Widow, bite, monkey.
Spider.
Spider.
Yep.
So this is the remote
associations test.
It measures your ability
to see relationships
between things that are
only remotely associated.
This is Michael from
"Vsauce 1," and this
is Jake from "Vsauce 3."
Hello.
Basically, I say three words.
And then you reply
with a fourth word
that links everything together.
So for example--
OK, good.
Mouse, blue, sharp.
Danger.
You almost said it.
I did?
Yeah.
Cheese.
Is there a right
or wrong answer?
Oh, gosh, danger works.
I mean, I was
looking for cheese.
So your response is
semantically related
to those three stimulus words.
Bald, screech, emblem.
Saved by the bell.
Eagle.
Yes.
Chamber, staff, box.
Maid.
Uh, maid.
Music?
Oh, it's music,
like chamber music.
I was thinking chamber maid.
So the why that your brain
works when you work these out
is that you think of the first
word, and you kind of cycle
through all of the
options for that.
And then you go to the second,
and then you go to the third.
And then you kind of line up
which ones are consistent.
So there is a right answer.
This is like a
Rorschach, where you're
like, what does it
say that you think
danger is associated with mice.
So this is a creativity test.
It's called a creativity test.
But it measures convergent
thinking and not
divergent thinking.
Oh, interesting.
So you need to find--
What makes it creative,
if it's convergent.
If everyone has the same answer,
you're all being creative.
It's a good point,
in that you need
to find something that best
fits all of these things.
So I mean, the answer to
the first one was cheese.
But you said
danger, still works.
Sore, shoulder, sweat.
I was going to say blade.
But with that sweat curveball--
And not sore as in a tool
that you cut something with.
Saw like in I saw.
No, no.
Sore as in S-O-R-E.
Sore.
Sore.
Sore.
Wow, this changes everything.
Cold.
It is cold.
Well, the Wallach-Kogan
Creativity Test is a divergent
thinking test, so
out-of-the-box thinking.
There are no set
answers for anything.
OK.
And it was created because
Wallach and Kogan thought
that standardized testing wasn't
conducive to creative thinking.
And you need to come up with
as many items as possible that
fit a specific component.
Name all the things with
wheels that you can think of.
Cars, bikes, tricycles.
Wheelbarrow, Heelys, electric
skateboard, normal skateboard,
carriages.
Skateboards, roller
skates, roller blades.
Cheese, large wheels of cheese.
So that's great, because you're
gone into a different category.
So the way that these
tests are scored,
they take into account, like,
transportation is one category,
right.
And then you're more creative
if you going into, say, food,
which a different category.
I think like a machine
might have wheels.
Yes, that is so good
that you said that.
Because you've moved
into a new category.
You were all transportation.
When you do walk the dog with
a yo-yo, it's like a wheel.
I would be an answer to that
because I'm wheel-y smart.
Name all the ways that a
cat and a mouse are similar.
They're both mammals.
They have fur.
They're animals.
They can die.
They're furry,
for the most part.
Warm blooded, they give
birth to live babies.
They have white
and red blood cells.
They have tails.
They breathe oxygen. They
are things that I'm not
particularly fond of.
They-- do they give milk?
Do mice give help to their kids?
I'm sure.
They're mammals.
Yeah, mouse milk is a thing.
Mouse milk is a thing.
Meh, yeah, no,
neither would survive
being shot out of a cannon.
Would either
survive a fall-out?
Actually, a mouse
probably would.
A cat would be like, meh.
They also have less than
10 letters in their name.
They also are
smaller than planets.
Oh, they both like
lasagna, cheese.
So the Torrance tests
of creative thinking
is a group of test that
is the most widely used
in testing creative potential.
All right.
So these are a few subtests.
It's used in 75% of creativity
tests with kids and about 40%
of those with adults.
All right.
What could this be?
It could be a star.
It could be a clock
with way too many hands.
Or it could be a quasar.
It looks kind of
like the quasar map
that's on the Pioneer
Spaceship golden plate.
It does.
It could be a little
butterfly, with his wings there,
his little--
sticking out on top.
Proboscis?
You know, I mean, I
thought this was a PG show.
I wasn't going to say that.
Some kind of geometric
solid as viewed from the top,
but like you didn't
finish those lines.
An unfinished shape.
Sure, yeah.
I just have a
feeling that this is
going to make me feel
like I'm not creative.
Like, how do you know?
What's the judge?
So what is--
It's like, oh, you're creative.
So the most interesting thing
for me about all of these tests
is that they were all developed
in the '60s or even the '50s.
And there's so many of them
since then, we still use them.
Like, the Torrance test is
still the most widely used.
We haven't found one that
is like the grand test
of creativity.
And also, you still need
to use multiple tests,
because there's not
one type of creativity.
You can measure creativity
in a lot of different ways.
And you can't really say
that one is a lot more
reliable than all the others.
How could you make
this object more fun?
All right, well, I
mean, one obvious answer
is that it could make noise.
If it talked?
I think its eyes
could be bigger.
Remember, OK, do you remember
the movie, "Toy Story,"
there's the doll head that
also has like the weird connect
legs moving?
If that had that.
It could also be more fun if
its colors were less neutral.
It could have more glitter.
So glitter on the eyes,
glitter on his body.
If it had glitter, sparkles.
You could put the video
game, "Doom" inside of it.
[LAUGHTER]
The camera person
just said something
like, oh, what if it flew.
And I'm like, no.
Because then it's like
a mechanical thing.
It breaks, you've
got to get batteries.
You know, if it actually
flew and could carry me off--
Like a dragon.
--away from this video.
If schools were
abolished, what would you
do to try and get an education?
YouTube.com/vsauce1, 2, or 3.
Or BrainCraft.
Libraries, definitely.
And talking to old people.
Yeah, I mean I think
the internet would
be the way to do it.
Or just go at in the world and
actually do what we used to do,
which was trial and error.
Like, oh, these
mushrooms look delicious.
Aw, now I'm dead.
Now the next person knows
not to eat those mushrooms.
Sure.
They've already lived
and done so many things.
And back before we had
even written language,
it was the old people that
would tell you, oh my gosh,
I saw the ocean do that once.
There's a tsunami coming.
And you're like, I'm
so glad you exist.
I can't wait for
Wikipedia though.
So the way the divergent
thinking tests are measured
is kind of similar.
So there was this
psychologist in the '50s
whose name was Guilford.
And he was kind of a pioneer
in creative thinking tests.
And he introduced four elements,
to kind of measure them.
One was flexibility,
which I mentioned,
which is the number of different
categories that you can come up
with answers to, like
transportation or food
or thinking or whatever else,
if you're talking about a wheel.
Another one is fluency, which
is just the number of answers
that you have.
So I would go and
total up your answers
and then total up Michael's
and, like, everyone else.
And I could hypothetically
give you a score.
Another one is originality,
so each response
compared to the total responses
from all the numbers of people.
So if you gave one response and
like 90% of the other people
gave it, it's not very original.
And the last one
is the elaboration,
which is the amount of
detail that you give.
So you gave a good one
when you said, yo-yo,
walking the dog with yo-yo.
So that's elaborating a lot.
Oh, that's good.
Yeah, thank you so much.
My pleasure.
This was really fun.
Thank you?
Are we going to shake on it?
Let's shake hands.
Thank you, very much, Vsauce 3.
Thank you, thanks
for having me.
If you don't
already, if you want
to subscribe to
Vsauce 1 or Vsauce 3,
the links are down
in the description
or there's some
little boxes here.
You can click on some things.
And subscribe to BrainCraft
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