Vividness of imagery and positive and negative values of emotionality of words

We estimated the correlations of scores on vividness of imagery of 122 undergraduates using Mark's imagery questionnaire with positive and negative emotionality values of words. We also studied the influence of imagery vividness (good and poor imagers) in emotionality. Analysis indicates a significant correlation for the 52 men and for the total group between imagery vividness and emotionality. The good imagers gave higher emotionality scores than poor imagers.     

Organizational Support,Job Resources,Soldiers’ Motivational Profiles,Work Engagement,and Affect

The authors examined the relationships between soldiers’ motivational profiles and work correlates. Results showed that the profiles differentially related to perceived organizational support and work engagement in both samples, as well as to communication, supervisor support, and positive and negative affect in Sample 2. Specifically, soldiers with the highest autonomous motivation scores displayed the highest levels of perceived organizational support and work engagement. Moreover, the highest levels of autonomous motivation were associated with the highest levels of communication, supervisor support, and positive affect. Finally, soldiers with low to moderate levels of autonomous motivation reported higher levels of negative affect than those characterized by high autonomous motivation scores. Theoretical and practical implications of the findings are discussed.     

Imagery ability classification: Commentary on «Kinaesthetic imagery ability moderates the effect of an AO+MI intervention on golf putt performance: A pilot study» by McNeill et al. (2020)

McNeill et al. (2020) recently published a study that first aimed to assess the effect of a combination of motor imagery (MI) and action observation (AO) on golf putt performance and then to determine if the evolution of this performance could be moderated by participants’ kinesthetic imagery ability. To assess golfers’ MI ability, the authors used the third version of the Movement Imagery Questionnaire. Participants notably self-estimated their kinesthetic MI ability by using a Likert-type scale, with scores ranging from 1 “very difficult to feel” to 7 “very easy to feel”. Athletes were categorized as either “poor” or “good” kinesthetic imagers, with mean scores of 4.93 and 6.63, respectively, in the intervention groups. Although a similar categorization procedure had previously been used in the literature for “good imagers”, the mean scores for “poor” imagers were much higher than those noted in previous studies evaluating the effect of MI ability on motor accuracy. Moreover, the low number of participants in the intervention group (n = 22) meant that participants were considered “poor” imagers even though their mean scores corresponded to “quite easy to feel” kinesthetic images of movements. This could notably explain the lack of differences between “poor” and “good” imagers in terms of putting performance in the intervention group. Despite these methodological limitations, the results of McNeill et al.‘s study show promising evidence for the efficacy of an AO plus MI intervention in relation to putting performance and should lead to further investigations. We suggest that research in the area of motor imagery ability include larger samples to explore, in individuals with very low imagery ability scores, the effects of the combination of AO and MI on motor performance.     

Effect of alcohol on quantity of creative production using the Purdue tests

An experiment was performed to test whether a moderate dose of alcohol (1 ml of 100% alcohol/kg body weight) facilitates the production of creative solutions as measured with a standard creativity test and whether a creative attitude interacts with alcohol in this respect. The 60 subjects were randomly assigned to either an alcohol, a placebo, or a control group, with 10 women and 10 men in each group. Two different personality tests measuring the creative attitude were administered a priori. Analysis indicated that both the placebo and alcohol groups produced significantly less creative solutions to the ten stimulus pictures. The a priori attitude scores significantly predicted the creativity scores for the placebo and alcohol subjects but not for the control subjects. Results were discussed in terms of disinhibition and cognitive changes under alcohol.     

Intelligence Level and the Allocation of Resources for Creative Tasks: A Pupillometry Study

This pupillometry study examined the relationship between intelligence and creative cognition from the resource allocation perspective. It was hypothesized that, during a creative metaphor task, individuals with higher intelligence scores would have different resource allocation patterns than individuals with lower intelligence scores. The study also examined the influence of intelligence in language and visuo-spatial domains on the resource allocation mechanism of verbal and visual creativity. The results suggested that individuals with higher intelligence scores allocated more cognitive resources for creative tasks than those with lower intelligence scores but not for non-creative tasks. The findings of this study support the view that creativity requires allocation of several cognitive faculties and may share underlying cognitive and neural mechanisms with intelligence. Domain-specific intelligence did not seem to play a significant role in the same domain, as individuals with higher scores in both domains showed similar resource allocation patterns. However, individuals with higher intelligence scores in the visuo-spatial domain generated more creative metaphorical interpretations in both verbal and visual creative metaphor tasks suggesting its importance in creative cognition.     

Scales measuring people's perception of themselves as origins and pawns

Scales measuring people's perception of themselves as origins (determining their own behavior) or pawns (their behavior being determined by forces beyond their control) were devised using content analysis of verbalizations. Scoring categories were based on the work of Heider (1955). Reliability was satisfactory. Normative data were obtained from 528 people, each experiencing one of nine life situations. Pawn and origin perception differed across situations and these differences were correlated with independent ratings of how people would perceive the situations. Pawn perception was more stable over time than origin perception but both varied over time. Origin scores were relatively independent of measures of negative affect. Pawn scores were associated with hostility directed inward, ambivalent hostility and total anxiety. Associations were found with some forms of Coping behavior and people's reactions to a relative's serious or less serious illness. Origin and pawn scores were not negatively correlated, indicating the inappropriateness of regarding them as opposite ends of a single dimension of causal perception.     

Creative perceptions of Hungarian and American Students.

The creative self-perceptions on Something About Myself of 227 Hungarian and 672 American high school and college males and females were compared. Americans obtained significantly higher mean scores on Environmental Sensitivity, Self strength and Intellectuality as well as on the Total Scale, whereas Hungarians obtained significantly higher scores on Initiative, Individuality, and Artistry. The observed differences to variability in cultural emphasis.     

Can People Creative in Imagery Interpret Ambiguous Figures Faster than People Less Creative in Imagery?

The purpose of the research study was to investigate whether people creative in imagery are better than people non‐creative in imagery at interpreting ambiguous figures. Creativity, in the imagery paradigm, is said to involve two processes: combinational play and discovery. Discovery plays a major role in creativity as it is the process of discerning, judging or interpreting the value of a mental construction. Furthermore, creative people have been said to be insightful thus supporting the proposition advanced here that people creative in imagery are faster at interpreting and finding alternative interpretations for ambiguous figures than people less creative in imagery. This study reports both latencies and discoveries in perception and mental imagery as measured on a figure combination task. The data support the conclusion that people creative in imagery are more capable in reinterpreting ambiguous figures and that they are quicker in their discoveries than people less creative in imagery. The analysis to the questions of how the subjects arrived at their discoveries may also illustrate the Gestalt literature on insight as a rapid pattern recognition.     

Self-rated imagery and encoding strategies in visual memory.

The value of self-rated vividness of imagery in predicting performance was investigated, taking into account the mnemonic strategies utilized among subjects performing a visual-memory task. Subjects classified as 'good' or 'poor' imagers, according to their scores in the Vividness of Visual Imagery Questionnaire (VVIQ; Marks, 1972), were to detect as rapidly as possible differences between pairs of similar pictures presented consecutively. No coding instructions were given and the mnemonic strategies used were analysed by studying subjective reports and objective performance measurements. The results indicated that the subjects utilized two main strategies--a detail or an image strategy. The detail strategy was the more efficient. In accordance with a previous study (Berger & Gaunitz, 1977), it was found that the VVIQ did not discriminate between performance by 'good' and 'poor' imagers. However, among subjects who used the image strategy, 'good' imagers performed more rapidly than 'poor' imagers. Self-rated imagery may then have some value in predicting performance among individuals shown to have utilized an image strategy.     

A Genetic Theory of the Emotions

The influences of socioeconomic status (SES), maturation, school, and sex on creative potential were examined by administering the Torrance Tests of Creative Thinking to 1,445 children. Comparisons of means indicated that scores increased with SES, sixth-grade children scored slightly higher than fifth-grade children, and girls in general earned higher scores than boys. Additionally, the school setting and in particular the classroom atmosphere seemed to be far more important to creative potential than has been previously acknowledged. Implications for the concept of creativity and the adequacy of tests as indicators of divergent thinking are discussed.     

Domain‐General and Domain‐Specific Creative‐Thinking Tests: Effects of Gender and Item Content on Test Performance

The study examined the effects of gender and item content of domain‐general and domain‐specific creative‐thinking tests on four subscale scores of creative‐thinking (fluency, flexibility, originality, and elaboration). Chinese tenth‐grade students (234 males and 244 females) participated in the study. Domain‐general creative thinking was measured by using two domain‐independent items—box and newspaper. Domain‐specific creative thinking was measured in the domain of history by two history‐specific items—school uniform and health food—that were part of lessons in modern Chinese history. Domain‐general creative‐thinking scores were not different across gender in any of the four subscales. In domain‐specific creative thinking, female students produced more responses (fluency) and more categories of ideas (flexibility), and more detailed answers (elaboration) on both items than did males. Gender difference was not found in originality. Item effects were significant in both general and specific creative‐thinking scores, with higher fluency, flexibility, and elaboration for the newspaper than the box item, and higher fluency, flexibility, originality, and elaboration for the school uniform than the health food item. The findings on both gender and item effects support the contention that personal interest and life experience influence the generation of creative solutions. The finding that gender did not differ in domain‐general creative‐thinking was expected, as the two general items (box and newspaper) are experienced similarly by both genders. As most of the creative‐thinking tests are influenced by individuals' experience beyond creative‐thinking ability, judicial evaluation and use of creative‐thinking scores are underscored.     

The Semantic Network Model of Creativity: Analysis of Online Social Media Data

The central hypothesis of Semantic Network Model of Creativity is that creative people, who are exposed to more information that are both novel and useful, will have more interconnections between event schemas in their associations. The networks of event schemas in creative people’s minds were expected to be wider and denser than those in less creative people’s minds. Based on this theory, data from Chinese online social media, also known as “Weibo microblogging,” were analyzed. Each user’s score consisted of the metric of coverage, which represented the spread of the network, as well as the metric of density, which represented the interconnections among nodes in the network. The results showed that occupations had a significant effect on people’s creativity score. Academic scholars and writers in general had higher scores compared to other groups, such as entertainment celebrities and sport stars. The implications and limitations of this method of quantifying people’s creativity were discussed.     

Influence of imaging ability on word transformation

In the present study, we examined whether individual differences in imaging ability affect visual word recognition. Poor and vivid imagers performed a naming task that involved nonreversed (e.g., JUMP) and reversed (e.g., PMUJ) words (Experiment 1). Poor and vivid imagers were also tested on a naming task that was controlled for verbal ability; all the words were reversed and presentation time was varied (Experiment 2). In both experiments, imaging ability interacted with task difficulty, suggesting that individual differences in imaging ability affect visual word recognition. Specifically, the present data suggest that poor imagers may be less efficient than vivid imagers at processing words analytically. The data are interpreted within a limited-capacity, hybrid, word recognition model, in which words can be processed as either word-level or letter-level codes.     

Is There a Developmental Slump in Creativity in China? The Relationship Between Organizational Climate and Creativity Development in Chinese Adolescents

The major objectives of this study were to determine the characteristics of creativity development of Chinese children, the creative organizational climate of Chinese schools, and the relations among them. The results provided evidence that the creativity scores of children in elementary school were significantly higher than those of children in middle school. The teachers' evaluation of the creative organizational climate of the elementary school was significantly higher than that of the middle school. When the two variables were analyzed together, both the creative organizational climate of schools and the creative thinking development of children decreased during the children's development. Moreover, the creativity and climate scores were highly correlated, and the results from a path analysis suggested that a school's creative organizational climate has a significant impact on all seven dimensions of creativity measured in this study.     

Personality Characteristics of Innovative Physics Teachers

ABSTRACT Innovative physics teachers scored higher on theoretical and aesthetic values than other male high school teachers, but lower on economic, religious, and political values. The innovative teachers scored much higher on a physics achievement test than physics teachers in three summer institutes. While they are close to the norm for male secondary school teachers on teaching attitudes, they have a lower need for affiliation than this group. Compared with other male high-school science teachers, they are less abasing and affiliative, but more autonomous and heterosexual. Because of their relatively high intellectual and artistic values, and needs for autonomy and social independence, their profiles resemble those of creative scientists. Two personality variables suggesting a “warm, outgoing teaching attitude factor” are significantly correlated with the teachers' knowledge of physics. The teachers who have a firm grasp of their subject not only have more positive attitudes toward teaching, but appear to be less intraceptive.     

Meta‐Analyses of the Relationship of Creative Achievement to Both IQ and Divergent Thinking Test Scores

There is disagreement among researchers about whether IQ tests or divergent thinking (DT) tests are better predictors of creative achievement. Resolving this dispute is complicated by the fact that some research has shown a relationship between IQ and DT test scores (e.g., Runco & Albert, 1986; Wallach, 1970). The present study conducted meta‐analyses of the relationships between creative achievement and both IQ and DT test scores. The analyses included 17 studies (with 5,544 participants) that established the correlation coefficients between IQ and creative achievement and 27 studies (with 47,197 participants) that established the correlation coefficients between DT test scores and creative achievement. Marginal, but statistically significant, Fisher's Z‐transformed correlation coefficients were revealed. The analysis found a significantly higher relationship between DT test scores and creative achievement (r = .216) than between IQ test scores and creative achievement (r = .167). The differences in the correlation coefficients were explained by differences in DT tests, creative achievement types, predicted time periods, and creativity subscales. The significant independent moderator effect for different DT tests indicates that the Torrance Tests of Creative Thinking (TTCT) predict creative achievement better than any other DT test included in this study. Among the creative achievement types, music is predicted the best by IQ and all others are predicted best by DT tests. Among the time periods evaluated, the relationship between DT test scores and creative achievement had the highest correlation at the period of 11–15 years.     

中小学生创造性倾向、智力及学业成绩的相关研究

本研究采用威廉斯创造性倾向量表和瑞文标准推理测验,结合中小学生语文、数学成绩,对524名中小学生进行创造性倾向、智力和学业成绩的相关研究.研究发现:(1)中小学生创造性倾向从小学到初中都处于发展阶段,高中以后基本趋于稳定,中小学生的智力一直处于发展增长趋势;(2)小学生的语文、数学成绩与创造性倾向总分有显著相关,初中生的数学成绩与创造性倾向总分以及四项行为特质都有显著相关,小学、初中和高中学生的语文、数学成绩与智力有显著相关;(3)小学中、低分段语文成绩和低分段数学成绩与其创造性倾向有显著相关,初中学生的语文成绩只有高分段与创造性倾向有显著相关,小学和高中语、数成绩三个分段学生的学业成绩跟智力显著相关.     

A comparison of the family environments of black male and female adolescent alcohol users.

The purpose of this study was to examine black American adolescents' use of alcohol and their perceptions of their family environments. Seventy-one participants between the ages of 12 and 20 from a large mid-Atlantic medical facility, who reported using alcohol, were asked to complete the Family Environment Scale (FES). Users were described as those who drank at least once a week and used medium amounts per occasion. Females were hypothesized to have higher scores on the FES than males (higher scores on the FES suggest a more favorable perception of family functioning). A t test was conducted to compare group means on each subscale of the FES. Analyses of the data indicated that females differed significantly from males (p less than .05) on four of the ten subscales.     

The Impact of Culture and Individualism–Collectivism on the Creative Potential and Achievement of American and Chinese Adults

ABSTRACT: This research explored the relation between culture and creative potential in highly educated adults. It was hypothesized that culture would influence creative potential and achievement, largely through how individualistic (citizens serving themselves) or collectivistic (citizens serving society) the society of origin was. To this end, 55 American and 56 Chinese doctoral students were surveyed concerning their creative potential, their sense of individualism or collectivism, and their Graduate Record Examination quantitative subtest scores. Americans displayed significantly higher scores on a measure of creative potential than the Chinese. As expected, Americans showed greater individualism. Chinese were more collectivistic. Chinese had significantly higher skill mastery in the domain of mathematics. Theoretical and practical implications of these findings for understanding cultural differences in creativity are considered.