The Complete Book of Intelligence Tests : 500 exercises to improve, upgrade and enhance your mind strength (9 page)

green, one bag contains blue and one bag contains brown.

* All of the balls in four of the bags weigh 20 grams and all the

balls in one of the bags, you do not know which bag, weigh

18 grams, i.e. they are 2 grams less than the other balls.

By using a single tray scale (and not a two-tray Libra-type scale),

how can you find out in the minimum number of weighings which

bag contains the lighter balls?

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4 Creativity

In the creative state a man is taken out of himself. He lets down

as it were a bucket into his subconscious and draws up something

which is normally beyond his reach. He mixes this thing with

his normal experiences and out of the mixture he makes a work

of art.

E. M. Forster

The term ‘creativity’ refers to mental processes that lead to solutions,

ideas, concepts, artistic forms, theories or products that are unique or

novel. It has sometimes been referred to as ‘the eighth intelligence’.

In this chapter there will be an opportunity not only to explore your

creative talents and potential in general, but also the specific creative

thought processes of imagination, lateral thinking and problem solving.

As a result of work carried out in the 1960s by the American

neurologist Roger Wolcott Sperry (1913^1994), it became apparent

that the creative functions of human beings are controlled by the right-

hand hemisphere of the human brain. This is the side of the brain which

is under-used by the majority of people, as opposed to the thought

processes of the left-hand hemisphere, which is characterised by order,

sequence and logic; and is responsible for such functions as numerical

and verbal skills.

Sperry shared the 1981 Nobel Prize in physiology or medicine

for his split-brain research, which serves as the basis for our current

understanding of cerebral specialisation in the human brain. From the

1960s his work with human patients proved to be of major significance

in the development of neurobiology and psychobiology. He published

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his ground-breaking discovery of two separately functioning hemi-

spheres of the brain in 1968.

Thanks to people such as Sperry, in the second half of the twentieth

century we have become much more aware of the importance of the

human brain, its functioning and its relationship to our body; in fact

we have learned more about the brain in the past decade or so than in

all of the previous centuries, and one area in which we have obtained a

much greater understanding concerns the specialisation of the cerebral

hemispheres.

Throughout history it has been accepted that human beings are

all different in their own way; in other words, each one of us is an

individual with his=her own physical make-up, fingerprints, DNA,

facial features, character and personality. These characteristics have

always been analysed and categorised, but it was not until the mid-

twentieth century that it was realised that each one of us has two

sides to his=her brain, each of which have quite different functions and

characteristics.

In the 1960s, Roger Sperry, Michael Gazzanniga and Joseph

Bogan began a series of ground-breaking experiments that seemed to

indicate certain types of thinking were related to certain parts of the

brain.

Research, begun in the 1950s, had found that the cerebral cortex

has two halves, called hemispheres, which are almost identical. These

two brain hemispheres are connected by a bridge, or interface, of

millions of nerve fibres called the corpus callosum, which allows them

to communicate with each other. The left side of the brain connects to

the right side of the body, while the right side of the brain connects

to the left side.

In order to work to its full potential, each of these hemispheres

must be capable of analysing its own input first, only exchanging

information with the other half, by means of the interface, when a

considerable amount of processing has taken place.

Because both hemispheres are capable of working independently,

human beings are able to process two streams of information at once.

The brain then compares and integrates the information to obtain

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a broader and more in-depth understanding of the concept under

examination.

In the early 1960s, Sperry and his team showed by a series of

experiments, first using animals whose corpus callosum had been

severed, and then on human patients whose corpus callosum had

been severed in an attempt to cure epilepsy, that each of the two

hemispheres has developed specialised functions and has its own

private sensations, perceptions, ideas and thoughts, all separate from

the opposite hemisphere.

As their experiments continued, Sperry and his team were able to

reveal much more about how the two hemispheres were specialised

to perform different tasks. The left side of the brain is analytical and

functions in a sequential and logical fashion and is the side which

controls language, academic studies and rationality. The right side is

creative and intuitive and leads, for example, to the birth of ideas for

works of art and music.

The contrasting right- and left-hemisphere functions, sometimes

referred to as ‘laterality’, can be summarised as follows:

Left hemisphere

Right hemisphere

Parsing

Holistic

Logic

Intuition

Conscious thought

Subconscious thought

Outer awareness

Inner awareness

Methods, rules

Creativity

Written language

Insight

Number skills

Three-dimensional forms

Reasoning

Imagination

Scientific skills

Music, art

Aggression

Passive

Sequential

Simultaneous

Verbal intelligence

Practical intelligence

Intellectual

Sensuous

Analytical

Synthetic

The meaning of the word ‘lateral’ is of or relating to the side, away

from the median axis. The term ‘laterality’ ^ or ‘sidedness’ ^ is used to

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Creativity

refer to any one of a number of preferences for one side of the body

to another. Probably the most common example of this, and one to

which we can all relate, is whether a person is left- or right-handed. In

recent years the term ‘laterality’ has come to be used very much to

characterise the asymmetry of the hemispheres of the brain with regard

to specific cognitive functions, as demonstrated by the list above.

While some individuals may be heavily weighted towards a

particular hemisphere, this does not mean they are predominant in

every one of that particular hemisphere’s skills, since no-one is entirely

left- or right-brained, e.g. while some individuals may have a strong

overall bias towards left-side brain dominance, it may be that they still

under-perform on, for instance numerical tests, and therefore need to

work at that particular skill.

There is also always going to be an overlap between certain brain

functions of opposing hemispheres, e.g. functions using logical processes

and lateral thinking processes, where one is a predominantly right-brain

function and the other is a predominantly left-brain function. However,

when logical processes are being used, the right brain does not switch off

and vice versa. On the contrary, both of these brain processes work much

more effectively when both sides of the brain are working together.

The importance to each of us of accessing both hemispheres of the

brain is considerable. In order to support the whole brain function,

logic and intuition, to give just two examples, are equally important.

Before the subconscious of the right-hand hemisphere can function, it

needs the fuel, or data, that has been fed into, collated and processed by

the left-hand hemisphere. One danger is the overburdening of the left-

hand hemisphere with too much data, and too quickly, to the extent that

the creative side of the brain is unable to function to its full potential.

On the other hand, lack of data fed into the left-hand hemisphere

could result in the creative side, or right hemisphere, ‘drying up’. It is

therefore desirable to strike the right balance between right and left

hemispheres in order for the brain to work to its full potential.

Because it is under-used, much creative talent in many people remains

untapped throughout life. Until we try, most of us never know what

we can actually achieve. We all have a creative side to our brain,

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therefore we should all have the potential to be creative. However,

because of the pressures of modern living and the need for specialisation

in order to develop a successful career, many of us never have the

time or opportunity, or indeed are never given the encouragement, to

explore our latent talents, even though most of us have sufficient

ammunition to realise this potential in the form of data which has been

fed into, collated and processed by the brain during our lifetime.

Like many other tasks, or pleasures, we never know what we

can achieve until we try. Having then tried, we instinctively know

whether we find it enjoyable or whether we have a talent or flair for it.

Then, if these signs are positive, we must persevere. By cultivating

new leisure activities and pursuing new pastimes, it is possible for each

of us to explore the potential and often vastly under-used parts of the

human brain.

Test 4.0

Creativity personality test

In each of the following, choose from a scale of 1^5 which of these

statements you most agree with or is most applicable to yourself.

Choose just one of the numbers 1^5 in each of the 25 statements.

Choose 5 for most agree=most applicable option, down to 1 for least

agree=least applicable:

1 I find it very difficult to concentrate on just one subject or project

for a long period without breaking off to do other things.

5

4

3

2

1

2 I am more of a visionary, rather than someone who is down to

earth and businesslike.

5

4

3

2

1

3 I often have the urge to try out a new hobby, such as painting or

playing a musical instrument.

5

4

3

2

1

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Creativity

4 I am not afraid to voice unpopular opinions.

5

4

3

2

1

5 I like to retire into my own thoughts uninterrupted for a thinking

session.

5

4

3

2

1

6 I would describe myself as more disordered than methodical.

5

4

3

2

1

7 The greatest teacher of all is experience.

5

4

3

2

1

8 I am more sensitive than the average person when it comes to

environmental issues.

5

4

3

2

1

9 I have more of an interest and=or curiosity in modern art than a

‘dismissing it as rubbish’ attitude.

5

4

3

2

1

10 I often have the urge to take things apart to see how they work.

5

4

3

2

1

11 I have a very overactive mind, to the extent that I sometimes find

it difficult to get to sleep at night.

5

4

3

2

1

12 I enjoy being unconventional.

5

4

3

2

1

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The Complete Book of Intelligence Tests

13 I am more of an intuitive person than an intellectual.

5

4

3

2

1

14 When attending a talk or lecture, I often find myself drifting off

and thinking of other things.

5

4

3

2

1

15 I sometimes get very frustrated with myself if I cannot do

something as well as I would like to.

5

4

3

2

1

16 I prefer solitude and scenery to lively social gatherings.

5

4

3

2

1

17 I often find myself irritated by petty rules and regulations.

5

4

3

2

1

18 I have a very lively imagination.

5

4

3

2

1

19 I am often very impatient to learn new things.

5

4

3

2

1

20 I more than occasionally have dreams that I am unable to

explain.