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2.4 Lateral Thinking (continued)

Alternatives

 

The special memory‑surface is a self‑maximizing system. The tendency of such a system is to select the most obvious approach provided this is adequate. In an experiment, a group of children were each given two small wooden boards. There was a hole in the end of each board, and the children were also given a piece of string. The task was to cross the room as if it were a river by somehow using the boards so that no part of the body touched the ground. Because there were two boards and they had two feet the children soon hit on the idea of using the boards as stepping stones. They stood on one board and moved the other ahead and then stepped on that and moved the first board ahead. This was an effective way of getting across the room.

 

A second group of children were only given one of the boards and the piece of string. After a while a few of them tied the string to the hole in the board. Then they stood on the board and holding it up against their feet with the string they hopped across the room. This was a much better way of getting across the room than the stepping stone method. But the children with two boards were completely unable to find this solution since they were blocked by the adequacy of the other solution.

 

An approach may choose itself because it is obvious, or it may be the only one left after other approaches have been blocked with a no label.

 

With vertical thinking, an approach is selected in either one of these two ways. With lateral thinking, as many alternatives as possible are generated. One disregards the no reaction since so often it is applied prematurely. One may recognize the obvious approach but never the less go on generating other ones as well.