The Brick Test

The object pictured above is: 

A)    A Brick
B)    A Doorstop
C)    A Paperweight
D)    A Test Tube Stand

Now according to your traditional standardised multiple choice exam the answer that will get you ‘the chocolates’ is obviously 

A) A Brick. 

The way that you got to this answer is by using convergent thinking. You ruled out other options that did not fit precisely until you happened upon what you consider to be the one correct or best fit answer. The main skill tested was identification which happens to be a pretty low order thinking skill as it so happens. 

But this is not the ‘Brick Test’ that I just mentioned in the title. The real ‘Brick Test’ also known as the ‘alternative uses test’ was created by J. P. Guilford in 1967.  It was formed to assess divergent thinking (or creativity), by asking participants to see how many uses they could come up with for a brick in a given period of time. 

So if you wanted to test yourself, grab a piece of paper and a pen and give yourself two minutes to see how many different uses you can come up with for a brick. You could start with all four of the options above. The Brick can indeed be used as a doorstop, a paperweight and a budget, test tube stand. After you reach two minutes, you would assess your answers by:

FLUENCY:  The number of alternative uses you can think of, 

ORIGINALITY: How unusual those uses are – evidence of thinking in a new way,         

FLEXIBILITY: The range of ideas in differing categories, demonstrating that you’re not digging in the same hole for ideas, 

ELABORATION: The level of detail and development of the idea, suitability. 

Rather than asking for one answer to a problem, ‘divergent thinking’ requires us devise multiple answers to one problem. 

This is a vital skill in many fields as you might imagine. So get your pen and paper out, put on your thinking cap and practice thinking outside the box. It will undoubtedly, expand your mind and you’ll no doubt have a bit of fun in the process.

 - Andrew “Divergent” Wright.