Creative potetial, can be defined by the ability to generate lots of useful remote associations in your mind, which spans across ones knowledge domains.
The Remote Associates Test (RAT) is a test of creative potential. It was developed by Martha Mednick in 1962 and has since been considered as a valid measure of creativity.
According to Mednick, the RAT could be used to test "all fields of creative endeavor" and suggest that those who excel on the RAT will be gifted creatively as well as in the sciences.
Each RAT question presents three cue words that are linked by a fourth word, which is the correct answer you have to come up with.
A typical person can solve most of the items marked as "Easy", about half of the "Medium" ones, and few of the hard ones.
Try it here
HOW TO USE IT WITH THE KIDS
You can have great fun using it as a game to entertain your family, kids or colleagues at the friday bar, while training creative thinking in remote associations, just using a piece of paper or whiteboard.
- Make a draw on who starts.
- The mission is to get to the board.
- The person at the board has to write 3 cue words on the board and all the other participants has to guess the 4th word.
- The one who guesses the 4th word first, takes the board and comes up with 3 new cue words and a matching 4th secret word.
FINDING 3 CUE WORDS, WHICH ALL MATCH THE 4TH SECRET WORD
RULES & TIPS
- When adding the secret 4th word, in front of or behind all the three words, it should form a real word.
- Use of nouns is preferable.
EXAMPLES:
- Prune, Red, Oats, (4th word: Porridge).
- Officer, Dog, Civil (4th word: Police).
- Tree, Banana, House (4th word: Boat).
If you use this "simple" technique, to generate 3 such RAT tests mentally, every night while brushing your teeths, you'll boost your creativity and ability to think out of the box.