Abstract
As intelligent beings learn and remember, they integrate their experiences to form new thoughts, new solutions to problems, and new creations. This chapter deals with these integrative functions—thinking, problem solving and creativity—as they relate to age. Often these integrative functions are difficult to differentiate from the abilities upon which they are dependent. For example, an inability to provide a unique solution to a problem may be more a matter of failing to have acquired and retained the prerequisite information than of inadequate skill in reasoning out a new situation. In spite of the difficulty in differentiating among the various aspects of cognitive functioning, it is necessary, or at least convenient, for the behavioral gerontologist to do so. It is important to identify different areas of strengths and weaknesses as they may undergo change with advancing age. Without such identification further conceptual analyses and new efforts to improve cognitive functioning of the aged would be disorganized affairs.
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Botwinick, J. (1967). Thinking, Problem Solving and Creativity. In: Cognitive Processes in Maturity and Old Age. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-662-39890-6_7
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