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Abstract
In spite of voluminous research on the usefulness of divergent thinking (DT), true divergence (i.e., thinking that goes in all directions) has not yet been studied. The current studies aimed to capture true divergence, thus, Literal Divergent Thinking (LiDT) was preferred as the overarching term. The first study focused on associative processes in DT relying on the idea that DT allows associations in all directions. Studies indicated that remote and close associations can be reliably identified through different sources of social associations. The second study investigated the usefulness of 13 dimensions of DT that constituted hyperspace, a multidimensional space in which ideation takes place. The analyses indicated that LiDT can be quantified as the number of categories employed by an individual and it is significantly related to originality attitudes. The third study involved think aloud (TA) instruction that required participants to orally verbalize their thinking while responding to the DT tasks. When the hyperspace categories from the standard and TA procedures were compared, some of the categories that are related to originality were found more in the TA than the standard procedure.