Interrelation of Creativity, Intelligence, Memory, and Learning - Essay Example

?Creativity, intelligence and memory, in no particular order undoubtedly have a crucial role to play in the learning process of any individual whether it is a young child learning their ABCs or a grown up pursuing their master’s degree at the age of 50. These attributes are generally viewed as highly conductive to learning, individuals exhibiting them expected to be successful, since their existence in a learners mind have been proven to boost their ability to learn considerably. However, they do not work independently; primarily, everyone is endowed with these three attributes but like anything else, the levels are different as is evidenced in the different learning abilities. An ideal learner would have all these traits and utilize them in harmony so as to achieve the ideal levels of excellence, notwithstanding, ideal is not practical in life. As such, learner’s abilities to grasp concepts develop and synthesize in applicable knowledge them greatly influenced by how the three alongside other factors play out. However, to understand how they function together it is necessary that one defines and examines them individually. This paper is aimed at examining intelligence, creativity, memory and their role in learning as well as discussing how they can be harnessed and applied together in a leaning situation to foster and facilitate and improve learning activities. Creativity can be defined as the tendency and ability to recognize ideas, multiple alternative and possibilities, which can be used in solving problems or facilitating interpersonal communication among a host of other functions. It is considered one of the competences an individual needs in order to handle the challenges throughout their lifespan, meaning that there is no point of one’s life where they will not be needed to be creative (Romero and Barbera, 2012). In learning, creativity is invaluable since it is the faculty mostly accredited with the ability to develop and come up with original ideas; learners who are capable of developing such ideas are easily able to understand abstract concepts. In class for instance, they are able, without seeing to conceptualize that which is imparted to them. Furthermore, the more creative one is, the more likely they are to be original and as invent new methods of solving old problems. Memory is very important since it allows one to exist in a virtually multidimensional world temporary speaking, since decisions about the present and future are guided by memories of past experience. It has been said often that experience is the best teacher, the lesson is however only valid if one has a good recollection of past vents, as such, life without memory would be akin to living in as state of permanent present and learning, virtually impossible. Memory schema when activated allow ones memory to incorporate consummate amounts of data; these are essential in the learning of skills, which, when acquired, become explicit in the memory, such is say ones skills are stored in the memory and can be executed sub-consciously . This way, we learn complex skills and abilities, which are then used to determine how intelligent or clever we are considered, this is because a good memory is bound to give a leaner advantage over learners who do not fare as well in that department. The learner who remembers most about retrospective experience and lessons is the one most likely to make use of them on posterity, besides, one often learns in stages; building on knowledge that was acquired previously. As such the better a learner’s memory the better their understanding and this serves to improve their learning abilities considerably. A pedestrian understating of intelligence is the faculty that makes one smart, lack of which makes one “dumb” , this is not far from the truth, among the terms defined herein, intelligence holds the greatest capacity to be super ordinate over the other two. This is because it encompasses the ability to learn, underhand, general aptitude in grasping task as well as general knowledge and wisdom cognitive dexterity as well as mental agility. In a way, it encompasses the definitions of creativity as well as memory and it can be argued that one’s ability to learn is directly proportional to their intelligence. The relation between intelligence and creativity has been studied broadly and there are about five positions held on the subject, they include that intelligence is a subset of creativity and vice versa. It has been argued that they are the same thing, have nothing in common up to the most commonly held one that they overlap assets. (Furnham, et al, 2005). Ultimately, the three traits work in harmony to facilitate learning in individuals, consider the following analogy, as student needs to carry out and assignment, they have been allotted a limited period of time. In addition, the subject matter for the assignment was vaguely mentioned in the beginning of the semester, in such a case, the learner would require all the three traits. They will depend on their long term memory to remember what the teacher discussed about the topic in retrospect, in this case, the more they remember the more ground they will have to build their research on, as such if one considers two students, the one with a better long term memory will have a head start. Owing to the limited time, the learner will require gathering research material and synthesis it into logical sequential work, as such, their creativity will come in handy. A student will need to use their creativity to innovate and come up with better ways of researching in the short time provided, this is in due consideration of the fact that creativity consist of coming up with original ideas and that the time allowed is less than one would normally have, they will need to come up with a way of doing the task in less time than normal. Ultimately, intelligence has been used in the first two instances, nonetheless, if we consider the definition of intelligence, a student’s intelligence will make the task easier to complete. This is because the student altitude in this case toward the assignment in question will be largely based on how they perceived it. The mental dexterity of an intelligent student will allow him/her to perceive the task as a challenge and adapt his mindset to dealing with it by either sidelining other activities or prioritizing this particular task so that he/she is able to deal with the issue. Furthermore, since intelligence also encompasses general knowledge, a student will have the advantage since they will have a better understanding of the problem and the variables that sound it. At the end of the day, intelligence will play a crucial role in not only harnessing a student’s memory, creativity and mental agility but also their perception of the problem and help them develop a positive attitude. Notwithstanding, the idea that creativity and intelligence are important in learning is not accepted by everyone, Dr Torrance after carrying out research on the subject contested this view. He concluded that, despite the fact that creativity plays an instrumental role in the performance of a student in intelligence tests, the fact that intelligence test were often a poor assessment of creativity is proof that performance cannot be attributed to either but is mostly an issue of motivation. However, later studies were able to relate creativity as a component of academic performance that was ultimately considered a measure of intelligence. A study by the Journal of experiment education found that the academic abilities of two groups, which had achieved considerably high mark in creative and intelligence test respectively were almost the same. From these findings, the researchers argued, then, that both were equally important in learning both creativity and intellect are of equal importance and their effectiveness can be enhanced when used together (Yamamoto, 1964). Ultimately learning of any kind, whether it involves a student in class or martial arts trainee cannot occur without the three attributed discussed herein. The learner will need an a long-term memory to recall lessons from the past and good short-term one so they can carry out the tasks allotted to them according to the instructions. The creativity will serve them when to comes to problem solving which is a crucial part of many learning activities as well as original though which facilitates creativity, intelligence on the other hand will be require for the learner to synthesize the knowledge and make sober and wise decisions in the short term and long term. Leaners intelligence will also enable them to adjust and adapt their mind to the situations at hand and determine which recalled information and should be used and how it should be used by considering old ways and using their intelligence possibly to come up with new ones. References Furnham, A., Jane Z., and Tomas Chamorro-P. (2005). "The Relationship between Psychometric and Self-Estimated Intelligence, Creativity, Personality and Academic Achievement." Imagination, Cognition and Personality 25.2: 119-45. Romero, M., Hyvonen, P., & Barbera, E. (2012). Creativity in collaborative learning across the life span. Creative Education, 3(4), 422-429. Yamamoto, K. (1964). “Threshold of Intelligence in Academic Achievement of Highly Creative Students. The Journal of Experimental Education”. Vol. 32, No. 4: pp. 401-405. Read More