CREATIVE ADVANTAGES OF VISUAL SOLUTIONS TO SOME NON-ROUTINE MATHEMATICAL PROBLEMS

Although affect is inevitably implicated in problem solving of all types, and is especially memorable in visual mental processing, this paper concentrates on the creative advantages of visual solutions to certain mathematical problems presented in words. After discussion of some theoretical constructs associated with creativity, examples of the power of visual processing are presented, drawn not only from papers written by members of the Algarve group taken from the Sub12 and Sub14 competitions, but also from my research on visualization over the last three decades. These examples illustrate also the richness of individual representations in several stages of problem solving-involving fluency, flexibility, and originality, which are often taken as core dimensions of creativity.