Tatyana Koycheva’s research while affiliated with South Ukrainian National Pedagogical University named after K. D. Ushynsky and other places

Lateral thinking, a key component of creative thinking, is crucial in problem-solving, scientific discovery, and everyday life. However, its assessment remains challenging due to its elusive nature. This study proposes and validates a novel verbal test to objectively measure lateral thinking. The test, consisting of triads of words with subtle associations, requires subjects to find commonalities between seemingly unrelated concepts. The study involves three groups: two student groups and one engineering group. Statistical analysis reveals that the test demonstrates validity, reliability, and representativeness. Notably, the probability distribution of the measured parameter shows low deviations from the normal law, suggesting that lateral thinking, like general intelligence, is a relatively universal personality trait. This work contributes to a deeper understanding of lateral thinking and provides a validated tool for its assessment, promoting creativity in education and various other fields.

The development of the economy and trade has led to the widespread use of advertising and the need for its constant improvement. There is a vast field of advertising theory. This paper proposes an information model of the functioning of advertising. We introduce ideas about useful and harmful (excess) information. The concept of user’s thesaurus is also introduced. The effectiveness of advertising is determined by the mutual influence of useful and redundant information. Differential equations are formulated on this basis, the solution of which allows to establish the patterns of the influence of psychological characteristics of users and the mode of presentation of information on the effectiveness of advertising.