Some scientists have shown the practical power of looking at the world through ‘could-be’eyes. When a group of students were shown an unfamiliar rubbery object and told, “This could be a dog’s chewy toy,” they were later able to see that it might also be of use as an eraser when they made some pencil mistakes. In contrast, students who were told that it was a dog’s chewy toy did not find its alternative use.

Another group of students watched a video about physics after being told, “This presents only one of several outlooks on physics. Please feel free to use any additional methods you want to assist you in solving the problems.” On tests of factual comprehension, these students performed no differently from students who had watched the video with a different introduction: “This presents the outlook on physics. Please use the method you see in the video in solving the problems.” But when they were faced with questions that asked them to use the information more creatively, the ‘could-be’ students performed much better than the others. Just a simple              of language seemed to invite the students to process and store information in a much more flexible format, and thus be able to look at it and make use of it in different ways.

① memory 

② criticism 

③ definition 

④ imitation 

⑤ change