Cognitive Abilities and Creative Behaviors: CAB-5 and Consequences

The validity of six indices of divergent production is examined with reference to creative output in eight content domains: visual arts, music, literature, theater, science and engineering, business ventures, apparel design, and video and photographic work. Undergraduates (n = 144) completed Consequences, four scales from the Comprehensive Ability Battery, and a specially developed self-report inventory that produced eight creative content scores and a total score. Correlational analysis determined that Semantic Fluency, Ideational Fluency, Originality and Remote Consequences were substantially correlated with most creative behaviors and were uncorrelated with grade point average. A factor analysis of criteria revealed two underlying patterns of creativity, suggesting that proficiency in one creative domain is predictive of proficiency in several others. The study of creativity has traditionally been propelled by aesthetic, scientific, and economic concerns. While revolutionary breakthroughs in science, technology, and design often command our attention and respect, it is the small, evolutionary innovations that typically have the greatest immediate economic impact (Haustein, 1981). From any vantage point there has always been an interest in the prediction and measurement of creative behavior and aptitude. The available measurement approaches for creativity include cognitive abilities, personality traits, self-reports of creative behavior and peer and teacher ratings of creative works (Hocevar, 1981). The purpose of this study is to assess the validity of an underresearched set of cognitive measures: four subtests of the Comprehensive Ability Battery (CAB-5; Hakstian & Cattell, 1976) and the Consequences test (Christensen, Merrifield, & Guilford, 1958). Our validity strategy was correlational; criteria were eight self-report indices of creative endeavor. The following paragraphs elaborate the underlying theory from which these measures originated and some unresolved issues. Perhaps the largest single breakthrough in the cognitive approach to understanding creativity came from Guilford's (1967) 120-factor structure of intellect model. While commonly used intelligence tests measure convergent forms of thinking, creativity involves divergent thought processes which, according to Guilford, account for 30 of the 120 factors of intelligence. Working through a factor analytic paradigm, Guilford was able to identify over 100 out of 120 factors. Guilford's structure of intellect may be criticized for having fractured intellectual functioning into too narrowly defined units relative to what human faculties are actually engaged in ordinary intellectual endeavors. Nonetheless, the theory did provide a provocative explanation for the nature of creative thought and some interesting measurements of same. Measurements of creative thought (divergent production) involve word fluency, category formation and reformation, ideational fluency original uses for common objects (opposite of functional fixedness). One test, Consequences (Christensen et al., 1958), is of particular concern to this research project and involves a certain amount of social awareness on the part of the examinee in conjunction with divergent production. In a typical test item, examinees are presented with a hypothetical situation, “What would be the consequences if people no longer needed to sleep?” along with a few common responses. Examinees are then given five minutes to write as many consequences of the hypothetical situation as they can think of. Responses are scored by, first, eliminating responses that are redundant with the samples or other responses or that are completely irrelevant Remaining responses are then categorized as obvious and remote. The numbers of obvious and remote responses are counted to produce two scores. Consequences continues to be listed as a research instrument by its publisher. Norms in the manual (Guilford & Guilford, 1980) are only available for 331 engineers who took two forms of the test, 665 ninth-graders, 80 twelfth graders, and a college sample of 87 cases. According to Guilford & Guilford, the consequences scores are closely related to other divergent production measures, remote more so than obvious. The CAB-5 developed by Hakstian & Cattell (1976, 1978) who also worked in the factor analytic mode, consists of 20 subscales that appear to capture the essentials of convergent and divergent thinking in a timed battery of manageable size. The four divergent thinking scales — semantic fluency, ideational fluency, word fluency, and originality — are of particular interest to this project While the usual types of validity and norm-building research have been done with the convergent scales (Hakstian & Cattell, 1976; Hakstian & Woolsey, 1985) little external validation work is available for the divergent scales. Hakstian & Woolsey (1985) found that semantic fluency and ideational fluency were significantly correlated with grades in an introductory psychology course (r = .33 and .30 respectively). The rationale for why divergent production would be related to grades in that course was vague. Norms for the divergent scales are currently available for 216 college and 1098 high school students. While the validation question is framed around a limited set of scales in this research project, it does represent an issue of more general concern. According to Storfer (1990), several researchers have questioned whether measures of divergent production have any external validity with actual creative works. He cited a study where teachers' ratings of their students' creativity were based on logical or convergent measures but had no relationship to divergent measures. In his review of creativity measures, Hocevar (1978) noted a generally low level of interrelationship among personality, cognitive, self-report, and rating measures of creativity; from this trend he opined that self-report measures of creative behavior were perhaps the most defensible indices of creativity. On the other hand, a study of approximately 500 college students showed that those that had won science prizes, or who published or exhibited their work scored higher than others on ideational fluency (Wallach & Wing, 1969). While the latter finding is reassuring, we are not convinced that prizes, publication, or exhibition represent the full range of creative behavior to be found at the college level. Prizes require a propensity to compete among the participants, and a proclivity toward subjectivity, among the judges. As academic researcher know, earth-shattering ideas are not quickly snapped up by scientific journals, and much of what is published is indicative of the evolutionary progress mentioned at the outset of this article. There is reason to assume that there is much valuable creative effort taking place that does not reach wide audiences or that is otherwise shoved into drawers. From a statistical point of view, it is preferable to conduct a criterion related validity study that encompasses a wide (if not complete) range of criterion values and to avoid an extreme groups methodology, such as a comparison of prizewinners and others. The latter has the impact of exaggerating the predictor-criterion effect size. Altogether, Hocevar (1981) identified 15 studies showing a positive relationship between divergent production and other measures of creativity, and 15 other studies that showed no such relationship. With the foregoing theoretical and methological points in mind, the following hypotheses were examined: 1. Consequences and CAB-5 divergent scale scores would be significantly related to several types of creative behavior. 2. Consequences and CAB-5 divergent scale scores would be significantly related to each other. 3. There would be a substantial interrelationship among the various types of creative behavior. Significant findings would dispel the notion among critics of divergent thinking theory (cf. Stolper, 1990) that the prediction of creativity is situationally specific. 4. Divergent measures and indices of creative behavior would not be related to college students' grade point average (GPA). While we recognize that no point is proven by failing to reject the null hypothesis, a null relationship with GPA is expected from the general theory, on the basis of findings concerning teachers' rates cited in Stolper (1990) and our own assumptions that much creative work goes unnoticed in favor of traditional academic demand. An expected null relationship thus adds an element of convergent-discriminant validity analysis to the research plan.     

How to Assimilate the Elderly Into Your Parish:

This research is a scientific study of retired persons, to attempt to determine why they drop out of the church upon reaching retirement age. The hypothesis is that a person drops out of active church life because helshe feels alienated within the social system known as the church. Groups were tested in Michigan, Indiana, and Florida. Each group was tested for church attendance, religiosity, alienation and religious experience. Using alienation as the independent variable, it was determined that there was a correlation between alienation and church attendance. These two variables were found to be correlated at the 0.001 level of confidence. Upon further examination it was found that the computed T-Statistic indicated that the correlation was inverse in nature. As alienation increases, church attendance measurably decreases. Due to the fmdings of this research the hypothesis was accepted. Having determined that alienation is a primary cause of decline in church attendance among the elderly, ways in which to decrease alienation and therefore increase church attendance are presented. A primary agent in the process of reducing alienation is psycho-social bonding and ways to increase the bonding process are discussed. Bonding is that process by which a person attaches to, and makes a social connection with another person. The bond that is formed is often difficult to eradicate. Alienation could be described as a state of being bondless within a social system.     

Creating Creative Clinicians: Incorporating Creativity Into Counselor Education

Creativity plays a critical role in today’s society by aiding an individual’s response to the mounting complications of modern life and assisting in the maintenance of mental health. Though counselors seek to promote similar developments in their clients, they often do so without the benefit of any particular training in theories of creativity or creativity-enhancing techniques. This article examines literature in the fields of creativity, counseling, and education to highlight the essential nature of creative processes in counseling and psychotherapy, ultimately presenting a rationale for the incorporation of creativity in counselor education.     

Predicting the Development of Analytical and Creative Abilities in Upper Elementary Grades

In some models, intelligence has been described as a multidimensional construct comprising both analytical and creative abilities. In addition, intelligence is considered to be dynamic rather than static. A structural equation model was used to examine the predictive role of cognitive (visual short-term memory, verbal short-term memory, selective attention) and socio-emotional (motivation, self-concept, well-being) child characteristics in the development of analytical and creative abilities in 116 Dutch children over the course of 5th and 6th grade. Results showed increasing levels of both analytical and creative abilities over the grades with the 2 types of abilities developing more or less independently. The development of analytical abilities was predicted by visual and verbal short-term memory and self-concept, the development of creative abilities by visual short-term memory and well-being. These results show that analytical and creative abilities have highly independent developmental trajectories, each with specific cognitive and socio-emotional predictors.     

Different Brain Wave Patterns and Cortical Control Abilities in Relation to Different Creative Potentials

Contemporary understanding of brain functions provides a way to probe into the mystery of creativity. However, the prior evidence regarding the relationship between creativity and brain wave patterns reveals inconsistent conclusions. One possible reason might be that the means of selecting creative individuals in the past has varied in each study. By distinguishing creative potential as open-ended versus closed-ended based on theoretical views, this study examined different brain wave patterns and cortical control abilities in relation to different creative potentials by using electroencephalogram (EEG) biofeedback equipment. The results demonstrated that participants’ performance on the open-ended creative problem was positively related to EEG alpha frequencies, whereas performance on the closed-ended creative problem was related to larger variability in EEG dynamics between alpha and beta waves when performing either open-ended or closed-ended creativity tasks. Further, better control in changing states of brain wave activities according to the EEG biofeedback signals could predict closed-ended creativity performance. Open-ended creativity was related only to the enhancement of alpha signals. These results help clarify previous inconsistent findings, reveal different natures of distinct creativities, and further suggest ways to improve different aspects of creativity with modified biofeedback procedures.     

In Your Right Mind: Right Hemisphere Contributions to Language Processing and Production

The verbal/nonverbal account of left and right hemisphere functionality is the prevailing dichotomy describing the cerebral lateralization of function. Yet the fact that the left hemisphere is the superior language processor does not necessarily imply that the right hemisphere is completely lacking linguistic ability. This paper reviews the growing body of research demonstrating that, far from being nonverbal, the right hemisphere has significant language processing strength. From prosodic and paralinguistic aspects of speech production, reception, and interpretation, to prelexical, lexical and postlexical components of visual word recognition; strong involvement of the right hemisphere is implicated. The evidence reviewed challenges the notion that language is solely a function of the “verbal” left hemisphere, indicating that the right cerebral hemisphere makes significant and meaningful contributions to normal language processing as well.     

Creative Problem Solving and Problem Finding in Young Adults: Interconnections with Stress,Hassles, and Coping Abilities

This study examined the relationship among creative problem solving (PS) and problem generation (PG) abilities, stress and daily hassles, and coping skills in a sample of college undergraduates. Heirarchical regression analyses indicated that separate sets of both PS and PS task scores were predictive of scores on certain coping scales even after the variance accounted for by indices of stress and hassles was removed. Specifically, PG and PS abilities were negatively related to such coping processes as confrontation, distancing, escape-avoidance tendencies, and excessive acceptance of responsibility, and positively associated with more general adaptive qualities. The findings strongly suggest that PS and PG abilities are important components of an individual's overall capacity to cope with both major and minor stresses of life.     

Intuitive physics and cognitive algebra: A review

IntroductionIntuitive physics explores how people without a formal instruction in physics intuitively understand physical phenomena. After a general overview of the topics of current research in intuitive physics and a discussion of current debates, this paper provides an introduction to Information Integration Theory (IIT).ObjectiveBy means of examples, it is shown how IIT can be used to directly compare the algebraic structure of physical laws and the algebraic structure of cognitive representations of these laws.MethodThe review considers about 40 years of research on the application of IIT in the field of intuitive physics. Occasionally, reference is also made to intuitive physics studies outside this theoretical framework.ResultsThe reviewed studies highlight four main factors that affect the degree of consistency between physical laws and cognitive algebraic laws: the participants’ age, their familiarity with the event under study, the type of task, and possible learning processes.ConclusionThe last part of the article discusses the implications of the results of the reviewed studies for the two main current hypotheses on the nature of intuitive physics, namely, that intuitive physics may be based on sub-optimal heuristics or may be based on the internalization of physical laws.     

Creativity and Dreaming: Correlation of Reported Dream Incorporation Into Waking Behavior With Level and Type of Creative Interest

Dreaming has been postulated to be a functional intrapersonal component of the creative experience. In this study, a previously validated questionnaire is used in a sleep laboratory population (N = 517) to assess levels of dream incorporation into waking behavior. Those responses are correlated with reported levels of involvement and self-defined types of the creative process. Greater involvement in creative process was significantly associated with greater incorporation of dreams into waking behavior. The reported types of creative outlet were divided for analysis between those with a creative product and those without product (experiential). The creative product grouping showed higher levels of reported dream incorporation into behavior than the experiential grouping, with both of these groupings reporting significantly higher levels of dream incorporation into waking behavior than the grouping reporting no creative outlet. Gender differences were found for both incorporation of dreaming into waking (significantly higher responses in females) and types of creative outlet (creative product significantly higher in females, experiential in males). In this study, level of interest in the creative process was positively correlated with reported level of dream incorporation into waking behavior. This study suggests that dreaming is likely to have a functional role in the creative process.     

Tell Me Your Name and I'll Tell You How Creative Your Work Is: Author's Name and Gender as Factors Influencing Assessment of Products' Creativity in Four Different Domains

The main goal of this study was to examine the effects of authors’ name and gender on judges’ assessment of product creativity in 4 different domains (art, science, music, and poetry). A total of 119 participants divided into 5 groups assessed products signed with a fictional author's name (unique vs. typical, male vs. female) or in an anonymous condition. It was observed that depending on the domain, the uniqueness of the author's name and her or his gender was associated with the assessment of creativity of the product. A poem and painting signed with an unusual name and a piece of music whose authorship was attributed to a man with a unique name were assessed as especially creative. In case of scientific theory, works attributed to men were assessed as significantly more creative than those of women. The results are discussed in light of the attributional approach to creativity.     

Intuitive physics: the straight-down belief and its origin

This study examines the nature and origin of a common misconception about moving objects. We first show through the use of pencil-and-paper problems that many people erroneously believe that an object that is carried by another moving object (e.g., a ball carried by a walking person) will, if dropped, fall to the ground in a straight vertical line. (In fact, such an object will fall forward in a parabolic arc.) We then demonstrate that this "straight-down belief" turns up not only on pencil-and-paper problems but also on a problem presented in a concrete, dynamic fashion (Experiment 1) and in a situation in which a subject drops a ball while walking (Experiment 2). We next consider the origin of the straight-down belief and propose that the belief may stem from a perceptual illusion. Specifically, we suggest that objects dropped from a moving carrier may be perceived as falling straight down or even backward, when in fact they move forward as they fall. Experiment 3, in which subjects view computer-generated displays simulating situations in which a carried object is dropped, and Experiment 4, in which subjects view a videotape of a walking person dropping an object, provide data consistent with this "seeing is believing" hypothesis.     

Intuitive Dualism and Afterlife Beliefs: A Cross-Cultural Study

It is widely held that intuitive dualism—an implicit default mode of thought that takes minds to be separable from bodies and capable of independent existence—is a human universal. Among the findings taken to support universal intuitive dualism is a pattern of evidence in which “psychological” traits (knowledge, desires) are judged more likely to continue after death than bodily or “biological” traits (perceptual, physiological, and bodily states). Here, we present cross-cultural evidence from six study populations, including non-Western societies with diverse belief systems, that shows that while this pattern exists, the overall pattern of responses nonetheless does not support intuitive dualism in afterlife beliefs. Most responses of most participants across all cultures tested were not dualist. While our sample is in no way intended to capture the full range of human societies and afterlife beliefs, it captures a far broader range of cultures than in any prior study, and thus puts the case for afterlife beliefs as evidence for universal intuitive dualism to a strong test. Based on these findings, we suggest that while dualist thinking is a possible mode of thought enabled by evolved human psychology, such thinking does not constitute a default mode of thought. Rather, our data support what we will call intuitive materialism—the view that the underlying intuitive systems for reasoning about minds and death produce as a default judgment that mental states cease to exist with bodily death.