Passage 1
In the field of psychology, there has long been a certain haziness surrounding the definition ofcreativity, an I-know-it-when-I-see-it attitude that has eluded a precise formulation. During ourconversation, Mark Beeman, a cognitive neuroscientist at Northwestern University, told me that heused to be reluctant to tell people what his area of study was, for fear of being dismissed ormisunderstood. What, for instance, crosses your mind when you think of creativity Well, we knowthat someone is creative if he produces new things or has new ideas. And yet, as John Kounios, apsychologist at Drexel University who collaborates frequently with Beeman, points out, that view iswrong, or at least not entirely right. "Creativity is the process, not the product," he says.
To illustrate, Beeman offers an example. Imagine someone who has never used or seen apaperclip and is struggling to keep a bunch of papers together. Then the person comes up with a newway of bending a stiff wire to hold the papers in place. "That was very creative," Beeman says. Onthe flip side, if someone works in a new field--Beeman gives the example of nanotechnology--anything that he produces may be considered inherently "creative." But was the act of producing itactually creative As Beeman put it,"Not all artists are creative. And some accountants are verycreative."
Insight, however, has proved less difficult to define and to study. Because it arrives at a specificmoment in time, you can isolate it, examine it, and analyze its characteristics. "Insight is only onepart of creativity," Beeman says."But we can measure it. We have a temporal marker thatsomething just happened in the brain. I′d never say that′s all of creativity, but it′s a central,identifiable component." When scientists examine insight in the lab, they are looking at what typesof attention and thought processes lead to that moment of synthesis: If you are trying to facilitate abreakthrough, are there methods you can use that help If you feel stuck on a problem, are theretricks to get you through
In a recent study, Beeman and Kounios followed people′s gazes as they attempted to solvewhat′s called the remote-associates test, in which the subject is given a series of words, like "pine,""crab," and "sauce," and has to think of a single word that can logically be paired with all of them.
They wanted to see if the direction of a person′ s eyes and her rate of blinking could shed light onher approach and on her likelihood of success. It turned out that if the subject looked directly at aword and focused on it--that is, blinked less frequently, signaling a higher degree of closeattention--she was more likely to be thinking in an analytical, convergent fashion, going throughpossibilities that made sense and systematically discarding those that didn′ t. If she looked at "pine,"say, she might be thinking of words like "tree," "cone," and "needle," then testing each option tosee if it fit with the other words. When the subject stopped looking at any specific word, either bymoving her eyes or by blinking, she was more likely to think of broader, more abstract associations.
That is a more insight-oriented approach."You need to learn not just to stare but to look outsideyour focus," Beeman says. (The solution to this remote-associates test: "apple. ")
As it turns out, by simple following someone′s eyes and measuring her blinks and fixationtimes, Beeman′s group can predict how someone will likely solve a problem and when she isnearing that solution. That′s an important consideration for would-be creative minds: it helps usunderstand how distinct patterns of attention may contribute to certain kinds of insights.
Which of the following is closest in meaning to the underlined word"haziness" inPARAGRAPH ONE

A Arbitrariness.

B Vagueness.

C Misunderstanding.

D Controversy.