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74-508: The Remote Associates Test (RAT), adult form was originally published in 1959, and then again in 1962, by Professor Sarnoff Mednick and Martha T. Mednick. In 1971, Mednick and Mednick published the high school form of the RAT. Mednick and Mednick defined the creative thinking process in the test manual as "the forming of associative elements into new combinations which either meet specified requirements or are in someway useful. The more mutually remote

148-441: A Jamaican adaptation as well as Hebrew , Dutch , Italian , Chinese , Japanese and German versions. Sarnoff A. Mednick Sarnoff Andrei Mednick, (January 27, 1928 – April 10, 2015) was a psychologist who pioneered the prospective high-risk, longitudinal study to investigate the etiology (causes) of psychopathology, or mental disorders. His emphasis was on schizophrenia . He made significant contributions to

222-529: A genetic component. Earlier in his career, Mednick had hypothesized that autonomic under-arousal may be a genetic factor predisposing to anti-social behavior because under-arousal slows the socialization process. He helped develop a New Zealand cohort with one of his most notable students at the University of Southern California , Terrie Moffitt , a full professor at Duke University who has developed her own theories of genetic X environmental interactions in

296-421: A gene X environment interaction, a model for the pathogenesis of schizophrenia that Silverton and Mednick began working on in the early eighties. The authors conducted another study in which they separated subjects into high-risk and "super-high risk" and measured the interaction between genetic risk and birthweight in its effect on ventricular-brain ratio . They found that those most vulnerable to low birthweight,

370-418: A genetic component, at least in relation to property crimes. Using an adoption paradigm, the authors found no correlation between criminal conviction in the adoptive parents and their children, but there was a correlation between biological father conviction and child conviction. The authors stressed that genetic influences do not mean that anti-social behavior is completely genetically determined, but that it has

444-475: A higher rate than those from lower social classes. The authors reasoned the although schizophrenia may largely be a brain disease, the response to cognitive impairments caused by the disorder may be harder for those from a higher initial social classes and therefore higher self-expectations. In a groundbreaking study in psychopathy or criminal behavior , Mednick, William Gabrielli, and Barry Hutching in an article for Science showed anti-social behavior to have

518-440: A hypothesis in the form of a rule that could have been used to create that triplet of numbers. When testing their hypotheses, participants tended to only create additional triplets of numbers that would confirm their hypotheses, and tended not to create triplets that would negate or disprove their hypotheses. Mental set is the inclination to re-use a previously successful solution, rather than search for new and better solutions. It

592-496: A hypothesis with empirical data (asking "how much?"). The objective of abduction is to determine which hypothesis or proposition to test, not which one to adopt or assert. In the Peircean logical system, the logic of abduction and deduction contribute to our conceptual understanding of a phenomenon, while the logic of induction adds quantitative details (empirical substantiation) to our conceptual knowledge. Forensic engineering

666-548: A more consistent task – that the solution word would always be related to the stimulus words in the same way. They designed a set of problems to which the solution word was associated with all three words of the triad through formation of a compound word (or phrase) (e.g., age/mile/sand for the compounds Stone Age , milestone , and sandstone with the solution word stone). Solution words were never repeated or used as problem words; problem words were sometimes repeated. The problems can be divided into two types: homogeneous , for which

740-413: A process known as transfer . Problem-solving strategies are steps to overcoming the obstacles to achieving a goal. The iteration of such strategies over the course of solving a problem is the "problem-solving cycle". Common steps in this cycle include recognizing the problem, defining it, developing a strategy to fix it, organizing knowledge and resources available, monitoring progress, and evaluating

814-594: A product or process prior to an actual failure event—to predict, analyze, and mitigate a potential problem in advance. Techniques such as failure mode and effects analysis can proactively reduce the likelihood of problems. In either the reactive or the proactive case, it is necessary to build a causal explanation through a process of diagnosis. In deriving an explanation of effects in terms of causes, abduction generates new ideas or hypotheses (asking "how?"); deduction evaluates and refines hypotheses based on other plausible premises (asking "why?"); and induction justifies

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888-456: A review by Cannon and Mednick, 1993.) By the early eighties, many of the study's subjects had fallen ill with schizophrenia. Colleagues and students of Mednick began to examine the association between schizophrenia outcomes and earlier risk factors. Perhaps the first study to support Kraepelin's notion of dementia praecox (that persons with schizophrenia had early dementia), was a study that showed that offspring of those with schizophrenia who had

962-578: A television repairman. Mednick was married to Martha Mednick and then to Birgitte Mednick, both professors. Birgitte died in 2008; Martha in 2020. He had four children: Amy (a writer); Lisa, a musician (with Martha Mednick); Sara Mednick , a professor with expertise in sleep and dreaming; and Thor, an art historian and professor (with Birgitte Mednick). He was born in New York City and died in Toledo, Ohio. Problem solving Problem solving

1036-442: A type of mental set known as functional fixedness (see the following section). Rigidly clinging to a mental set is called fixation , which can deepen to an obsession or preoccupation with attempted strategies that are repeatedly unsuccessful. In the late 1990s, researcher Jennifer Wiley found that professional expertise in a field can create a mental set, perhaps leading to fixation. Groupthink , in which each individual takes on

1110-563: A variable representing subtle birth difficulties in utero, were most likely to have early cerebral ventricular enlargement on CT-scans. At the time, the idea both that schizophrenia was a brain disease and that it could represent a gene x environment interaction was novel. This was possibly the first study to support the notion that earlier findings of brain abnormalities in schizophrenia were not only etiologically significant but related to early environmental factors (such as pregnancy and birth complications or in utero insults), and that pathogenesis

1184-400: Is a reliance on habit. It was first articulated by Abraham S. Luchins in the 1940s with his well-known water jug experiments. Participants were asked to fill one jug with a specific amount of water by using other jugs with different maximum capacities. After Luchins gave a set of jug problems that could all be solved by a single technique, he then introduced a problem that could be solved by

1258-412: Is an important technique of failure analysis that involves tracing product defects and flaws. Corrective action can then be taken to prevent further failures. Reverse engineering attempts to discover the original problem-solving logic used in developing a product by disassembling the product and developing a plausible pathway to creating and assembling its parts. In military science , problem solving

1332-573: Is an unintentional tendency to collect and use data which favors preconceived notions. Such notions may be incidental rather than motivated by important personal beliefs: the desire to be right may be sufficient motivation. Scientific and technical professionals also experience confirmation bias. One online experiment, for example, suggested that professionals within the field of psychological research are likely to view scientific studies that agree with their preconceived notions more favorably than clashing studies. According to Raymond Nickerson, one can see

1406-554: Is dependent upon personal motivational and contextual components. One such component is the emotional valence of "real-world" problems, which can either impede or aid problem-solving performance. Researchers have focused on the role of emotions in problem solving, demonstrating that poor emotional control can disrupt focus on the target task, impede problem resolution, and lead to negative outcomes such as fatigue, depression, and inertia. In conceptualization, human problem solving consists of two related processes: problem orientation, and

1480-510: Is into well-defined problems with specific obstacles and goals, and ill-defined problems in which the current situation is troublesome but it is not clear what kind of resolution to aim for. Similarly, one may distinguish formal or fact-based problems requiring psychometric intelligence , versus socio-emotional problems which depend on the changeable emotions of individuals or groups, such as tactful behavior, fashion, or gift choices. Solutions require sufficient resources and knowledge to attain

1554-433: Is linked to the concept of "end-states", the conditions or situations which are the aims of the strategy. Ability to solve problems is important at any military rank , but is essential at the command and control level. It results from deep qualitative and quantitative understanding of possible scenarios. Effectiveness in this context is an evaluation of results: to what extent the end states were accomplished. Planning

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1628-411: Is no data that shows that students who have done well on the RAT excel in any particular subject leading to criticism of the validity of the RAT. Worthen and Clark (1971) concluded that the RAT measured sensitivity to language rather than creative potential. The correct response is often the most common response and does not link the other three words in any conceptual way. Worthen and Clark improved upon

1702-460: Is not necessarily common. Mathematical word problems often include irrelevant qualitative or numerical information as an extra challenge. The disruption caused by the above cognitive biases can depend on how the information is represented: visually, verbally, or mathematically. A classic example is the Buddhist monk problem: A Buddhist monk begins at dawn one day walking up a mountain, reaches

1776-407: Is one of the most common forms of cognitive bias in daily life. As an example, imagine a man wants to kill a bug in his house, but the only thing at hand is a can of air freshener. He may start searching for something to kill the bug instead of squashing it with the can, thinking only of its main function of deodorizing. Tim German and Clark Barrett describe this barrier: "subjects become 'fixed' on

1850-438: Is the dot problem: nine dots arranged in a three-by-three grid pattern must be connected by drawing four straight line segments, without lifting pen from paper or backtracking along a line. The subject typically assumes the pen must stay within the outer square of dots, but the solution requires lines continuing beyond this frame, and researchers have found a 0% solution rate within a brief allotted time. This problem has produced

1924-465: Is the process of achieving a goal by overcoming obstacles, a frequent part of most activities. Problems in need of solutions range from simple personal tasks (e.g. how to turn on an appliance) to complex issues in business and technical fields. The former is an example of simple problem solving (SPS) addressing one issue, whereas the latter is complex problem solving (CPS) with multiple interrelated obstacles. Another classification of problem-solving tasks

1998-563: Is the process of determining how to effect those end states. Some models of problem solving involve identifying a goal and then a sequence of subgoals towards achieving this goal. Andersson, who introduced the ACT-R model of cognition, modelled this collection of goals and subgoals as a goal stack in which the mind contains a stack of goals and subgoals to be completed, and a single task being carried out at any time. Knowledge of how to solve one problem can be applied to another problem, in

2072-413: Is the result of a genetic by environmental interaction, that is that insults in utero may be specifically stressful to persons with a brain vulnerability to schizophrenia. In a follow-up study, Leigh Silverton and Sarnoff Mednick at the University of Southern California hypothesized an interaction between genetic risk for schizophrenia might be most vulnerable to insults in utero. This would be considered

2146-489: Is the work of Allen Newell and Herbert A. Simon . Experiments in the 1960s and early 1970s asked participants to solve relatively simple, well-defined, but not previously seen laboratory tasks. These simple problems, such as the Tower of Hanoi , admitted optimal solutions that could be found quickly, allowing researchers to observe the full problem-solving process. Researchers assumed that these model problems would elicit

2220-470: Is to find and fix errors in computer programs: debugging . Formal logic concerns issues like validity, truth, inference, argumentation, and proof. In a problem-solving context, it can be used to formally represent a problem as a theorem to be proved, and to represent the knowledge needed to solve the problem as the premises to be used in a proof that the problem has a solution. The use of computers to prove mathematical theorems using formal logic emerged as

2294-949: The advice taker , to represent information in formal logic and to derive answers to questions using automated theorem-proving. An important step in this direction was made by Cordell Green in 1969, who used a resolution theorem prover for question-answering and for such other applications in artificial intelligence as robot planning. The resolution theorem-prover used by Cordell Green bore little resemblance to human problem solving methods. In response to criticism of that approach from researchers at MIT, Robert Kowalski developed logic programming and SLD resolution , which solves problems by problem decomposition. He has advocated logic for both computer and human problem solving and computational logic to improve human thinking. When products or processes fail, problem solving techniques can be used to develop corrective actions that can be taken to prevent further failures . Such techniques can also be applied to

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2368-570: The High Risk sample by Leigh Silverton and Sarnoff A. Mednick (supported by a grant to Silverton from the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention ) Silverton, Mednick, Holst and John showed a very high relative rate of suicide in those at high risk for schizophrenia. They also showed that although those with schizophrenia may drift into lower social class regions, those of higher social class origins develop schizophrenia suicide at

2442-501: The High-Risk-for-Schizophrenia study showed that it was the interaction between genetics and environment that accounted for schizophrenia. It also suggested that the final common pathway to schizophrenia is expressed as a brain disease. Before the High Risk for Schizophrenia study, a theory that poverty caused schizophrenia developed because persons with schizophrenia were found in the most impoverished regions of

2516-499: The RAT is difficult to settle due to the absence of additional empirical studies examining the internal and external structure of the RAT. Findings from one study provide evidence for the RAT as a convergent thinking test, but much still remains to be understood regarding potential subprocesses of convergent thinking theorized to be assessed by the RAT and how these processes are linked to actual creative behaviors. The RAT has been adapted into several versions. Researchers have developed

2590-550: The RAT is shown as the second most used standardized test, following the Alternate Uses Test and placing the Torrance Test of Creativity in third place. Whether the RAT should be used and interpreted as a measure of associative processing, convergent thinking and/or creative thinking remains an open question on both theoretical and empirical grounds. Currently, the debate surrounding the proper use of

2664-501: The RAT to create the Functionally Remote Associates Test (FRAT) that depends on functional relationships. Despite the original intent for the RAT to be used as a measure of individual differences in associative ability, the RAT has fallen out of use as a self-standing test of creativity. This test has been used to assess a wider range of cognitive abilities thought to underline creative thinking. Over

2738-545: The University of Michigan, he set up a study in Denmark (through an institute he helped develop), because Denmark has a central mental health register, adoption register, death register, and various means of tracing subjects across generations. In addition, because it is a homogeneous and stable population, it is easy to trace subjects over time. His study, far from being chimerical, led to a number of critical discoveries in

2812-800: The characteristic cognitive processes by which more complex "real world" problems are solved. An outstanding problem-solving technique found by this research is the principle of decomposition . Much of computer science and artificial intelligence involves designing automated systems to solve a specified type of problem: to accept input data and calculate a correct or adequate response, reasonably quickly. Algorithms are recipes or instructions that direct such systems, written into computer programs . Steps for designing such systems include problem determination, heuristics , root cause analysis , de-duplication , analysis, diagnosis, and repair. Analytic techniques include linear and nonlinear programming, queuing systems , and simulation. A large, perennial obstacle

2886-421: The city. Silverton and Mednick hypothesized, on the other hand that those with schizophrenia drifted into the lower classes as their disease caused a cognitive disability and therefore difficulty working. In a 1984 study, they found that high risk subjects matched for socioeconomic status at birth drifted into lower social classes as the result (rather than the cause) of schizophrenia In a 2008 reassessment of

2960-626: The consequences of confirmation bias in real-life situations, which range in severity from inefficient government policies to genocide. Nickerson argued that those who killed people accused of witchcraft demonstrated confirmation bias with motivation. Researcher Michael Allen found evidence for confirmation bias with motivation in school children who worked to manipulate their science experiments to produce favorable results. However, confirmation bias does not necessarily require motivation. In 1960, Peter Cathcart Wason conducted an experiment in which participants first viewed three numbers and then created

3034-457: The correct use of a tool. Unnecessary constraints are arbitrary boundaries imposed unconsciously on the task at hand, which foreclose a productive avenue of solution. The solver may become fixated on only one type of solution, as if it were an inevitable requirement of the problem. Typically, this combines with mental set—clinging to a previously successful method. Visual problems can also produce mentally invented constraints. A famous example

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3108-622: The design function of the objects, and problem solving suffers relative to control conditions in which the object's function is not demonstrated." Their research found that young children's limited knowledge of an object's intended function reduces this barrier Research has also discovered functional fixedness in educational contexts, as an obstacle to understanding: "functional fixedness may be found in learning concepts as well as in solving chemistry problems." There are several hypotheses in regards to how functional fixedness relates to problem solving. It may waste time, delaying or entirely preventing

3182-423: The effectiveness of the solution. Once a solution is achieved, another problem usually arises, and the cycle starts again. Insight is the sudden a ha! solution to a problem, the birth of a new idea to simplify a complex situation. Solutions found through insight are often more incisive than those from step-by-step analysis. A quick solution process requires insight to select productive moves at different stages of

3256-455: The elements of the new combination, the more creative the process or solution." Mednick reported a Spearman-Brown reliability of RAT=0.92 in one sample of students at an Eastern women’s college, and 0.91 in a sample of men tested at the University of Michigan . The two adult forms of the RAT consist of 30 items each. The respondent is allowed 40 minutes to complete the test. Each item provides three stimulus words that are remote from one another;

3330-424: The expression " think outside the box ". Such problems are typically solved via a sudden insight which leaps over the mental barriers, often after long toil against them. This can be difficult depending on how the subject has structured the problem in their mind, how they draw on past experiences, and how well they juggle this information in their working memory. In the example, envisioning the dots connected outside

3404-604: The field of automated theorem proving in the 1950s. It included the use of heuristic methods designed to simulate human problem solving, as in the Logic Theory Machine , developed by Allen Newell, Herbert A. Simon and J. C. Shaw, as well as algorithmic methods such as the resolution principle developed by John Alan Robinson . In addition to its use for finding proofs of mathematical theorems, automated theorem-proving has also been used for program verification in computer science. In 1958, John McCarthy proposed

3478-526: The field. A recent Documentary entitled "The Search for Myself" alleges the Danish study was a CIA-funded experiment in which the 311 orphaned children were tortured in violation of the Nuremberg Code of 1947. At the time the High-Risk-for-Schizophrenia study began, in 1962, the offspring of the women with schizophrenia were average age 15 and had not come into the risk period for schizophrenia. (See

3552-421: The framing square requires visualizing an unconventional arrangement, which is a strain on working memory. Irrelevant information is a specification or data presented in a problem that is unrelated to the solution. If the solver assumes that all information presented needs to be used, this often derails the problem solving process, making relatively simple problems much harder. For example: "Fifteen percent of

3626-594: The genesis of anti-social behavior. The son of Jewish parents who had immigrated to the United States from Ukraine, Mednick was born on Jan. 27, 1928, and raised in the Bronx in New York City. His mother Fanny Bronstein Mednick, a former factory worker, was a homemaker and his father Harry Mednick worked in his uncles’ hat- and cap-making business during the day and as an insurance salesman at night, later training as

3700-752: The goal. Professionals such as lawyers, doctors, programmers, and consultants are largely problem solvers for issues that require technical skills and knowledge beyond general competence. Many businesses have found profitable markets by recognizing a problem and creating a solution: the more widespread and inconvenient the problem, the greater the opportunity to develop a scalable solution. There are many specialized problem-solving techniques and methods in fields such as science , engineering , business , medicine , mathematics , computer science , philosophy , and social organization . The mental techniques to identify, analyze, and solve problems are studied in psychology and cognitive sciences . Also widely researched are

3774-405: The human problem-solving processes using methods such as introspection , behaviorism , simulation , computer modeling , and experiment . Social psychologists look into the person-environment relationship aspect of the problem and independent and interdependent problem-solving methods. Problem solving has been defined as a higher-order cognitive process and intellectual function that requires

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3848-812: The mental obstacles that prevent people from finding solutions; problem-solving impediments include confirmation bias , mental set , and functional fixedness . The term problem solving has a slightly different meaning depending on the discipline. For instance, it is a mental process in psychology and a computerized process in computer science . There are two different types of problems: ill-defined and well-defined; different approaches are used for each. Well-defined problems have specific end goals and clearly expected solutions, while ill-defined problems do not. Well-defined problems allow for more initial planning than ill-defined problems. Solving problems sometimes involves dealing with pragmatics (the way that context contributes to meaning) and semantics (the interpretation of

3922-466: The mindset of the rest of the group, can produce and exacerbate mental set. Social pressure leads to everybody thinking the same thing and reaching the same conclusions. Functional fixedness is the tendency to view an object as having only one function, and to be unable to conceive of any novel use, as in the Maier pliers experiment described above. Functional fixedness is a specific form of mental set, and

3996-471: The modulation and control of more routine or fundamental skills. Empirical research shows many different strategies and factors influence everyday problem solving. Rehabilitation psychologists studying people with frontal lobe injuries have found that deficits in emotional control and reasoning can be re-mediated with effective rehabilitation and could improve the capacity of injured persons to resolve everyday problems. Interpersonal everyday problem solving

4070-458: The monk's progress on each day. It becomes much easier when the paragraph is represented mathematically by a function: one visualizes a graph whose horizontal axis is time of day, and whose vertical axis shows the monk's position (or altitude) on the path at each time. Superimposing the two journey curves, which traverse opposite diagonals of a rectangle, one sees they must cross each other somewhere. The visual representation by graphing has resolved

4144-403: The most serious symptomatology had enlarged ventricles on CT scans suggestive of brain atrophy . In a study by Silverton et al. those with the most severe schizophrenia symptoms on outcome had low birthweights decades before. Their hypothesis that low birthweight might be associated with insults in utero was corroborated. In a follow-up study, the authors tested the notion that schizophrenia

4218-584: The motivational/attitudinal/affective approach to problematic situations and problem-solving skills. People's strategies cohere with their goals and stem from the process of comparing oneself with others. Among the first experimental psychologists to study problem solving were the Gestaltists in Germany , such as Karl Duncker in The Psychology of Productive Thinking (1935). Perhaps best known

4292-485: The people in Topeka have unlisted telephone numbers. You select 200 names at random from the Topeka phone book. How many of these people have unlisted phone numbers?" The "obvious" answer is 15%, but in fact none of the unlisted people would be listed among the 200. This kind of " trick question " is often used in aptitude tests or cognitive evaluations. Though not inherently difficult, they require independent thinking that

4366-447: The problem). The ability to understand what the end goal of the problem is, and what rules could be applied, represents the key to solving the problem. Sometimes a problem requires abstract thinking or coming up with a creative solution. Problem solving has two major domains: mathematical problem solving and personal problem solving. Each concerns some difficulty or barrier that is encountered. Problem solving in psychology refers to

4440-491: The problem-solving cycle. Unlike Newell and Simon's formal definition of a move problem , there is no consensus definition of an insight problem . Some problem-solving strategies include: Common barriers to problem solving include mental constructs that impede an efficient search for solutions. Five of the most common identified by researchers are: confirmation bias , mental set , functional fixedness , unnecessary constraints, and irrelevant information. Confirmation bias

4514-582: The process of finding solutions to problems encountered in life. Solutions to these problems are usually situation- or context-specific. The process starts with problem finding and problem shaping , in which the problem is discovered and simplified. The next step is to generate possible solutions and evaluate them. Finally a solution is selected to be implemented and verified. Problems have an end goal to be reached; how you get there depends upon problem orientation (problem-solving coping style and skills) and systematic analysis. Mental health professionals study

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4588-449: The respondent is then required to find (via the creative process) another word that is a criteria-meeting mediating link, which can be associated with them all in a meaningful way. The test-taker's score is the number correct. In Mednick’s two college-level versions of the test, each consisting of 30 items, each item can be associated with the solution word in a number of ways. For example, the three words same/tennis/head are associated with

4662-486: The same technique, but also by a novel and simpler method. His participants tended to use the accustomed technique, oblivious of the simpler alternative. This was again demonstrated in Norman Maier 's 1931 experiment, which challenged participants to solve a problem by using a familiar tool (pliers) in an unconventional manner. Participants were often unable to view the object in a way that strayed from its typical use,

4736-424: The solution match by means of synonymy (same = match), formation of a compound (matchhead), and semantics association (tennis match). In 2003, Edward M. Bowden and Mark Jung-Beeman developed 144 compound remote associate problems, a subset of RAT problems, for their studies of insight problem solving. They wanted a greater number of problems than were available in the original RAT, and to present participants with

4810-524: The solution word is a prefix (or suffix ) to all three words of the problem triad, and heterogeneous , for which the solution word is a prefix (or suffix) to at least one of the words of the triad and a suffix (prefix) to the other word(s) of the triad. The 144 problems were scored according to the time required to solve them and to the difficulty ratio. This compound RAT gives researchers a cohesive and operational definition normative list, where subjects are able to solve tasks in less time. The increase in

4884-551: The study of creativity , psychopathy , alcoholism and suicide in schizophrenia. He was a Professor Emeritus at The University of Southern California , where he had been a tenured professor since the early '70s and remained highly active in his eighties. Mednick was the first scientist to revisit the genetic basis of mental disorders, following the era of eugenics. He was the recipient of the Joseph Zubin Award in 1996, with more than 300 peer-reviewed publications on

4958-525: The task solving ratios also provides the test with stronger reliability , but at the price of losing complexity and ending up with a less challenging test, in terms of creativity. According to Mednick, the RAT could be used to test "all fields of creative endeavor" and suggest that those who excel on the RAT will be gifted creatively as well as in the sciences . Mednick also suggested that this test be used to select students from lower-income families to be admitted to special educational programs . However there

5032-569: The time were not replicated. Each study tended to use available control samples of convenience (such as the relatives of hospitalized persons with schizophrenia) and so turned out to be the result of individuals suffering the effects of a life of schizophrenia. Elements affecting the outcome of these studies were poor diet, the side effects of medications, and psychosocial effects of hospitalization, all of which were associated with living with schizophrenia, but that were not of etiological significance (but rather epiphenomenal). Although Mednick's work

5106-434: The top at sunset, meditates at the top for several days until one dawn when he begins to walk back to the foot of the mountain, which he reaches at sunset. Making no assumptions about his starting or stopping or about his pace during the trips, prove that there is a place on the path which he occupies at the same hour of the day on the two separate journeys. The problem cannot be addressed in a verbal context, trying to describe

5180-534: The topic. Mednick received his Ph.D. at Northwestern University, where he was a student of Benton J. Underwood . He later began his career as a professor at Harvard University , then took a position at the University of Michigan , where he was best known for his verbal learning experiments and other cross-sectional studies, and for his theorizing on creativity (also see the Remote Associates Test of creativity ), psychopathy and schizophrenia. It

5254-411: The years, the RAT has been used to assess various cognitive abilities linked to creativity including insight , memory and problem solving . It has been used to study the relation between creativity and rapid eye movement sleep (REM), peripheral attention, attention deficit , memory , synesthesia , and mental illness . In a meta analysis, surveying 45 studies concerning creativity and neuroimaging,

5328-403: Was at the University of Michigan that he began to question his own methodology of cross-sectional studies (the popular methodology at the time) and to develop his rationale for the high-risk study, one of his greatest contributions to the field of psychology and psychiatry . He noted that many of the findings of differences between adult schizophrenics and normal controls that were published at

5402-653: Was highly celebrated in the early '60s and he continued to obtain National Institute of Mental Health funding, he decided to take a great risk by saving his NIMH money to launch a prospective longitudinal study, which would be so difficult and expensive that his colleagues at the time thought it was chimerical. Mednick, along with his student Thomas McNeil, proposed, in a classic monograph, to study persons at risk for schizophrenia before they fell ill, by studying children of women with schizophrenia (who are sixteen more times likely to develop schizophrenia). While at

5476-510: Was related to factors that could be prevented. A study by Cannon, Mednick, and Parnas (1989) also showed an interaction between perinatal insults (an environmental factor) and very high genetic risk for schizophrenia in determining brain deficits in schizophrenia. Other factors associated with breaking down with schizophrenia were shown by Elaine Walker and Robert Cudeck along with Mednick to be separation for parents (even mothers with schizophrenia) if it led to institutionalization. The outcome of

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