Creative Intelligence

In his classic book about creativity, Applied Imagination (1963), Alex F. Osborn spoke of what he calls an over-simplification, the four main functions of the human mind, absorb, hold, play, imagine. Through the absorption and retention, people take information, through the judgement and imagination they process that information. In formal schooling they pay attention to the first two functions, some on the third and little or none to the fourth.

"Intelligence" in his earlier use of the term, by the Romans, meant information. In military affairs we still use that definition. However, the more modern use of the word intelligence is derived from the observations of the early naturalists and biologists. His remarks highlighted that living beings had two general ways to deal with their environments: through instinct or intelligence. The instinct seemed to be an inherited behaviour used to solve a very common situations. The more developed animals (including humans) as well as some instinctive behavior, they show an ability to learn new behaviour patterns to cope with situations. They self-program themselves by the experience accumulated. Psychologists, therefore, commonly adopted this view of intelligence. The ability to learn, the ability to develop new ways of responding to new situations that may appear. (Shallcross, 1993).

This kind of intelligence, creative intelligence, is at the apex of the processing of thoughts at the highest level. However, research has shown that the average human being uses only 2 to 10% of the creative capacity of his or her disposal. Education is starting to respond to this pressing need by paying more attention to it.