Chapter 26 Quiz

Creativity and Insight: The Cognitive Science of Having Good Ideas

Answer all questions without referring to the chapter. After completing the quiz, check your answers in Appendix I and use the results to identify which concepts need additional retrieval practice.

Multiple Choice

1. The three phases of insight problem solving, in order, are: - a) Preparation, illumination, verification - b) Divergent thinking, convergent thinking, evaluation - c) Impasse, restructuring, Aha moment - d) Incubation, generation, selection

2. Functional fixedness refers to: - a) The inability to think of any uses for an unfamiliar object - b) The inability to see an object as useful for anything other than its typical function - c) The tendency to rely on the same problem-solving strategy regardless of the problem - d) The habit of always starting with the most obvious solution

3. Sarnoff Mednick proposed that creative thinking is fundamentally about: - a) Divergent thinking — generating as many ideas as possible - b) Making remote associations — connecting ideas that are far apart in your mental network - c) Breaking rules and ignoring constraints - d) Having a special brain structure that non-creative people lack

4. The incubation effect works best when the break involves: - a) Sleeping for at least eight hours - b) Engaging in a demanding cognitive task to distract yourself - c) Doing nothing at all — sitting quietly with your eyes closed - d) Light, undemanding activity such as walking or routine housework

5. According to the combinatorial view of creativity, creative ideas are: - a) Generated from nothing through pure imagination - b) New combinations of existing knowledge elements - c) Always the result of formal brainstorming sessions - d) Inherited genetic traits that cannot be learned

6. Research on brainstorming groups has found that they: - a) Consistently produce more original ideas than the same number of individuals working alone - b) Tend to produce fewer and less original ideas than individuals working alone - c) Produce exactly the same quality and quantity of ideas as individuals - d) Only work well when group size exceeds twelve members

7. Which of the following best describes the relationship between expertise and creativity? - a) Expertise and creativity are opposites — experts become too rigid to be creative - b) Expertise is irrelevant to creativity — creative ideas come from inspiration, not knowledge - c) Expertise provides the deep knowledge foundation from which creative connections emerge - d) Only novices can be truly creative because they haven't been constrained by training

8. Productive constraints enhance creativity primarily by: - a) Eliminating all possible solutions except the correct one - b) Reducing the search space, forcing restructuring, and redirecting cognitive resources - c) Providing more time for the creative process - d) Making the problem easier to solve

9. SCAMPER is: - a) A theory of creative personality types - b) A brain region associated with creative thinking - c) A systematic method for generating creative alternatives using seven transformation prompts - d) A measure of divergent thinking ability

10. In Beeman and Kounios's brain imaging research, what happened just before an insight solution? - a) The entire brain went silent for several seconds - b) A burst of alpha-wave activity occurred over the right visual cortex, briefly reducing external input - c) The left hemisphere completely shut down to allow the right hemisphere to work - d) Blood flow to the prefrontal cortex doubled

True or False

11. Divergent thinking alone is sufficient for creativity; convergent thinking is the "uncreative" part of the process. - True / False

12. Incubation only works if you've done genuine preparation — effortful engagement with the problem — beforehand. - True / False

13. Mozart's early compositions were highly original, supporting the "untrained genius" narrative. - True / False

14. Analogical thinking — seeing structural similarities between different domains — is one of the most powerful engines of creative connection. - True / False

15. The key distinction between productive and destructive constraints is whether the constraint forces you to find a different good solution versus preventing you from finding any good solution. - True / False

Short Answer

16. Sofia Reyes's creative interpretation of the Elgar Cello Concerto emerged from the collision of several knowledge domains. In two to three sentences, describe what made her interpretation creative using the combinatorial view. Why couldn't a technically unskilled cellist have had the same insight?

17. A student says: "I'm not creative — I'm too analytical. My brain just doesn't work that way." Using concepts from this chapter, explain why this student's self-assessment is based on a misconception. Reference the relationship between divergent and convergent thinking in your answer.

18. Explain how the following four concepts from earlier chapters connect to the creative process described in Chapter 26: default mode network (Chapter 4), analogical reasoning (Chapter 11), deep processing (Chapter 12), and adaptive expertise (Chapter 25). Write one sentence for each concept explaining its specific role in creativity.

Answer Key Reference

Answers for multiple choice and true/false questions are in Appendix I. Short answer questions should be checked against the relevant chapter sections: Question 16 (Section 26.4, Sofia's Creative Breakthrough), Question 17 (Section 26.3, divergent vs. convergent thinking), Question 18 (Sections 26.1-26.6, cross-chapter connections).

This quiz covers all five learning objectives across Bloom's levels from Remember through Evaluate. If you scored below 70%, review the chapter sections indicated in the answer key. If you scored above 90%, you're ready for Chapter 27.