What is Creativity? (contd..)

2. Creativity as Problem Solving (contd..)
   
   Moreover, when human beings solve problem, they identify the mental operations, representations, and strategies that they use when they solve problems. Dunbar⁶ proposes that problem solving consists of a search in a problem space, which has an initial state, a goal state, and a set of operations that can be applied in order to reach the goal. But everyone needs flexible, critical and creative thinking skills to cope with these problems and find solutions that can improve the physical and social environment. For creative problem solving, intelligence is necessary. An intelligent mind is a good thinker. Besides, a sense of humour helps in creative thinking because it relieves stress, tension, and monotony. It switches the mind into unexpected tasks. In order to solve problems, human beings should be creative, intelligent, and conscious. A conscious human being can solve the problem easily.

   Though creativity is more likely to be observed among those who are more intellectually capable, such capability is not a guarantee of creativity? The ability assessed by IQ tests is not solely responsible for creative problem solving. Now the question is: What abilities distinguish creative from routine problem solving? Before attempting to identify the abilities responsible for creative problem solving, we must examine a model of intellectual functioning which distinguishes between forms of thought and the abilities underlying those forms. Dodd and White propose, after Guilford, “ a tripartite division of intellectual functioning into contact, products and operations. The basic notion is that there are abilities associated with the processing of different forms of information; and that the ability applied to a particular task depends on the content of the task, the kind of output required of the problem solver, and the mental operations that must be performed on the content to produce a particular product.”⁷

   ⁶ Dunbar, Kevin, “Problem Solving” in A Companion to Cognitive Science, William Bechtel and George Graham (ed.), Blackwell Publishers, Oxford, UK, 1999, p.290.

   ⁷ Dodd, David H., and White, Raymond M., Cognition: Mental Structures and Processes, p.318.