When you have used a particular tool, item, or object for one sole purpose again and again, your brain can sometimes associate it with only that use. This concept is called functional fixedness.

Instead of forcing creativity, recognise when the structure itself is limiting new ideas, writes Barbara Salopek Functional fixedness is a cognitive bias that limits our ability to see novel uses for ...

Differences in the tool use of non-human primates and humans are subject of ongoing debate. In humans, representations of object functions underpin efficient tool use. Yet, representations of object ...

"We shape our tools and thereafter our tools shape us." Marshall McLuhan The most challenging aspect about innovating is rooted in a concept called fixedness. Fixedness is the inability to realize ...

When the average person thinks of what an IT consultant does (as often as they are likely to think about it) they generally picture what they see in movies: a somewhat nerdy guy (it’s usually a guy, ...

Any five-year-old has no trouble turning an old blanket and a couple of chairs into an impenetrable fort. But as we get older, knowledge and experience increasingly displace imagination and our ...