Alternate Uses Test (AUT)
Take an everyday object and list as many different uses for it beyond its intended purpose as possible in two minutes. A daily creativity training exercise from divergent thinking research.
Structure
Setup
Participants need paper and pen or a blank document. An everyday object is designated - a paperclip, a brick, a coffee mug, a chair. A visible timer is set for two minutes.
Round 1: Individual Generation
Participants write as many different uses for the object as they can in two minutes. The facilitator emphasizes: quantity over quality, unusual over obvious, speed over deliberation. Every use that comes to mind gets written, no matter how absurd.
At the end of two minutes, participants count their answers. The range typically spans 3-20+ responses.
Round 2: Read-Out and Pattern Recognition
In a group or small cluster, participants read their lists aloud. The facilitator tracks:
- How many uses were shared across multiple people (obvious/conventional uses)
- Which uses were unique to one person (creative/lateral uses)
- Which uses were most surprising or unexpected
Round 3: Category Expansion
The facilitator challenges participants to generate uses in new categories: physical uses, social uses, symbolic uses, destructive uses, micro-scale uses, macro-scale uses. Categories break cognitive templates and unlock new responses.
Scoring (Optional)
Divergent thinking research uses four dimensions: fluency (quantity), originality (uniqueness), flexibility (category variety), and elaboration (detail). Groups can rate their own responses on these dimensions after the exercise.
How to Teach It
How to Explain It
"Object: paperclip. Timer: two minutes. Go. Write every possible use you can think of. Obvious, weird, useful, useless. All of it. Don't stop to evaluate. Just generate."
Why It Matters
The Alternate Uses Test is one of the most studied measures of divergent thinking - the ability to generate many varied responses to an open prompt rather than converging on a single correct answer. In improv training, the exercise directly develops the "yes-and" mindset: treating any object, person, or situation as having unlimited potential uses. Performers who have practiced AUT tend to be more generative in scene work, finding multiple interpretations of an offer rather than immediately converging on the obvious one.
Common Coaching Notes
- Speed is the mechanism. The two-minute limit prevents the inner editor from engaging. If participants slow down to evaluate, the creative constraint is lost.
- Celebrate the weird. When someone reads an unusual use, give it a moment of genuine acknowledgment. This normalizes creative risk.
- Track categories. After the exercise, note how many participants stayed in the same functional category (the paperclip holds things) versus broke into new categories (the paperclip is a weapon, a musical instrument, an art material). Breaking categories is the developmental edge.
Debrief Questions
- What stopped you from writing something down?
- Which categories did you not think of until someone else mentioned them?
- How does this connect to how you approach problems in scenes or at work?
In Applied Settings
Organizational Context
The Alternate Uses Test comes directly from divergent thinking research (J.P. Guilford, 1967) and has a long history as a creativity assessment tool before applied improv practitioners adopted it as a training exercise. In organizational settings, it is used in creativity training, innovation workshops, design thinking programs, and any context where generating multiple options before converging on a solution is a valued capability.
Workplace Relevance
Many organizational cultures implicitly reward rapid convergence: identifying the right answer quickly is seen as intelligence; exploring multiple options is seen as indecision. AUT directly challenges this norm by rewarding quantity and variety. In team settings, running AUT before a brainstorming session or problem-solving meeting primes participants for generative rather than evaluative thinking, producing higher-quality ideas in the subsequent discussion.
Training and Development Use
AUT is effective in leadership development programs focused on creative leadership, in product development teams building an innovation culture, and in any team that is trying to move from "what is the right answer?" to "what are all the possible answers?" The exercise takes less than ten minutes and produces measurable shifts in participants' approach to subsequent creative tasks.
Classroom Applications
In business school and professional training contexts, AUT is particularly valuable as a demonstration exercise: participants can see their own divergent thinking capacity directly (through their list length and variety) and identify where it breaks down (through the patterns in what they didn't think of). The measurement dimension makes it more concrete than many creativity exercises.
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Related Exercises
Acceptance
Acceptance is an applied improv exercise in which participants hear a new location, answer together with "Yes, let's," and immediately populate that environment as people or objects inside it. The exercise turns acceptance into visible behavior: participants must receive the new reality, enter it quickly, and adjust when someone else has already chosen the role they wanted.
Building Blocks Brainstorm
Unlike traditional brainstorming, this exercise focuses on a single idea and has the group build on it iteratively, brick by brick, until a complete concept emerges.
Adaptability
Exercises specifically designed to practice adapting to rapidly changing circumstances and unexpected developments.
Automatic Writing
Automatic Writing is a creative exercise in which players write continuously for a set period without stopping to edit, censor, or plan ahead. Originating in Surrealist practice, the technique bypasses the internal critic and surfaces raw associative material, making it useful as a pre-performance warm-up, a character development tool, or a solo creative practice.
1-2-4-All
1-2-4-All is a full-group applied improvisation exercise that structures brainstorming in four quick stages: individual reflection, pairs, groups of four, and whole-group sharing. The format widens participation, speeds up idea generation, and gives quieter participants a defined route into the conversation.
Adapting to Ambiguous Information
In a circle, one person poses a problem, the next proposes a nonsensical solution, and the third links them together. Builds comfort with uncertainty.
How to Reference This Page
The Improv Archive. (2026). Alternate Uses Test (AUT). Retrieved March 17, 2026, from https://improvarchive.org/exercises/alternate-uses-test-aut
The Improv Archive. "Alternate Uses Test (AUT)." The Improv Archive, 2026. https://improvarchive.org/exercises/alternate-uses-test-aut.
The Improv Archive. "Alternate Uses Test (AUT)." The Improv Archive, 2026, https://improvarchive.org/exercises/alternate-uses-test-aut. Accessed March 17, 2026.
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