Developmental psychology.pdf

Cognition and Language 219
The members of a women's soccer
team arrived at the field ready to
play when it was noticed that
the crossbar for one goal had
been removed. Only the two
posts remained standing. Taking
off their warm-up clothes, the
players found no other materials
available and decided to play
anyway, without a crossbar,
until one of them overcame
functional fixedness. What was
the solution? The answer is on
the next page.
clearly in favor of the experimental group. Five months later a follow-up study showed
the continuing superiority of the experimental subjects (Crutchfield & Covington,
1965).
In everyday life we often use a habitual approach to a problem when a better
solution is available. One constant challenge for all educators is to help students think
in new ways.
Figure 8.17
A Problem in Functional
Fixedness.
CREATIVE THINKING
Let us review again, briefly. We saw at the outset of this chapter that thinking is fundamentally
based on concepts and that some animals can acquire concepts. Since words
typically represent concepts, language is highly influential in human thought, and it
plays a critical role in the development of children's thought, especially abstract thinking.
When thinking is used in logical ways to solve problems, it is called reasoning, a
process that has been studied most recently through computer models.
We now turn to another form of problem solving, one that is not as obviously
logical and controlled as reasoning. The aim in creative thinking is to produce a novel
rather than a routine solution to some problem. This form of thinking therefore has
an important basis in imagination; it requires a high degree of flexibility and the capacity
to combine seemingly unrelated events.
Processes in Creativity
The creative process is infrequent, by definition, and it often takes place during long,
lonely hours, as the works of Freud, Einstein, and Darwin bear testimony. Psychologists
therefore have been often frustrated in attempts to discover what is happening in
the black box. Research has provided some new ideas, but in many instances progress
has been slow or disappointing.
Stage Theory Some decades ago the primary approach involved retrospective
interviews. Creative people were identified on the basis of their products, and then they
were asked to think back on their earlier work and to give an account of what had
transpired. In this way four stages or phases of the creative process were identified:
preparation, incubation, illumination, and verification or revision.
The preparation phase included training and hard work. As Thomas Edison
said, much of his inspiration was perspiration. The incubation phase was characterized
by no obvious progress. The subject had an idea in the back of his mind for several
days or weeks. Many subjects reported, however, that a creative solution appeared unexpectedly,
as a sudden illumination, even when they were thinking about something
else. Finally, in verification, the idea was evaluated and perhaps revised (Wallas, 1926).
Answer to Figure 8.12
To achieve the solution, there must
be three coins in each pan on the
first trial. If the pans are even, then
weigh the two remaining coins to find
the heavier one. If the pans are
uneven, weigh two of the coins from
the heavier pan. An uneven balance
here will show the heavier coin, but if
the scale still balances, the remaining
coin must be the odd one.
Answer to Figure 18.13
You probably decided upon intervals
of two between ascending numbers,
and if you tested this hypothesis by
offering other series, such as 6-8-10
and 3-5-7, you would have been told
you were right—even though your
hypothesis was wrong. The correct
principle is ascending numbers with
any interval between them. If you only
offer samples consistent with your
hypothesis, you collect no new
information. The best way to verify
any hypothesis is to include tests
which do not conform to it, such as
2-7-10 in this case (Wason, 1960).
Answer io Figure 8.14
The conclusion is incorrect, for the
vitamins the youngsters lack are not
necessarily those which are essential
to good health. One person
answered: "This follows . . . youth
do not get enough vitamins. Vitamins
are necessary or bad health results.
Therefore, youth are endangered."
But this subject distorted the
premise, thinking of some vitamins as
all vitamins (Henle, 1962).