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Divergent Association Task: Fast creativity test

datcreativity.com

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Re: Divergent Association Task: Fast creativity test

#81

Post by jedberg »

layer8 wrote: post #74
lom wrote: post #60

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> uses for a brick unrelated, but how many can you come up with? I’m struggling after only 4 or so uses..

- in a wall - as a paperweight - to keep an elevator open - as a murder weapon - for weight training - as a miniature grave stone - for practicing long throws - as a reminder (place it somewhere where you want to be reminded of something, like a knot in a handkerchief) - as a step-stone to reach the upper shelf - to keep a button pushed down - to test how deep the chasm is (drop it in and hear it hit the bottom) - to…

Excellent. I think you would have gotten the internship. :)

Re: Divergent Association Task: Fast creativity test

#82

Post by Ansil849 »

jedberg wrote: post #76
Ansil849 wrote: post #72

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>> chow mein > That's two words. No, it is a single open compound word. You can check this by consulting a dictionary, which will list 'chow mein' as "a noun".

Just because it says "a noun" doesn't make it one word. That's like saying "brown pants" is one word. If you know Chinese you'd know it's two words, because mein means noodles and chow means fried (as opposed to lo, which means tossed).

> Just because it says "a noun" doesn't make it one word.

In fact, it literally does, because "a" refers to a single entity.

> That's like saying "brown pants" is one word.

No, it is not at all like saying "brown pants" because in order for a word to be an open compound word the modifying adjective has to create a new noun. For example, 'living room' is an open compound word, while "brown room" is not. If you have trouble differentiating between open compound words and just words with modifying adjectives, once again, consult a dictionary.

> If you know Chinese you'd know it's two words

We are discussing English. In English, chow mein is what is called an open compound word, which is when two words come together to form a new single word. There are open compound words, like chow mein, and closed compound words, like notebook. But in both cases, open compound and closed compound words are singular words.

Edit: and also, the site explicitly tells you to select "nouns". So your objection that chow mein is "two words" (it's not), is irrelevant.

Re: Divergent Association Task: Fast creativity test

#84

Post by ALittleLight »

adverbly wrote: post #52

I don't buy it. Seems to measure vocabulary + problem-solving-specific-to-this-question. I bet plenty of "uncreative" people could easily do well if you just told them to pick specific things from different topics(e.g. an obscure food, an obscure job, etc...), which is all I did and I scored in the top 1%. You don't have to be creative at all to do that. You only have to think of such a strategy, and then pick some o…

I got 90th percentile by rhyming my way through - box, fox, socks, locks, rocks, etc.

Re: Divergent Association Task: Fast creativity test

#87

Post by Ansil849 »

Fwirt wrote: post #80
Ansil849 wrote: post #53

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> The more nuance in a word, the more potential cognitive distance between it and another word. I don't see that. What is the cognitive distance between a more common color and a more obscure color? They're both colors. In your example, describing the color as olive instead of just green is certainly more specific, and maybe more accurate, but how is it more creative? If anything, it is less creative because it's mor…

If you're writing a story and trying to flesh out a character, someone who leases an olive drab Jeep is likely (a) someone who has money and (b) someone who likes to go off-roading, or at least give the appearance of being rough-and-tumble. Olive drab is also a color commonly associated with military usage, so that plays into it. On the other hand, you could have a character who owns a lime Honda Insight. That is an…

> And yet both characters could be said to have a green car. But the more detailed word choices can help give the story more life.

Given that 'green' encompasses _all_ of the scenarios you describe, whereas olive/lime narrows the scenario, that would then seemingly be an argument that more specific words actually inhibit creativity by limiting the potential scenarios you can imagine with just a 'green' car.

Re: Divergent Association Task: Fast creativity test

#88

Post by ALittleLight »

Tade0 wrote: post #5

My score is better than average, but looking at the highest scoring sets they seem to not follow the rules, because they use specialised terms like "trichrome" or "pustule". I'm not a native English speaker, but I don't suppose the mentioned words are used in normal conversation.

Pustule isn't a common word, unless you work in a medical context perhaps, but I'd expect a native speaker to know it.

Re: Divergent Association Task: Fast creativity test

#89

Post by jedberg »

Ansil849 wrote: post #82
jedberg wrote: post #76

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Just because it says "a noun" doesn't make it one word. That's like saying "brown pants" is one word. If you know Chinese you'd know it's two words, because mein means noodles and chow means fried (as opposed to lo, which means tossed).

> Just because it says "a noun" doesn't make it one word. In fact, it literally does, because "a" refers to a single entity. > That's like saying "brown pants" is one word. No, it is not at all like saying "brown pants" because in order for a word to be an open compound word the modifying adjective has to create a new noun. For example, 'living room' is an open compound word, while "brown room" is not. If you have tr…

I'm aware of what an open compound is, and I still say chow mein isn't one of them. Show me a dictionary that actually refers to it as such.

Furthermore since it's a borrow word, usually the "compoundness" comes with the borrow, and it's most definitely two words in Cantonese.

> the site explicitly tells you to select "nouns"

It says to select 10 nouns. It says "Only single words in English". It also doesn't allow "Living room", so as you say, your objection is irrelevant because it doesn't allow open compounds.

Re: Divergent Association Task: Fast creativity test

#90

Post by procarch2019 »

emeraldd wrote: post #83

I highly disagree with their definition of different from each other. Usage together does not make the words similar. If they'd said something about words you would not find together in a sentence then I'm certain you'd get very different results.

Yes, agreed. I used the word hose, thinking garden hose, and vacuum, thinking of absence of matter. That specific pairing came to 47. I now see why based on the explanation of the test.

However, even if I had meant vacuum like the cleaning tool, I would not associate it with hose naturally because I use a stick vacuum.

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