ABSTRACT
This chapter aims to cast light on the processes underlying performance in the alternative uses divergent thinking task. Elsinger and Grattan found an impairment in frontal patients in alternative uses performance which is consistent with executive involvement in divergent production. The think aloud protocols were transcribed and segmented into short phrases as is standard in protocol analysis. On the basis of the think aloud study the four main strategies are: Memory, Property, Broad Use and Disassembly strategies. The Memory strategy was associated strongly with fluency of use production and made an independent contribution to average novelty of production. Property Use Production could give rise to personally novel uses. The coding scheme was sufficiently reliable to proceed with further analysis. Comparisons between the think aloud and silent working groups are made assuring that the results support the view that the think aloud requirement did not affect the normal flow of processing.
