Problems Correct: r = .56, p < .05

Creativity and Problem Difficulty

• Ideational Fluency and Easy Problems:

r = .54, p < .05

• Ideational Flexibility and Hard Problems: r = .43, p < .10

Ideational Flexibility and Problem Solving

• Uncreative Category (clothing, furniture, and toy) and easy problems correct: r = .51, p < .05

• Creative Category (destroy) and hard problems correct: r = .46, p < .10

Discussion

• Ideational Fluency and Flexibility both influenced problem solving abilities.

• Ideational Fluency predicted answering more easy problems correctly.

• Ideational Flexibility predicted answering more hard problems correctly.

Discussion Continued…

• Uncreative Category items predicted answering more easy problems correctly.

• Creative Category items predicted answering more hard problems correctly.

Discussion Continued…

• Although more items were generated in the Container Category than any other category, this did not predict any significant results in regard to problem solving…why?

• Items in the Art Category were also not predictive of better problem solving abilities…why?

Questions???