combination of ideas may arise out of which one or two may turn out to be original. You must remember that both convergent and divergent thinking are important for creative thinking. Divergent thinking is essential in generating a wide range of ideas. Convergent thinking is important to identify the most useful or appropriate idea.
Edward de Bono has used the term ‘lateral thinking’ to what Guilford termed as divergent thinking. He makes a distinction between vertical thinking and lateral thinking. Vertical thinking involves mental operations that move in a straight line back and forth between lower and higher level concepts whereas lateral thinking involves looking for alternative ways of defining and interpreting problems. He states “vertical (logical) thinking digs the same hole deeper, i.e.
thinking deeper in the same direction; lateral thinking is concerned with digging a hole in another place”. De Bono suggests that lateral thinking can help make mental leaps and is likely to create a number of ways of thinking. De Bono developed .