Objective measure of scientific creativity: Psychometric validity of the Creative Scientific Ability Test

Abstract

This article presents an overview of a new test of scientific creativity, “the Creative Scientific Ability Test (C-SAT)” and research carried out on its psychometric properties. The C-SAT measures potential for scientific creativity with fluency, flexibility and creativity components in hypothesis generation, experiment design and evidence evaluation tasks in five areas of science. In the current study, the test was administered to 693 sixth-grade students. The internal consistency reliability was found to be good (.87) and the interscorer reliability was excellent (.92). The Confirmatory Factor Analysis confirmed the one-factor model solution for the C-SAT scores. The test had medium to high-medium correlations with math and science grades and a mathematical ability test. Mathematically talented students scored higher on the C-SAT than did average students. Research findings show that the C-SAT can be used as an objective measure of scientific creativity both in research and in the identification of scientifically creative students.