The author is concerned with the role of preconception in the process of creative thinking, and as a psychologist, he experimented to determine what variables influence creative thinking. In the process of experimentation, however, he began to feel that some specific preconceptions were warping his investigation and were detrimental to a useful…

In these data and on the kinds of analogies produced by a group of highly original men and women, the simple image/direct analogy stands out as the significant thinking operation used to make the familiar strange. These subjects apparently have not found the need to use personal, symbolic, or fantasy analogy. (Author)

Lists a number of people who were creative and some who were not. Their example may serve as a guide for students involved in creative effort. (RK)

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.…

This study evaluates a creativity program for elementary school teachers and children. A total of 687 fourth and fifth grade students and 27 teachers from four public schools in New York City were participants in either the experimental or control groups. The experimental teachers attended a 27 week in-service training program designed to assist…

The purpose of this study was to determine if the use of classroom activities to enhance children's imaginations could improve their creative abilities. Subjects included 25 fifth-grade students in the Grand Forks, North Dakota, school district. Students were given the Torrance Tests of Creative Thinking and were provided with materials designed…

A subtle revolution in the goals and methods of education, which has been occurring in the United States since the early 1960s, emphasizes both creative problem solving and creative expression. This booklet discusses this creativity and explores the evidences of change in educational objectives, teaching methods, curriculum and instructional…

The paper examines the nature of creativity and educational changes which have placed greater emphasis on creative problem solving and creative expression. Specific focus is on: (1) production of curriculum and instructional programs to facilitate creative thinking, and (2) development of procedures for measuring creative thinking abilities. (JDD)

The 25 strategies described in this book can be used to develop personal creativity, student creativity, and creativity in colleagues and staff members. The strategies are based on investment theory, a psychological theory of creativity, but any one strategy is consistent with many other theories. The investment theory of creativity asserts that…

The concept of creativity has many attributes and is a significant factor in our lives. Creative persons are observant, express part-truths, see things as others do not, are independent in cognitive faculties, are motivated by their talent and values, can hold many ideas at once, have greater sex drive, see a complex world, and have strong egos.…

This study measured the interrelationships among three creativity measures: student-teacher ratings of each other's performance, subtests from the Torrance Tests of Crative Thinking, and judges' ratings of student-produced classroom products. Data were obtained from 24 gifted fifth-grade boys and girls. Data analysis indicated that girls were…

Thematic fantasies of highly creative adolescents were rated by clinical psychologists as exhibiting greater primary-process thinking than the thematic reports of matched controls; they also included a greater proportion of unlikely combinations, fluid transformations, visual representations, magic occurrences, and contradictions. (Author)

The author discusses definitions of creativity through research and analogy and suggests that since some of mankind's most compelling needs underlie the creative process, a denial of those needs results in illness. Physiological and psychological reasons for the therapeutic nature of creative problem solving are considered. (CL)