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.     

Domain‐Specificity of Creativity in Young Children: How Quantitative and Qualitative Data Support It

One of the most controversial issues in contemporary research of creativity, whether a person's creativity is domain‐specific or domain‐general, was investigated in the present study. This study is composed of two parts, Study 1 and Study 2. In study 1, the relationships among 109 children's creative performances in three domains, and the relationships between those children's general creative thinking skills and their creative performances in three domains have been examined. Study 2 examines how the domain‐specificity and ‐generality issue is addressed in individual children via case studies of three highly creative children, hoping to provide enriching and qualitative specification to the quantitative data of the present study. In both studies, children's performances in language, art, and math domains were respectively judged by three experts who rated children's creativity on story‐telling, collage making, and math word‐problem creating tasks. Children's general creative thinking skills were assessed by a battery of two divergent thinking tests, including the Wallach‐Kogan Creativity Test (Wallach & Kogan, 1965) and the Real World Divergent Thinking Test adapted from Okuda, Runco, and Berger (1991). The findings of this study support the position that creative ability in young children is rather (but not absolutely) domain‐specific.     

Cultural and Bilingual Influences on Artistic Creativity Performances: Comparison of German and Chinese Students

Empirical research on the relationship between culture and creativity has thus far yielded no consistent results. Investigations of the differences are mostly post-hoc, and results are inconclusive. A creativity-value-oriented theory is proposed to explain cultural differences, as an alternative to ethnic and language effects. This study was conducted to compare the performances of artistic creativity of Germans and Chinese. Results revealed that the four groups of students examined (German students of Caucasian descent, German students of Asian descent, Chinese students studying abroad, and Chinese students studying in China) differed in their artistic creativity. German participants (Caucasian Germans and Asian Germans) produced more creative and aesthetically pleasing artwork than did their Chinese counterparts (Chinese studying abroad and domestic Chinese). This difference was observed by both German and Chinese judges. There no significant subgroup differences in creative performances—no difference between the two German groups, and no difference between the two Chinese groups. Finally, although there were significant differences between German judges, Chinese judges studying abroad, and domestic Chinese judges in judging the artworks, these were not due to a preference for artwork from students from their own cultural background. Chinese and German judges roughly agreed on what constitutes creativity. These results suggest that cultural differences affect creative performances.     

The Adaptable Mind in Design: Relating Personality,Cognitive Style,and Creative Performance

This study examined domain-specific relationships between creative personality traits, cognitive styles, and creative performance in design. Design students (n = 39) completed the Adjective Check List (ACL) and the Herrmann Brain Dominance Instrument (HBDI) to gauge personality and cognitive style, respectively. The ACL was scored using Domino's Creativity Scale (ACL-Cr) to identify creative personality traits. The sample also completed a design task that was evaluated for creativity using the Consensual Assessment Technique (CAT). Findings indicated that participants showing flexibility between cerebral, limbic, right, and left modes of thinking had significantly higher mean scores on creative personality than did those who exhibited a more entrenched cognitive style. Creative personality traits (ACL-Cr) significantly predicted creative performance on the design task. While cognitive style (HBDI) did not predict creative performance, flexibility between styles was significantly correlated to the creative personality. In sum, individuals exhibiting adaptable thinking appear to possess the flexibility necessary to design creatively and potentially transform the domain with original and imaginative solutions.     

创造性认知风格、创造性人格与创造性思维的关系

对315名初中生施测Kirton适应–创新认知风格问卷、Williams创造性倾向量表和Torrance创造性思维测验任务,以考察创造性认知风格、创造性人格与创造性思维之间的关系。相关分析表明,在创造性认知风格中,效率性、规则性均与创造性思维呈显著负相关;在创造性人格中,冒险性、好奇心及挑战性均与创造性思维显著正相关。回归分析进一步表明,在创造性认知风格中,创新性、效率性分别正向、负向预测创造性思维,在创造性人格中,好奇心正向预测创造性思维;对回归系数的逐步检验发现,创新性维度通过创造性人格而对创造性思维具有间接的积极影响。结构方程模型结果则显示,创新性维度、规则性维度以创造性人格为中介分别对创造性思维发生间接的积极、消极影响。可见,创新认知风格有利于创造性思维,而适应认知风格不利于创造性思维;创造性人格有利于创造性思维;创造性人格在创造性认知风格与创造性思维之间具有一定的中介作用,创新性认知风格通过创造性人格而促进创造性思维,规则性认知风格通过创造性人格而抑制创造性思维。     

Domain Specificity and the Limits of Creativity Theory

A growing body of research evidence suggests that creativity is very domain‐specific and that domain‐general skills or traits contribute little to creative performance. The term “creativity” is a convenient term for collecting many interesting artifacts, processes, and people into a single category, and the term “creative thinking skills” may be a useful way to connect a diverse set of unrelated cognitive processes that operate on different content and in different domains. These concepts are misleading, however, because although they connect things that may seem similar to observers, they lack any underlying cognitive psychological validity. This has implications for the ways we understand and assess creativity, and also for how we should direct our efforts to develop creative‐thinking skills in diverse domains. Creativity training needs either to target the domains in which creativity enhancement is desired or to use a wide range of activities in diverse domains if the goal is more general improvement in many domains. Creativity assessment needs to focus on domain‐by‐domain assessment and to review findings based on allegedly domain‐general tests of creativity that may have misled researchers to unsupportable interpretations. Creativity theory needs to set more modest goals of domain‐by‐domain theory development and to recognize that theories that may seem domain‐general might better be understood as meta‐theoretical heuristics that do not actually describe domain‐general processes. These meta‐theories might in some cases help guide the search for domain‐based theories.     

The cognitive underpinnings of creative thought: A latent variable analysis exploring the roles of intelligence and working memory in three creative thinking processes

The field of creativity has largely focused on individual differences in divergent thinking abilities. Recently, contemporary creativity researchers have shown that intelligence and executive functions play an important role in divergent thought, opening new lines of research to examine how higher-order cognitive mechanisms may uniquely contribute to creative thinking. The present study extends previous research on the intelligence and divergent thinking link by systematically examining the relationships among intelligence, working memory, and three fundamental creative processes: associative fluency, divergent thinking, and convergent thinking. Two hundred and sixty five participants were recruited to complete a battery of tasks that assessed a range of elementary to higher-order cognitive processes related to intelligence and creativity. Results provide evidence for an associative basis in two distinct creative processes: divergent thinking and convergent thinking. Findings also supported recent work suggesting that intelligence significantly influences creative thinking. Finally, working memory played a significant role in creative thinking processes. Recasting creativity as a construct consisting of distinct higher-order cognitive processes has important implications for future approaches to studying creativity within an individual differences framework.     

Postformal thinking and creativity among late adolescents: a post-Piagetian approach

This study investigated the relationship between cognitive development levels and creative performance among late adolescents from a post-Piagetian perspective. Participants were 386 college students, ranging in age from 19 to 26 years. The Social Paradigm Belief Scale was employed to measure the three cognitive styles of late adolescence: formal, relativistic, and dialectical thinking. The Divergent Thinking Test (DTT) was used to measure creative performance. Dialectical and relativistic thinking were positively correlated with creative performance, whereas formal thinking was negatively correlated. Planned contrasts revealed that postformal thinkers scored higher than formal thinkers in all dimensions of creativity, and additional MANOVA analysis exhibited a similar pattern. Multiple discriminant analysis showed that the linear combination of the six dimensions of creativity recognized in the DTT discriminated between formal and postformal thinkers, which supported our findings about the relationship between postformal thinking and creativity. Future research directions and implications for creativity pedagogy are discussed.     

Boundless Creativity: Evidence for the Domain Generality of Individual Differences in Creativity

This study investigated correlates of domain‐general and domain‐specific components of creativity. 158 college students completed a questionnaire that assessed their motivational and personality traits (i.e., intrinsic and extrinsic motivation, creative personality, and originality in word association) as well as intellectual abilities (SAT verbal and quantitative scores). Under two different instruction conditions (standard instruction or explicit “be creative” instruction), students also took a battery of multi‐item, product‐based tests of creativity in three domains (artistic, verbal, and mathematical creativity). Factor analyses showed evidence of domain‐generality of creativity. Furthermore, results from structural equation models showed that motivational and personality traits and intellectual abilities were associated with the domain‐general component of creativity. Only one variable (SAT quantitative score) was found to be associated with the domain‐specific component of mathematical creativity under the explicit “be creative” instruction condition. These results affirm the domain‐generality of creativity and challenge researchers to identify correlates of domain‐specific components of creativity.     

Enhancing Digital Fluency through a Training Program for Creative Problem Solving Using Computer Programming

The purpose of this paper is to propose a training program for creative problem solving based on computer programming. The proposed program will encourage students to solve real‐life problems through a creative thinking spiral related to cognitive skills with computer programming. With the goal of enhancing digital fluency through this proposed training program, we investigated its effects. Two sets of experiments were performed in which 119 typical students and 30 younger, gifted students participated. Two synthetic creative problem solving tests, which had a high correlation with logical ability, scientific problem solving ability and divergent thinking ability, were developed to measure creative problem solving ability. We provided the treatment group with a paper‐based booklet with relevant problems developed specifically for that group. ANCOVA statistical procedures were used to analyze the pre‐ and post‐synthetic creative problem solving tests. The findings of our study are as follows: with typical students, the originality of the treatment group outperformed the control group, a result that was compatible with previous research. With gifted students, the fluency of the treatment group outperformed the control group, and overall creative problem solving ability was enhanced. Remarkably, fluency increased significantly, a notable difference from the results of prior studies. In conclusion, we inferred that, given the definition of digital fluency, if creative problem solving ability is enhanced by a training program for creative problem solving based on computer programming, digital fluency will ultimately be improved. In this paper, we discuss the result of fluency enhancement that contradicts prior research. We suggest that this training program could be a new learning environment for the students who have grown up with digital media.     

Domain Specificity in Creativity Testing: A Comparison of Performance on a General Divergent‐Thinking Test and a Parallel,Content‐Specific Test

The purpose of this study was to examine the extent to which domain‐specific components, such as content and type of task, influence divergent thinking and creativity by comparing the performance of 112 ninth‐grade students on two parallel divergent‐thinking tests. The Verbal Forms of the Torrance Tests of Creative Thinking (TTCT) represented the domain‐independent measures, while two forms of a Creativity in History Test (CHT), whose items corresponded closely to those of the TTCT, served as the content‐specific measures. The results indicated that both content‐specific and task‐specific factors have significant effects on divergent‐thinking and creative performance. Implications concerning the definition of creativity as a construct and its measurement are discussed.     

Predicting Creative Problem-Solving in Math From a Dynamic System Model of Creative Problem Solving Ability

Six attributes of creative problem-solving ability were investigated as predictors of creative problem solving ability in math. A total of 409 Taiwanese fifth and sixth graders were administered the recently developed Creative Problem Solving Attributes Inventory and other corresponding established instruments that measure similar attributes. The Creative Problem Solving Attributes Inventory yielded valid and reliable data on creative problem solving attributes. Results also demonstrated that divergent thinking and domain specific knowledge and skills directly predicted math problem-solving ability, whereas divergent thinking, convergent thinking, motivation, general knowledge and skills, and environment indirectly predicted math problem solving ability. Implications for nurturing creative problem solving ability and limitations of the study are discussed.     

Moderating Effect of Self-Esteem on the Relationship between Perfectionism and Creative Thinking among Collegiate Dancers

Social cognitive theory has supported the view that perfectionism can be a hindrance to creativity, and also considers self-esteem to have a moderating effect on their relationship. Therefore, the purpose of this study was to examine the moderating effect of self-esteem on the relationship between perfectionism and creativity in college dancers. Two hundred and sixty-six college dance students completed the Multidimensional Perfectionism Scale of Frost, the Rosenberg Self-Esteem Scale, and the New Test of Creative Thinking. The moderating effect was tested with a four-step moderated hierarchical regression analysis. Bivariate analyses showed that creative thinking was, as a dependent variable, significantly related to multidimensional perfectionism and self-esteem in college dancers. Additionally, the hierarchical regression analysis revealed that self-esteem moderated the association between multidimensional perfectionism and creative thinking after controlling for selected socio-demographic characteristics. It can thus be concluded that self-esteem might regulate the positive effect of multidimensional perfectionism on creative thinking. Professional dance instructors who are working with perfectionist dancers should, therefore, seek ways to improve dancers’ self-esteem as one of the strategies to improve their creative thinking.     

Creativity on tap 2: Investigating dose effects of alcohol on cognitive control and creative cognition

This preregistered study aimed to replicate and extend research on the role of cognitive control in creative cognition by examining dose effects of alcohol in a randomized controlled trial. A sample of 125 participants was randomly assigned to three experimental groups, either drinking alcoholic beer (BAC = 0.03 or 0.06) or drinking non-alcoholic beer (placebo-control group). Before and after the alcohol intervention, participants completed two tests of cognitive control and two established creative thinking tasks. A BAC of 0.06 led to an impairment of verbal fluency, while working memory performance was unaffected at both alcohol levels. Alcohol had no facilitative or detrimental effects on creative thinking performance, neither in terms of RAT performance, divergent thinking fluency or divergent thinking creativity. These results indicate that moderate alcohol levels have dose-dependent, selective effects on cognitive control, and that minor impairments of cognitive control do not generally increase or attenuate creative thinking performance.     

The Cognitive Spiral: Creative Thinking and Cognitive Processing

Defining and measuring the construct of creative thinking has proven to be an elusive task. As Clark (1979) has pointed out, the term creativity is used as if there is general agreement as to what the construct means. Yet the fact is that research has taken many routes, and definitions are more often specific to the particular author than a matter of consensus. However, when applying creative thinking to instructional design and presentation, it would be prudent to have a concise definition which separates out potentially confounding elements. The Cognitive Spiral model conceptualizes creative thinking as an integral component of all cognitive processing. This article details the synthesis of a definition and the structure of a model of cognitive processing.     

The development of creative cognition across adolescence: distinct trajectories for insight and divergent thinking

We examined developmental trajectories of creative cognition across adolescence. Participants (N = 98), divided into four age groups (12/13 yrs, 15/16 yrs, 18/19 yrs, and 25–30 yrs), were subjected to a battery of tasks gauging creative insight (visual; verbal) and divergent thinking (verbal; visuo‐spatial). The two older age groups outperformed the two younger age groups on insight tasks. The 25–30‐year‐olds outperformed the two youngest age groups on the originality measure of verbal divergent thinking. No age‐group differences were observed for verbal divergent thinking fluency and flexibility. On divergent thinking in the visuo‐spatial domain, however, only 15/16‐year‐olds outperformed 12/13‐year‐olds; a model with peak performance for 15/16‐years‐old showed the best fit. The results for the different creativity processes are discussed in relation to cognitive and related neurobiological models. We conclude that mid‐adolescence is a period of not only immaturities but also of creative potentials in the visuo‐spatial domain, possibly related to developing control functions and explorative behavior.     

大学生创造力特点的研究

运用问卷法对我国八大行政区10所不同类型学校的1008名大学生进行调查研究。从创造性思维和创造性人格多侧面认识大学生创造力的特点,研究发现:大学生有较强的创造潜能,突出表现为创造性人格富有挑战性;创造性思维核心品质的新颖性表现突出,创造性思维能力的典型表现中投射未来、评估力和通感特点较为明显;专业类别对大学生创造力的发展有显著影响,艺术类大学生的创造力较为突出,社科类大学生的创造力较差;大学生创造性人格和创造性思维的年级差异明显。     

创造性思维与认知抑制的关系

抑制是创造性思维过程中的一种重要的认知加工机制。创造性思维与认知抑制的关系主要有三种观点：创造性思维的认知去抑制假说、认知抑制假说和适应性认知抑制假说。本文系统评述了创造性思维与认知抑制关系的相关理论、研究新进展和神经机制。未来研究应加强创造性思维与认知抑制关系的理论整合与构建,分析创造性思维的不同阶段的认知抑制机制,采用无意抑制与有意抑制研究范式,对创造性思维与认知抑制的关系、影响因素及神经机制进行深入研究。     

Contemporary Studies on the Concept of Creativity: the East and the West

This article reviews contemporary studies on the concept of creativity across two cultures—Eastern (Asian) cultures and Western (American and European) cultures — by examining two bodies of literature. One is on people's implicit theories of creativity across different cultures and the other is on cross‐cultural studies of creativity. Studies on implicit theories of creativity in the East suggest that many Asians have similar but not identical conceptions of creativity to many people in the West. Cross‐cultural studies of creativity reveal that Easterners and Westerners differ, on average, in their divergent‐thinking performance and creative expressions. A view of creativity as relatively culture‐specific is presented and the appropriateness of using divergent‐thinking tests to measure creativity is discussed.     

The cognitive neuroscience of creativity

This article outlines a framework of creativity based on functional neuroanatomy. Recent advances in the field of cognitive neuroscience have identified distinct brain circuits that are involved in specific higher brain functions. To date, these findings have not been applied to research on creativity. It is proposed that there are four basic types of creative insights, each mediated by a distinctive neural circuit. By definition, creative insights occur in consciousness. Given the view that the working memory buffer of the prefrontal cortex holds the content of consciousness, each of the four distinctive neural loops terminates there. When creativity is the result of deliberate control, as opposed to spontaneous generation, the prefrontal cortex also instigates the creative process. Both processing modes, deliberate and spontaneous, can guide neural computation in structures that contribute emotional content and in structures that provide cognitive analysis, yielding the four basic types of creativity. Supportive evidence from psychological, cognitive, and neuroscientific studies is presented and integrated in this article. The new theoretical framework systematizes the interaction between knowledge and creative thinking, and how the nature of this relationship changes as a function of domain and age. Implications for the arts and sciences are briefly discussed.