Spoken Narrative Assessment: A Supplementary Measure of Children’s Creativity

This study developed a spoken narrative (i.e., storytelling) assessment as a supplementary measure of children’s creativity. Both spoken and gestural contents of children’s spoken narratives were coded to assess their verbal and nonverbal creativity. The psychometric properties of the coding system for the spoken narrative assessment were investigated with 30 Cantonese-speaking children aged six to nine. The internal consistency and the intercoder agreement were good. In addition, children’s scores on the 3 coded variables were moderately correlated with their creativity-relevant skills as measured by Alternate Uses Task (Guilford, 1967) and subjective ratings of creativity provided by judges. Children with higher verbal skills, as measured by Similarities (The Wechsler Intelligence Scale for Children – 4th Edition (Hong Kong); WISC-IV HK), also scored higher in the speech composite of the coding system. The findings showed that the coding system of the spoken narrative assessment is reliable and valid for measuring children’s creativity objectively. An age-related norm will be established in future.     

Exploring the Assessment of and Relationship Between Elementary Students’ Scientific Creativity and Science Inquiry

The purposes of this study were to (a) develop and validate instruments to assess elementary students’ scientific creativity and science inquiry, (b) investigate the relationship between the two competencies, and (c) compare the two competencies among different grade level students. The scientific creativity test was composed of 7 open-ended items designed to assess divergent creativity and 2 open-ended items to assess convergent creativity. The science inquiry tests were composed of an open-ended inquiry (O-inquiry) test and a multiple-choice inquiry test (M-inquiry). The aforementioned instruments were verified with satisfactory validities and reliabilities in a pilot study. A total of 321 elementary students from grades 3, 4, 5 and 6 participated in the study to determine the performance differences detected by these instruments. It was found that both convergent and divergent creativity were significantly (p < .001) related with O-inquiry and M-inquiry. Analyses of variance revealed that there were significant grade-level main effects for scientific creativity and science inquiry. Post-hoc pair-wise comparisons revealed significant gaps between the 3rd graders’ performances on scientific creativity and science inquiry and the performances of 4th, 5th, and 6th graders. Implications for curricular design and science teaching are discussed.     

Whence Creativity?

In this article, I explicate where my theoretical work on creativity has been and where it is going. I describe earlier three‐facet and investment theories, as well as a propulsion model. I then describe my new triangular theory of creativity.     

Creativity,consciousness, and “becoming wise fast enough”

Thirteen 11th-grade students in enriched mathematics and 9 in a regular course solved nine word problems that varied in the ease with which they could be solved by verbal-logical or visual strategies. A pervasive use of verbal-logical solution methods was noted for both groups. Significant differences were found in the final solution strategies. In the course of solving each problem, students tried different strategies. Enriched students alternated almost exclusively between verbal-logical and visual solution methods, whereas regular students alternated equally between verbal-logical and visual solution methods or between verbal-logical strategies and trial and error.     

Creativity,chaos, and self‐renewal in human systems

The research findings from the psychology of creativity are shown to be of considerable relevance to the study of self‐organization and self‐renewal in human systems. The characteristics of the creative person, and the nature of the creative process, particularly as they have been elaborated by Barron, are shown to be remarkably congruent with recent findings and theoretical elaborations by Abraham, Jantsch, Laszlo, Prigogine, and others in the fields of evolutionary and chaos theory. The broader social implications of chaos and evolutionary theories are fleshed out through an understanding of their characteristics in creative human systems.     

On Vandervert et al. “Working Memory,Cerebellum, and Creativity”

Four measures of self-determination (SD) were correlated with two measures of trait creativity. In Study 1, subjects high on the Creative Personality Scale (Gough, 1979) and the Problem-Solving/Creativity scale (Marsh &; O'Neill, 1984) were found to strive for self-determined reasons, to strive toward greater SD, and to evidence higher SD in measures of both motivational orientation and self-concept. Study 2 replicated most of these findings and also showed that creative subjects perceived their parents to be more autonomy supportive. Results are interpreted in terms of a general disposition to be self-determining that may help attune creative people to deeper cognitive resources and capacities within themselves.     

Therapeutic Creativity,Complexity, and Ed Tronick’s Dyadic Expansion of Consciousness

Ed Tronick’s research on interaction and infant development has greatly inspired clinicians. His new focus on the infant resulted in changes in ways of thinking about infant development and in the psychotherapeutic methods used with very young infants and their caregivers. The mutual regulation model (MRM) gave empirical support to clinical observations and later gave rise to the Still Face paradigm. The MRM model offers a theoretical framework for developing detailed mother–infant therapeutic capacities while it raises major theoretical questions on the manners in which the infant’s personal inner world develops. Considering the parent–infant dyad as a whole underscores the need to address infant and parental characteristics together, integrating development itself as an important force for mental health. This suggests that the infant is both a system in itself, capable of self-organization, and a part of a cocreating system with his or her partner, for example in the dyadic organization of states. It could mean that analysts should probably be both modest and brazen in their therapeutic interventions, taking advantage, as clinicians of knowledge based on the latest scientific research, linked to experience and culturally appropriate socially sensitive interventions. In this way, they may provide positively enriched experiences, working through problematic negative emotions that our patients will keep and use in their own creative way.     

“Minding the Gap”: Imagination,Creativity and Human Cognition

Inquiry into the nature of mental images is a major topic in psychology where research is focused on the psychological faculties of imagination and creativity. In this paper, we draw on the work of L.S. Vygotsky to develop a cultural-historical approach to the study of imagination as central to human cognitive processes. We characterize imagination as a process of image making that resolves “gaps” arising from biological and cultural-historical constraints, and that enables ongoing time-space coordination necessary for thought and action. After presenting some basic theoretical considerations, we offer a series of examples to illustrate for the reader the diversity of processes of imagination as image making. Applying our arguments to contemporary digital media, we argue that a cultural-historical approach to image formation is important for understanding how imagination and creativity are distinct, yet inter-penetrating processes.     

Are Teachers' Implicit Theories of Creativity Related to the Recognition of Their Students' Creativity?

We examine the structure of implicit theories of creativity among Polish high schools teachers and the role those theories play for the accuracy of teachers' assessment of their students' creativity. Latent class analysis revealed the existence of four classes of teachers, whose perception of a creative student differed: two of these classes defined a creative student incoherently with the existing theories of creativity, and the other two classes did that in accordance with Kirton's (1976) theory of creativity styles, that is, as adaptors or innovators. Teachers who perceived a creative student as an adaptor tended to more accurately assess the creativity of females, whereas teachers perceiving a creative student as an innovator more accurately assessed the creativity of males. We discuss the theoretical and practical consequences of these findings.     

Can Creativity Predict Cognitive Reserve?

Cognitive reserve relies on the ability to effectively cope with aging and brain damage by using alternate processes to approach tasks when standard approaches are no longer available. In this study, the issue if creativity can predict cognitive reserve has been explored. Forty participants (mean age: 61 years) filled out: the Cognitive Reserve Index questionnaire, the Torrance Test of Creative Thinking in visual and verbal form, Raven's Progressive Matrices (PM38), and the Verbal Judgments Test. The analysis revealed that all indices of verbal creativity were positively correlated with indices of cognitive reserve, except with cognitive reserve related to working activity. However, using the composite score of verbal creativity, all indices of cognitive reserve were predicted, including the index related to working activity. These results show that verbal creativity could be considered as another proxy indicator of cognitive reserve, and open to the hypothesis that verbal creativity enhances cognitive reserve and sustains active aging.     

Creativity, “Twinning,” and Self-Destruction in the Life and Work of Tennessee Williams

Applying an eclectic psychoanalytic framework, this paper provides a thematic link between the core experiences of Williams' early life and his creative work. Both preoedipal and Oedipal themes are elucidated. The central issue that dominated Williams' mental life was his struggle between a sense of suffocation and confinement, on the one hand, and having artistic and sexual freedom, on the other. The experience of suffocation extended to his dread of becoming mad. This dread derived from his intense twinning or twinship merger with his schizophrenic sister who was confined in an asylum. The study focuses attention on a number of Williams' one-act and full-length plays, written during each of the decades of his public career, as representative of his overall dramatic opus. These works are indicative of his special relationship with his sister as well as of his obsession about self-indulgence and fear of confinement. The later plays suggest that he was subject to identity confusion.     

Acute Aerobic Exercise Enhances Students’ Creativity

The purpose of this study was to evaluate the effectiveness of an aerobics games class on creativity in children during the school day. Participants were 96 students (age = 9.84 ± 1.12 years), 48 girls and 48 boys. The students were randomly assigned to the experimental group (EG, n = 48) or the control group (CG, n = 48). The Prueba de Imaginación Creativa-Niños (PIC-N) test was employed to assess narrative and graphic creativity. The EG took part in an aerobic games session lasting 45 min; the CG did not take part in a physical education class on that school day. As for group × time interaction, the EG experienced significant improvements in all creativity variables except in graphic originality, graphic titles, and graphic details. The CG did not improve any creativity variables. The findings suggest that acute aerobic exercise can enhance students’ creativity, which could be important for academic achievement.     

Creativity,Originality, and Appropriateness: What do Explicit Instructions Tell Us About Their Relationships?

Originality is a necessary part of creativity, but creative things are more than just original. They also solve a problem, or more generally are somehow fitting or appropriate. Yet previous research found an inverse relationship between ratings of originality and ratings of appropriateness. The present investigation employed a different methodology — it focused on the generation of ideas instead of judgments about them — to reexamine the relationships between originality, appropriateness, and creativity. Undergraduate students (N = 170) from two large universities received either realistic or unrealistic divergent thinking tasks. These were given with one of four types of instructions. These asked them to give (a) as many ideas as possible (which is the standard type of instruction for these kinds of tests), (b) only original ideas, (c) only appropriate ideas, or (d) only creative ideas. Brief definitions of originality, appropriateness, or creativity were also provided. Comparisons of the four groups indicated that there were significant differences between the different kinds of tasks, with the realistic set eliciting more appropriate ideas than the unrealistic, but the unrealistic tasks eliciting more original and varied (flexible) ideas. There was an interaction indicating that the magnitude of the impact of the instructions varied across tasks. Correlational analyses indicated that the correlation between the originality and appropriateness scores was the lowest among all possible inter‐index relationships (only 7% shared variance). Future research and practical implications are explored.     

National Culture,Creativity, and Productivity: What’s the Relationship with Student Achievement?

Using Hofstede’s culture dimensions and World Values Survey (WVS) dimensions, the study uses a series of multiple regressions to explore the relationship among national culture, creativity as measured by patents, economic productivity as measured by gross domestic product per capita, and student achievement as measured by Trends in International Mathematics and Science Study. The findings of this exploratory study highlight long-term orientation value from Hofstede’s national culture dimensions and tradition versus secular-rational values from the WVS as the most significant predictors of student academic achievement. A series of 12 regression analyses indicated significant relationships among student achievement, creativity, and economic productivity with models explaining between 19.9% and 76.0% of the variance among countries.     

How Can We Talk about Creativity?

The Psychological Record - In his work Philosophical Investigations, Ludwig Wittgenstein (1953/2009) argues that our language is only clearly communicated by agreement of definitions and judgments....     

Childhood Gender Identity … Disorder? Developmental,Cultural, and Diagnostic Concerns

Childhood gender identity development is reviewed in the context of biological, environmental, cultural, and diagnostic factors. With the upcoming 5th revision of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, the authors offer a critical consideration of childhood gender identity disorder, along with proposed diagnostic changes. They argue that meaningful understanding of issues surrounding gender identity is necessary for a conscientious assessment and diagnostic process that does not pathologize human diversity.     

What Can be Done with an Egg? Creativity,Material Objects,and the Theory of Affordances

This article offers a reflection on the role of material objects in the creative process and explores the potential links between creativity and the theory of affordances (Gibson, 1986 ), conceptualized from a sociocultural perspective. From this standpoint, creativity can be defined as a process of perceiving, exploiting, and “generating” novel affordances during socially and materially situated activities. Illustrations are offered for each of the above from a research project investigating traditional Easter egg decoration activities in rural Romania. This brief case study exemplifies the discovery of existing action potentials, the generation of objects with novel affordances, and the transgression of conventional procedures, all resulting in creative forms of expression. In the end, some conclusions are drawn regarding the ways in which an affordance theory of creativity can enrich our understanding of the phenomenon and contribute to the development of a new program of research concerned with situated and distributed creative acts.     

Can a Neural System Geared to Bring About Rapid,Predictive, and Efficient Function Explain Creativity?

Abstract

Vandervert, Schimpf, and Liu (this issue) have presented a cerebellar model of creativity in the featured article by relating their ideas to processes of working memory in relation to the cerebellum as well as by generalizing the motor control role of the cerebellum to extend to non-motor facets of cognition. In the present article, I discuss the weaknesses of their approach at different levels, ranging from the inadequate definition of the construct under study and the lack of specificity in their claims, to the counterintuitive underlying rationale of their approach, and the inadequate evidence provided to cement their ideas. I end by briefly outlining what would be necessary to propound an account of creativity that is uniquely attributable to cerebellum function.     

Teachers’ Perceptions of Creativity in the Classroom

Teachers’ implicit understandings of creativity may not align with current research-based understanding of creativity and characteristics associated with creative students. Even teachers who say they value creativity may actually find creative characteristics undesirable. Participating teachers (n = 371) rated student characteristics on a scale of very undesirable to very desirable. Participants also completed a brief self-assessment of personal creativity and rank-ordered a set of educational objectives based on what they perceived as most important. Results indicated that teachers found student characteristics associated with creativity less desirable than those characteristics contraindicative to creativity (d = 2.70). No effects were found based on the grade level (d = 0.07) and small effects were found for subjects taught (η² = 0.023). Similarly, no effects were found for the teachers’ level of experience (η² = 0.004) or age (η² = 0.002). Teachers’ level of personal creativity was related (r = .248) to how desirable they rated student characteristics associated with creativity, but the importance with which teachers ranked creative thinking had small effects (η² = 0.04) on how desirable they found characteristics associated with creativity. These results generally confirm previous studies and suggest that teachers’ grade level, subject, experience, and age have no effect on their perception of creative characteristics. However, some evidence suggests that teachers who are more creative find student characteristics associated with creativity more desirable in class.