Discriminating the measurement attributes of the three versions of Chinese Remote Associates Test

Abstract

The Remote Associates Test (RAT), a well-known creativity assessment tool, has been widely used because of its ease of implementation and objective scoring. The first Chinese version of the RAT (i.e., Chinese Remote Associates Test, CRAT), was developed in 2004 to assess the creativity of native Mandarin speakers. In addition, three versions of the CRAT have been developed: the Chinese Radical Remote Associates Test (CRRAT), the Chinese Word Remote Associates Test (CWRAT) and the Chinese Compound Remote Associates Test (CCRAT). The lack of empirical studies that illustrate the similarities and differences of the three versions has made it difficult for researchers to choose the most appropriate version for their research. Therefore, this study analyzed the convergent and discriminant validity of the three CRAT versions to distinguish them from each other and identify their distinctive features. Based on the compilation rules of the three versions of the CRAT, this study adopted verbal and graphic divergent-thinking tests and insight problems as criterion-related validity tests. A total of 301 adults participated in the tests. The results showed that the participants’ performance on CCRAT alone was positively correlated with their performance in verbal and graphic divergent-thinking tests. In addition, their CRRAT performance was positively correlated with their performance in graphic divergent thinking as well as insight problem solving. Finally, their CWRAT performance positively predicted their insight problem solving. The results of this study showed that although the three CRAT versions have similar features, they also have attributes that are unique to each version. The empirical results provide information on the criterion-related validity of the three versions of the CRAT, which could be used as a reference to help future researchers decide which version is the most appropriate for their research.