心理学家认为,凡是具有创造性的思想或作品往往有如下几个特点:一是独创性。如一个小女孩将钮扣钉在她所画的图画上,用以代替眼睛,这时,如果班上没有其他孩子采用此法,那么她这张画就是独创的。二是可行性。如有个小孩建议驾驶无形的宇宙飞船,载着看不见的警察去抓强盗,尽管这一想法颇为独特,但实际上不能实现,因而不能算有创造性。如果另一个孩子提出利用放风筝给邻近地区的小伙伴送贺年信,则是可行的。三是变通性,即运用新办法解决老问题。如一个孩子将一块形状不规则的木块嵌入有规则形状的空间里,开始时放不进去,后突然想到应将木块侧身放入另一个大洞里,这就解决了难题。四是凝聚性,即新方法里包含有多种不同的特性。如我们所熟知的“司马光破缸救人”和“曹冲称象”等故事,就是综合多种特性解决复杂问题的例子。 Psychologists think that all creative ideas or works often have the following characteristics: First, originality. If a little girl nailed the button to the picture she was painting instead of her eyes, then she would have created the painting if no other children in the class adopted it. The second is the feasibility. If a child advises driving an invisible spacecraft and carrying an invisible policeman to capture the robbers, this idea, though quite unique, can not be realized in practice and therefore can not be considered creative. It would be feasible if another child proposed the use of a flying kite to send a New Year’s letter to a friend in a neighboring area. Third, flexibility, that is, the use of new ways to solve the old problems. For example, if a child embeds an irregularly shaped piece of wood into a regular shaped space and does not put it in at the beginning, he suddenly thinks of placing the side of the piece in another big hole, which solves the problem. Fourth, cohesion, the new method includes a variety of different characteristics. As we all know, the stories of Sima Guangrui and Cao Chongzheng are examples of how to solve complicated problems by combining various characteristics.