Intellectual ability correlates of the Marlowe-Crowne Social Desirability Scale

The hypothesis that the Marlowe-Crowne Scale would be negatively related to a variety of intellectual ability measures was investigated in a sample of college students. As predicted, MC scores were negatively correlated with measures of intelligence (Quick Test), associational ability (Remote Associates Test), and academic achievement (course grades). These results suggest that the vulnerable self-esteem and defensiveness traditionally ascribed to high versus low MC scorers may at least in part, reflect a history of poorer performance in intellectual and academically related activities.     

创造性研究的有效工具——远距离联想测验（RAT）

介绍了一个测量创造力的方法——远距离联想测验（remoteassociatestest,RAT）,并将它与其他创造性测验方法进行比较。文章还介绍了应用RAT进行的一些创造性科学研究的成果。作者认为RAT是适合创造性科学研究,尤其是神经科学研究的重要工具     

Assessment of Personality Organization in Couple Relationships: Factorial Structure of the Inventory of Personality Organization and Incremental Validity Over Neuroticism

Summary: Creative thinking was explored from several approaches to further understanding of the interrelationship of perception, personality, and cognition. College students (N = 45) were administered the Group Embedded Figures Test (GEFT), the Remote Associates Test (RAT), a questionnaire concerning RAT strategy, and two self-report scales. Field independent subjects were found to be significantly (p < .001) more creative than field dependents. Correlations between the RAT and GEFT and the self-report measures of conformity and creativity, while largely nonsignificant, were in the predicted directions. Results demonstrated that advanced strategy levels and insightful responses were significantly related to high performance on the RAT. Theoretical links between cognitive style and Piagetian concepts were discussed in regard to creative thought. Overall, these findings support the contention that the creative processes should be studied, not as isolated structures, but with relational and multifaceted emphasis.     

Synaesthesia,creativity and art: What is the link?

It has been suggested that individuals with synaesthesia may show heightened creativity as a result of being able to form meaningful associations between disparate stimuli (e.g. colour, sound). In this study, a large sample (N=82) of people with various kinds of synaesthesia were given two psychometric tests of creativity (Remote Associates Test, Alternate Uses Test) and were also asked about the amount of time engaged in creative arts (visual art, music). There was a significant tendency for synaesthetes to spend more time engaged in creative arts and this was, at least in part, dependent upon the type of synaesthesia experienced. For example, synaesthetes experiencing vision from music were far more likely to play an instrument than their other synaesthetic counterparts. There was no relationship between this tendency and the psychometric measures of creativity, but synaesthetes did outperform controls on one of the two psychometric measures (Remote Associates). We conclude that the tendency for synaesthetes to be more engaged in art is likely to have a different mechanism to psychometric measures of creativity, and that there is no direct link between them. Although synaesthetes may well perform better on some measures of creativity, we suggest that synaesthetes have better bottom‐up access to certain associations, but are not necessarily better able to use them flexibly (in divergent thinking).     

A cognitive style approach to creative thought.

Creative thinking was explored from several approaches to further understanding of the interrelationship of perception, personality, and cognition. College students (N = 45) were administered the Group Embedded Figures Test (GEFT), the Remote Associates Test (RAT), a questionnaire concerning RAT strategy, and two self-report scales. Field independent subjects were found to be significantly (p less than .001) more creative than field dependents. Correlations between the RAT and GEFT and the self-report measures of conformity and creativity, while largely nonsignificant, were in the predicted directions. Results demonstrated that advanced strategy levels and insightful responses were significantly related to high performance on the RAT. Theoretical links between cognitive style and Piagetian concepts were discussed in regard to creative thought. Overall, these findings support the contention that the creative processes should be studied, not as isolated structures, but with relational and multifaceted emphasis.     

Creativity and two modes of associative fluency: Chains and stars1

The relationship between creativity and associative fluency was reexamined in light of a proposed distinction between two modes of associative fluency, chains and stars. Chained associations were defined as a series of responses, each related to the preceding one, and star associations as a series of responses, all of which are focused on the original stimulus word. An analysis of the continuous associations produced orally by 96 university students in response to a single presentation of a stimulus word indicated that they produced associations of both types interchangeably. Chain and star fluency were found to be inversely correlated at a low order, suggesting that they are two distinct associative modes. As expected, chain fluency was highly related to creativity, as measured by a Hebrew version of Mednick's Remote Associates Test while star fluency was unrelated to it. The findings were discussed in terms of Wallach's (1970) notion of attention deployment, and directions for future research were suggested.     

Positive affect facilitates creative problem solving

Four experiments indicated that positive affect, induced by means of seeing a few minutes of a comedy film or by means of receiving a small bag of candy, improved performance on two tasks that are generally regarded as requiring creative ingenuity: Duncker's (1945) candle task and M. T. Mednick, S. A. Mednick, and E. V. Mednick's (1964) Remote Associates Test. One condition in which negative affect was induced and two in which subjects engaged in physical exercise (intended to represent affectless arousal) failed to produce comparable improvements in creative performance. The influence of positive affect on creativity was discussed in terms of a broader theory of the impact of positive affect on cognitive organization.     

Exploring the Effect of Perceived Teacher Support on Multiple Creativity Tasks: Based on the Expectancy–Value Model of Achievement Motivation

The present study explores the effect of perceived teacher support on three forms of thinking related to creativity. Tests of convergent thinking (by means of the Remote Associates Test), insight thinking (explored through a brain‐teaser test), and divergent thinking (by means of a verbal creativity test) were given to 512 middle school students in China, along with assessments of their perceived teacher support and creative self‐efficacy. The results of this study indicate that perceived teacher support positively predicts convergent thinking and insight thinking, with creative self‐efficacy playing a partial mediating role between perceived teacher support and convergent thinking. However, no significant relationships were found between perceived teacher support and divergent thinking. The findings partly lend support to the expectancy–value model of achievement motivation that teacher’s behavior influences student performance through self‐belief pathway.     

Adaptive regression and types of cognitive flexibility

The relationship between adaptive regression and cognitive flexibility was explored in a group of 42 college students. Adaptive regression was measured with the Holt scoring system for the Rorschach. One type of cognitive flexibility was measured by Guilford's tests of divergent production (Word Fluency, Associational Fluency, and Alternate Uses) and a second type by Mednick's Remote Associates Test. Adaptive regression was found to be significantly positively related to the Remote Associates Test in males but not in females. Adaptive regression was found to be unrelated to divergent production tests. These relationships were not found to be mediated by Rorschach productivity or verbal intelligence. A two-stage process was proposed to account for the cognitive operations underlying adaptive regression and the Remote Associates Test. The first stage is seen as a generative (primary process) stage, while the second stage is seen as an evaluative (secondary process) stage. Possible reasons for sex differences were also discussed.     

Computationally constructing a repository of compound remote associates test items in American English with comRAT-G

The Remote Associates Test (RAT) has been used to measure creativity, however few repositories or standardizations of test items exist, like the normative data on 144 items provided by Bowden and Jung-Beeman. comRAT is a computational solver which has been used to solve the compound RAT in linguistic and visual forms, showing correlation to human performance over the normative data provided by Bowden and Jung-Beeman. This paper describes using a variant of comRAT, comRAT-G, to generate and construct a repository of compound RAT items for use in the cognitive psychology and cognitive modeling community. Around 17 million compound Remote Associates Test items are created from nouns alone, aiming to provide control over (i) frequency of occurrence of query items, (ii) answer items, (iii) the probability of coming up with an answer, (iv) keeping one or more query items constant and (v) keeping the answer constant. Queries produced by comRAT-G are evaluated in a study in comparison with queries from the normative dataset of Bowden and Jung-Beeman, showing that comRAT-G queries are similar to the established query set.     

Productivity and uniqueness in continued word association as a function of subject creativity and stimulus properties

Ninety-six male and 44 female college students gave written continued associations for 2 minutes to each of 24 stimulus words and then completed the Remote Associates Test and the Revised Art Scale No significant relationship was found between the creativity measures for either sex Few relationships, differing for males and females, were found between the creativity measures and associative productivity or uniqueness Productivity and uniqueness were found to be substantially related, and common responses occurred earlier in time than unique responses The properties of the stimulus words (frequency, form class, and slope of associative hierarchy) had marked effects on response productivity and uniqueness The study confirms the strong impact of stimulus properties on associative productivity and demonstrates similar effects on uniqueness The creativity data, yielding weaker and less consistent relationships, are in keeping with a specificity theory but lend only limited support to Mednick's associative hypotheses.     

Exposure to the Color Red Enhances Creative Thinking Depending on Appetitive-Aversive Cues

This research explored the notion that the effect of the color red on creative thinking varies depending on someone's appetitive (vs. aversive) motivational orientation prior to the creative act. Specifically, inducing approach-related appetite (relative to avoidance-related aversion) in participants would enhance creative thinking, because the color red then triggers the approach-related meaning of potential success. A classroom experiment using a Remote Associates Test showed that appetition (relative to aversion), indeed, yielded more creativity for red than for blue. These results confirmed this article's prediction, and especially contribute to existing color research on the context specificity of the color red.     

Physical Activity Benefits Creativity: Squeezing a Ball for Enhancing Creativity

Studies in embodied cognition show that physical sensations, such as touch and movement, influence cognitive processes. Two studies were conducted to test whether squeezing a soft versus a hard ball facilitates different types of creativity. Squeezing a malleable ball would increase divergent creativity by catalyzing multiple or alternative ideas, whereas squeezing a hard ball would increase convergent creativity by facilitating only a single correct response. In Study 1, participants squeezed either a hard ball or a soft ball while completing the Torrance Test of Creative Thinking (TTCT), a divergent creativity test. The same procedures were used in Study 2 except that the TTCT was replaced with the Remote Associates Test, a convergent creativity test. Participants who squeezed a soft ball generated more original and diverse ideas (Study 1), whereas participants who squeezed a hard ball were better at coming up with a single correct answer (Study 2).     

The Psychosexual Identification of Preschool Boys

It was hypothesized that increases in level of arousal should lead to improvement in the performance of intellectual tasks and to decrements in the performance of creative tasks because of the effect of drive level on range of cue utilization and availability of remote associates. Subjects were given the Remote Associates Test (RAT) and a version of the WAIS Similarities subtest under low arousal (relaxed), medium arousal (stress), and high arousal (white noise) conditions. Trends were as predicted, but reached acceptable levels of significance only for the effects of high arousal on creative performance. Evidence for the validity of the RAT was provided by the finding that RAT and intellectual performance are affected in opposite ways by the same experimental manipulations. It is suggested that flexibility in changing level of arousal may be a determinant of both creativity and intelligence and that this common trait may explain the tendency of tests of the the two to correlate.     

Instructor Feedback for College Writing Assignments in Introductory Classes

We compared three instructor feedback protocols to determine whether minimal instructor feedback could improve undergraduate students' writing skills in large introductory classes. The three feedback conditions were specific feedback, nonspecific feedback, and grade only. Sixty community college students participated in the study. Sections of an Introduction to Human Services course were randomly assigned to the three feedback conditions. Students wrote 9 timed essays during the semester. Pretest data were collected from the first essay at the beginning of the semester. Posttest data were taken from the final essay. Data for each student's essays consisted of the number of words written, the number of spelling errors, and the number of syntax grammar errors. Between the pretest and the posttest, students wrote 7 timed essays during class periods. Students in the specific feedback condition received a tally of spelling and grammar errors on grade criteria sheets and the location of the errors marked on their essays. In the nonspecific feedback condition, students received a tally of the errors on their grade criteria sheets but the locations of the errors were not marked on the essays. In the grade only condition, students received feedback on the number of points they had earned for each essay. Significant differences were found for pretest–posttest difference (gain) scores for the proportion of errors to the number of words written between the specific feedback condition and the grade only condition. Specific feedback decreased the proportion of errors to words written. The grade only condition maintained the same proportion of errors to words written from pretest to posttest. Significant differences were also found between difference (gain) scores for total errors between the specific feedback condition and the grade only condition and between the nonspecific feedback condition and the grade only condition.     

正常与多动儿童的创造力、学习适应性比较研究

本研究比较ADHD儿童和正常儿童在创造性思维测验、学习适应性测验以及教师对其创造力评价上的差异。结果表明：(1)ADHD儿童和正常儿童在数字和图形创造性思维测验上的成绩没有显著的差异。表明ADHD和创造力是彼此独立的两个特质;(2)ADHD儿童在学习态度、学校环境(主要是师生关系和同伴关系)、独立性和毅力等维度上明显偏低;(3)不同学科教师对于ADHD儿童和正常儿童在创造力水平高低的评价上没有显著性差异;(4)对于正常儿童。不同学科教师对其创造力的评价与儿童在创造力测验上的得分呈显著性相关;对于ADHD儿童则没有显著性相关。     

Do Traditional Admissions Criteria Reflect Applicant Creativity?

College admissions decisions have traditionally focused on high school academic performance and standardized test scores. An ongoing debate is the validity of these measures for predicting success in college; part of this debate includes how success is defined. One potential way of defining college success is a student's creative accomplishments. We tested the hypothesis that traditional admissions criteria fail to capture adequately the creativity of applicants by asking 610 college applicants to complete several creativity tasks. These included divergent thinking, caption‐writing, an essay, and self‐report measures of creativity in numerous domains. Creativity scores were compared to data from the college application, including high school rank, standardized test scores, and admissions interview scores. Results showed that traditional admissions criteria were only weakly related to creativity. Indeed, students who report the highest creative self‐efficacy can be perceived as weaker applicants according to traditional criteria. Findings are discussed in light of the goals of higher education to increase diversity of the student body and the abilities of its students.     

On the Remote Associates Test (RAT) as an Alternative to Illusory Performance Feedback: A Methodological Note

The Remote Associates Test (RAT) is presented as a viable alternative to tasks involving illusory feedback and heavy deception that are typically used to manipulate performance in psychological research. Data from three studies are offered to support the contention that by manipulating the difficulty of RAT items, subjects can be given performance feedback which is veridical with their actual performance, thus providing a powerful performance manipulation while minimizing deception. In all studies, subjects were given either ten easy (success condition), ten hard (failure condition), or five easy and five hard (control condition) RAT items. For performance feedback, subjects in the success and failure conditions were simply told how many items they had answered correctly. Control condition subjects were given no evaluative feedback. The re, suits were essentially the same in all three studies. There was little or no overlap in subjects' performance across the three feedback conditions. Within conditions, however, subjects' perception of their performance tended to match their actual performance. The performance manipulation was also a very powerful one, accounting for over two-thirds of the variance in both perceived and actual performance. Other advantages and characteristics of the RAT are also discussed.     

Trick‐or‐Treat Candy‐Getters and Hornet Scare Devices: Second Graders Make Creative Inventions Related to Animal Adaptations

This repeated measures study examined second graders' (n = 21) performance in creating inventions related to animal adaptations for simple products under two conditions that alternated each week for a six‐week period. In the analogy condition, students used form and function analogy object boxes to learn about animal adaptations, applying these concepts with the SCAMPER technique to generate a new product with a given item. In the traditional condition, students learned about animal adaptations through text/Internet searches and created a puppet play to organize, reinforce, and share these ideas. Students discussed ideas, and then brainstormed product inventions for given items. In both conditions, students drew advertisements for their inventions that were scored for inventiveness content and creativity. Weekly inventiveness content scores and creativity scores were higher for the experimental condition than for the traditional condition with large effect sizes.     

Gender and Video Game Performance

We investigated potential gender differences in video game (pong) performance in university students. In Experiment 1 men (N = 16) performed significantly better than women (N = 16). Experiment 2 was similar to the first, but used 14 men and 14 women who were matched carefully on previous video game experience. In spite of the matching, results replicated those of the first experiment. In Experiment 3 we evaluated the effect of an audience (male, female, none) on pong performance in 42 men and 42 women. We also assessed trait competition anxiety (Sport Competition Anxiety Test scores), sex role identification (Bem Sex Role Inventory scores), and video game experience. Both genders showed significantly poorer performance when they played pong in the presence of a female audience. Overall, males outperformed females as in the first two experiments. Examination of individuals with low, medium, and high levels of sport competition anxiety and videogame experience reveals persistent gender differences in performance, seemingly independent of levels of anxiety and experience. In all three experiments, both men and women showed significant improvement in performance over trials.