Effects of Prior Knowledge on Generative Tasks

Creativity drives today’s world, with new technology arriving daily and science conducting itself further. We need creative and imaginative people in today’s atmosphere to bring the world to the next step forward. “Standardized college admissions tests assess only analytical skills, as well as the knowledge base on which they act, and completely ignore creative and practical skills (Sternberg 7)”. Without creative people in this world, where do you think we would be? Not very far. We need practical skills to go throughout everyday life. The standardized tests don’t test for that knowledge base, they test how much short term memory a

In this essay Carr explains thoroughly how things have changed over time, he provides examples that directly correlate the transition from modern day society to a time before technology was prominent before today. His noted efforts show the attention to detail he implemented into his writing to ensure it suited his audience and his purpose. The impact of Carr’s essay on readers can be attributed to his use of simple language and vocabulary along with direct and prominent examples. The language and text he used made it easy for a reader to stay tuned for the entire essay and also feel involved in

Kaufman and Beghetto (2014) further suggest that creativity can be fostered in children to a certain extent by providing them with opportunities to express their own unique ideas.

Technology has changed remarkably over the last one hundred years. First, the way that we use books has changed. Another way is the way we play games. The way we communicate with each other has changed drastically over the last century as well. At this rate, with technology growing every day, we can see the “new” technology that we have right now is already being replaced with something else that is “new.”

Technological improvements saw an increase in the ease of communication and transportation. In terms of making a big world smaller, the 1870s saw two of America’s most famous inventors make their mark: Alexander Graham Bell, with the telephone, and Thomas Edison, with the electric light bulb. Before Bell, the primary means of communication was with a pen and

In the context of creativity’s stated definition, we will proceed to group our arguments into three themes of factors: cognitive ability, expertise training, and environmental conditions. The human brain is highly adaptable and can continue to develop new cognitive abilities, even past adulthood (Norman, 2015). Proper cognitive expertise and training can help workers produce and operate in ingenious ways (Ginamarie, Lertiz & Mumford, 2004). Finally, the working environment can both motivate or stifle creative output. Managers can influence all three components: expertise, thinking skills, and motivation (Amabile, 1998).

Barnet (1953) defines the invention as such “Any thought, behavior, or thing that is new because it is qualitatively different from existing forms. …every invention is an idea, or constellation of ideas; but some inventions by their nature must remain mental organizations only, whereas others may be given overt and tangible expression”

IQ is defined as a measure of intelligence that shows the ratio of an individual’s mental age to their chronological age, this is then multiplied by 100 (Cattel 1972). Creativity cannot be measured by undertaking an IQ test, creativity is subjective and the simplest way of defining it is the ability to create original, useful and surprising new things. However, over the years pioneering research has inspired psychologists to devise tests to measure creativity. The most famous Divergent Thinking test is Guildfords Alternative Uses Task established in 1967. This test proposes that the individual involved should think of alternative uses for a common item such as a brick. This way of measuring Divergent Thinking is universally used in contemporary testing of creativity.

Many great innovations that benefited people came to earth in the 19th and 20th century. These new creations vastly improved people’s way of lives by making things easier and faster to do while some provide news and knowledge in a flash. The amazing ideas were formulated by brilliant inventors so that they could address the current needs to prevent time consuming tasks and at the same time deliver good results. Through these notable wonders which we often use were the computer, television, radio and telephone people were able to live fully and efficiently. We tackled about the most useful things and how did they become our everyday need and without these said

Today’s education system has become focused on standardized intelligence testing and what works best for the majority. This system, although created to help the masses, is impersonal and only benefits a specific group of students who learn the best through testing. Those students who think creatively and use imagination are left behind. This is why intelligence tests are not accurate measurement of a child’s knowledge as it does not account for creativity and the child’s individual strengths. Changes need to be made within the school system. Instead of focusing on what is “correct” schools should be encouraging problem-solving through the process of making mistakes and failing. This challenges a student to learn about themselves and the world around them. When everything is already laid out for them it is easy to follow. There is no single way of thinking. By making a student have to think on their own it stimulates creativity and allows them to better connect concepts to real world situations.

According to Baird and colleagues, mind wandering can enhance creativity goals and problems that were encountered. Creativity finds solutions that are novel, and high quality (Matlin, 2009). J.P. Guilford researched how we measure creativity. Creativity should be measured by divergent production. This research demonstrates the number of different responses that are made for each test item (Matlin, 2009).

We live in a world where sometimes innovation occurs so rapidly that we can barely keep up to date. In some cases, once we have just grasped the latest gadget or style, a new invention comes around for us to start the acquisition over again. Now, that’s just present day. When it comes to the past, things were more moderate regarding the spread of innovation along with the spread of information. Writer Steven Johnson, author of Future Perfect: The Case for Progress in a Networked Age, does analytic work of the advancement throughout history. Reviewed by John Horgan, a Wall Street Journal journalist, Johnson’s book is said to bring an optimistic view to the progression of humanity (Horgan). With his term “peer networks” that he develops over

In this first summary paper I will focus on the article called “Looking Inside the Fishbowl of Creativity: Verbal and Behavioral Predictors of Creative Performance,” written by John Ruscio, Dean M. Whitney, and Teresa M. Amabile.

Most people want to know precisely how diversity can improve an individual’s intelligence and productivity. There are various ideas and explanations when it comes to explaining how diversity affects an individual. It is significant to understand the positives of working with a diverse group. Authors state their opinions on the subject of exploring diversity and the overall effect it has on a particular individual. Although there are authors that agree with the fact that diversity increases creativity, the authors use a variety of methods to support their results. More opportunities are available to a person as he or she works with a diverse group. An individual is more willing to listen to intriguing and intelligent ideas when working with a diverse group. Three authors use distinctive approaches to support the theory that diversity increases creativity by way of enhanced ideas.

Starting from the 1st world war and throughout the second, organisations saw more and technology that could be put to practical use, like programmable calculators from the late 1930s and programmable computers in the late 1940s (Edwards, 1997). However it could be argued that the adoption of technology was subjective to the region the organisations were in. Many organisations were taking up advancements in technology; the technology was expensive and available to those organisations in the countries in which these inventions or advancements were made for e.g. England, France, Germany, former Soviet Union and the United States.