A cardinal feature of adult cognition is the awareness of our own cognitive struggles and the capacity to draw upon this awareness to offload internal demand into the environment. In this preregistered study conducted in Australia, we investigated whether 3-8-year-olds (N = 72, 36 male, 36 female, mostly White) could self-initiate such an external…

Creativity is a broad and complex construct, difficult to define and to quantify, assumed to introduce new impulses into science education (STEM), and leading to better acceptance of science by adolescents. Therefore, increasing efforts are being undertaken to integrate traditional creativity (Arts), in modifying STEM to STEAM. Consequently, a…

Developmental cognitive neuroscience studies tend to show that the prefrontal brain regions (known to be involved in inhibitory control) are activated during the generation of creative ideas. In the present article, we discuss how a dual-process model of creativity--much like the ones proposed to account for decision making and reasoning--could…

The role of the imagination in adult thinking is to go beyond reality and to express generalised laws. The researcher's job is to specify the cultural tools that preschool children use in the development of their imagination. Previous research has identified two main stages in the development of imagination up until the age of six, a third stage…

Age-related differences in cognitive processes were used to understand age-related declines in creativity. According to the Geneplore model (Finke, Ward, & Smith, 1992), there are two phases of creativity--generating an idea and exploring the implications of the idea--each with different underlying cognitive processes. These two phases are…

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…

The objective of this study was to investigate the emergence of a "mindy" (a unit of mind). The mindy is characterized as an open, organized, discrete, and kinematic mental shape. The study was the sequel to research on the emergence of mental shape (R. Laassonen, 1993). The subjects were 84 students, aged 13 to 16 years and…

A study was conducted to inquire into serial and parallel relations of information processing. A hypothesis was derived from earlier studies, and it was assumed that serial processing exceeds parallel processing in time. A figure-type test was constructed with two items. The reliability of the measure was examined with the coefficient of…

How self-esteem is related to social environment and the elastic-plastic processing of mindies was studied in students aged 13 to 16 years. A "mindy" is a unit process of the mind constructed through using a mental shape. Subjects were 12 students aged 13, 31 students aged 14, 31 aged 15, and 6 aged 16 at a secondary comprehensive school…

To investigate the interrelationships between creativity and seven variables, 74 students in grades 4 through 8 plus the vocational group at a school for the deaf were tested. In addition to creativity, subjects were tested for intelligence, academic achievement, imaginative productions, perception by teachers, self-evaluation career aspirations,…

Problem solving flexibility (PSF), an ability commonly assessed in creativity batteries, was studied in a sample of middle class children (grades 1 through 3, average IQ 114), tested on questions resembling Guilford's consequences procedure. An hypothesis linking PSF with alertness to and interest in the environment was generally supported, more…

The objective of this study was to inquire if tunneling of mind, motivation to novelties, and creative mindies in 4 age groups (13, 14, 15, and 16, years of age) have dynamic relationships. A creative mindy is a new organized mind shape not previously occurring. The subjects were 93 pupils of a secondary comprehensive school. Questionnaires were…

The objective of this study was to find variables that are related to creativity and customary productivity dynamically. The subjects were 86 pupils of a secondary comprehensive school differentiated into age groups of 13, 14, 15, and 16 in southern Finland. Three tests and a matrix questionnaire were constructed for the variables. The data were…

The objective of the study was to explore how social mindies or the process social units of mind, social interaction, and private and public behavior are related in the time interval between 13 and 16 years of age. A "mindy" is a unit process of mind constructed through using a mental shape as a sketch for mindy processing. A social…

We are delighted to welcome you to the International Psychological Applications Conference and Trends (InPACT) 2016, taking place in Lisbon, Portugal, from 30 of April to 2 of May, 2016. Psychology, nowadays, offers a large range of scientific fields where it can be applied. The goal of understanding individuals and groups (mental functions and…