How Figurativity of Analogy Affects Creativity: The Application of Four-Term Analogies to Teaching for Creativity

Abstract

This research study integrated four-term analogies with figurativity to facilitate creativity and examined how different levels of figurativity of these analogies influenced fluency and originality, two major aspects of creativity. One hundred and ninety college students from a national university located in southern Taiwan were recruited to participate in this study. The instrument was composed of two parts. Part One included newly-designed analogy items that came in three types with different levels of figurativity. In Part Two, the New Test of Creative Thinking, a popular Torrance-like creativity test in Chinese societies, was used as a criterion for Part One. The newly-designed items exhibited excellent inter-rater reliabilities and decent criterion-related validities. These items showed a great potential to be used as instructional activities that can foster creativity. As demonstrated by the findings, the participants’ fluency scores became significantly lower as the degree of figurativity in the analogy items increased. The findings also indicated that the participants’ originality scores became significantly higher as the degree of figurativity in the analogy items increased. The results were discussed in the contexts of relevant literature and the educational implications were also presented.