Alternative Uses Test Research Articles

Assessing novelty, feasibility and value of creative ideas with an unsupervised approach using GPT-4.

Creativity is defined by three key factors: novelty, feasibility and value. While many creativity tests focus primarily on novelty, they often neglect feasibility and value, thereby limiting their reflection of real-world creativity. In this study, we employ GPT-4, a large language model, to assess these three dimensions in a Japanese-language Alternative Uses Test (AUT). Using a crowdsourced evaluation method, we acquire ground truth data for 30 question items and test various GPT prompt designs. Our findings show that asking for multiple responses in a single prompt, using an 'explain first, rate later' design, is both cost-effective and accurate (r = .62, .59 and .33 for novelty, feasibility and value, respectively). Moreover, our method offers comparable accuracy to existing methods in assessing novelty, without the need for training data. We also evaluate additional models such as GPT-4 Turbo, GPT-4 Omni and Claude 3.5 Sonnet. Comparable performance across these models demonstrates the universal applicability of our prompt design. Our results contribute a straightforward platform for instant AUT evaluation and provide valuable ground truth data for future methodological research.

Investigation of Creative Cognition Among Miners at Sarcheshmeh Copper Complex

Background: Miners are frequently exposed to toxic metals in the environment. Excessive intake of heavy metals, such as arsenic, lead, and copper, is neurotoxic and promotes neurodegenerative diseases, such as Alzheimer's and Parkinson's diseases. Objectives: This study aimed to investigate the creativity among personnel of the Sarcheshmeh Copper Complex, the second-largest copper deposit worldwide. Methods: The research population included personnel working at the Sarcheshmeh Copper Complex in Rafsanjan, southeast Iran. The convenience sampling method was used to identify 204 participants based on inclusion and exclusion criteria. Convergent and divergent thinking were assessed using the remote associates test (RAT) and the alternative uses test (AUT), respectively. Results: The total mean scores of RAT and AUT were 3.05 ± 2.05 and 10.91 ± 6.63, respectively. The mean scores of both AUT and RAT in miners with more than 10 years of work experience were lower than others. Moreover, AUT scores were lower in miners who used opium and also in those who were less educated (with no college or university education). Conclusions: The results of this study demonstrated that cognitive abilities might be more affected in copper miners. However, more future studies using two groups of miners and non-miners are needed to conduct a more accurate interpretation.

Evaluating Playful Creative Problem Solving in Kyiv and Ukrainian Refugees in France

Creativity in playful creative problem-solving (CPS) is influenced by the emotional state of the learner-player. In this study, we evaluated how stressful situations (such as conditions of war) can impact divergent thinking (DT) in CPS. To evaluate divergent thinking, the main components of which are fluency, flexibility, and originality, creativity researchers have developed the Alternative Uses Test (AUT), where participants are asked to write about different uses of familiar objects in a limited amount of time. In educational robotics, DT has been operationalized with the same components of fluency, flexibility, and originality based on the diverse configurations made by the learner-players.
 In the present research, we engaged participants in a playful activity with modular robotics to evaluate divergent thinking. Participants engaged in the CreaCube task are Ukrainians. We recruited two groups of participants: Ukrainian refugees living in France and participants staying in Kyiv (Ukraine). These participants are experiencing a stressful situation due to the daily war events in Kyiv during the development of this study (missile attacks, power and heating restrictions, air sirens, and limited communication with partners on the frontlines). By comparing these two groups of learner-players in the CreaCube task, we aim to identify how stressful situations affect divergent thinking.
 The preliminary results showed that flexibility and originality as DT components of the participants from Kyiv in the first experiment are significantly higher than those of the refugee participants based in France. This may indicate that the participants from Kyiv, having been in stressful situations (war conditions) for almost a year, have developed more original ideas (originality component) and different ideas (flexibility component), which could be explained by the daily problem-solving activity under war constraints. Playful situations under war conditions permitted the Kyiv participants to distract themselves from the current situation and show originality in thinking better than participants playing in France who were not in stressful situations. This may indicate that wartime constraints have engaged the participants in better strategies for generating novel ideas, but it also indicates that the interest in game activities has a positive effect on DT even in stressful situations for the participants.

Comparison of the effects of indoor and outdoor exercise on creativity: an analysis of EEG alpha power.

Previous research finds that natural environments and exercise enhance creativity. In this within-subjects design study, we examined the influence of outdoor exercise that combined a natural environment with exercise on creativity compared to an indoor exercise control condition by analyzing cognitive activities related to creativity. The participants performed an Alternative Uses Test (AUT), in which ordinary objects are presented to the participants (e.g., a brick), to prompt as many ideas for alternative uses as possible, which are transformed into a creativity score, after indoor running and outdoor running. During the test, brain activity was recorded using electroencephalography (EEG) and a short version flow state scale (FSS) was completed after the experiment. Results showed that while AUT scores did not significantly differ between conditions, alpha band activity at the parietal occipital region involved in divergent creativity increased during the AUT after outdoor exercise while it did not during the AUT after indoor exercise. In addition, FSS scores for positive emotional experience and absorption were higher after outdoor exercise than after indoor exercise. Our results from the FSS suggest that exercise in a natural environment is perceived subjectively differently from indoor exercise, participants report greater experiences of flow compared to indoor exercise, and the EEG measures objectively indicate enhanced cognitive activity in a creativity task after outdoor exercise. This study suggests that outdoor exercise increases neuronal activity in brain regions related to creativity. Further research is needed to understand how this can lead to increased creativity.

Working Memory and Divergent Thinking: The Moderating Role of Field-Dependent-Independent Cognitive Style in Adolescence.

Divergent thinking (DT) is considered a key process of creativity. It is supported by different mental processes, ranging from executive functions to cognitive styles. The extent to which these processes jointly contribute to DT is still unclear, especially in adolescence, which represents a developmental stage that involves fundamental changes and restructuring in cognition, emotion, and personality. The present study hypothesises that the field-dependent-independent cognitive style (FDI) moderates the relationship between working memory capacity (WMC). A convenient sample of one hundred adolescents (mean age 18.88 years) was tested in terms of FDI by the Embedded Figure Test (EFT), which requires finding a simple shape as fast as possible within a complex figure. WMC was assessed by the Digit Span Forward Test (DSFT), which requires recalling sequences of numbers in the same order immediately after the presentation. DT was assessed by the Alternative Uses Test (AUT), which requires finding as many uses as possible for common objects. The main result was that the field-independent cognitive style (FI) positively moderated the effect of WMC on DT. This result extends previous findings on the critical role of FDI in real-world creativity, suggesting that FI adolescents better exploit the effect of WMC on DT by using more analytic and associative strategies, focusing on relevant elements when facing a problem, and retrieving conceptual knowledge more efficiently. Implications, limits, and future research directions are briefly discussed.

Effects of virtual reality's viewing medium and the environment's spatial openness on divergent thinking.

Virtual Reality (VR) technology is used in various fields, and research on VR creative activities has been widely conducted. This study examined the effects of VR environment on divergent thinking, a component of creative thinking. Specifically, two experiments were conducted to test the prediction that viewing visually open VR environments with immersive head-mounted displays (HMD) affects divergent thinking. Divergent thinking was evaluated using Alternative Uses Test (AUT) scores; AUT was performed while the participants viewed the experiment stimuli. In Experiment 1, I manipulated the VR viewing medium by having one group view a 360° video with an HMD and a second group view the same video on a computer screen. Additionally, I established a control group that viewed a real-world laboratory instead of the videos. The HMD group showed higher AUT scores than the computer screen group. In Experiment 2, I manipulated the spatial openness of a VR environment by having one group view a 360° video of a visually open coast and a second group view a 360° video of a visually closed laboratory. The coast group showed higher AUT scores than the laboratory group. In conclusion, exposure to a visually open VR environment on an HMD promotes divergent thinking. The limitations of this study and suggestions for further research are discussed.

Creativity in Schizophrenia: Evidence Beyond Anecdotes

ABSTRACT Recent meta-analytic work has highlighted lower creativity in schizophrenic patients as compared to control participants, but the cognitive and affective underpinnings of this difference still need to be fully understood. To this purpose, we adopted a multi-measure approach and compared a group of schizophrenic outpatients and a group of demographically-matched controls (N = 34) on the Alternative Uses Test (AUT) and the Remote Association Test (RAT), assessing divergent and convergent thinking respectively. The participants’ cognitive status, affective status, and response inhibition skills were also appraised. The results showed a significantly worse performance in patients vs. control participants in both tests of creativity. Performance was also negatively correlated with patients’ symptoms, being lower in more severe clinical conditions. The difference between groups in the RAT was no more significant when controlling for individuals’ cognitive functioning, in line with previous studies in healthy populations. In contrast, the difference in AUT fluency remained significant even when controlling for cognitive and affective measures. Our findings suggest that creativity reduction in schizophrenic patients involves both convergent and divergent thinking, and that the latter aspect is not simply the consequence of a general cognitive or inhibitory impairment.

Does Word Frequency Impact Ideational Fluency in Divergent Thinking? A Meta-analytic Exploration with the Alternate Uses Test

The Alternate Uses Test (AUT) is one of the most popular divergent thinking tasks and commonly used to measure creativity. Researchers using AUT often pick an everyday object and instruct participants to think of possible uses for it. Yet, the word frequency of the selected objects may impact the outcomes. The present study investigates the variation in the fluency scores from AUT in terms of word frequency values of the selected everyday object. We expected a positive relationship between the word frequency metrics and the fluency scores when other potential factors are controlled such as time-on-task, explicit instructions, the form of task administration and a number of various psycholinguistic characteristics. The mean effect (average fluency score) is 9.08, 95% [7.54, 10.61] from 114 effects from 31 studies. There was a significant interaction effect of Time-on-Task and Word Frequency (b = -.01, t (3.05) = -3.51, p = .038). These findings indicate that word frequency is correlated with fluency scores under strict time conditions, and this effect seems to disappear with lenient time conditions. The results are discussed based on the recommended assessment practices in the literature.

Differences in online creative performance of single and paired players in cooperative and competitive task situations

Co-creativity has recently received increasing attention. However, few empirical studies explore individuals’ creative performance in a group, and fewer have approached creative ideation in different task situations. This study recruited 156 participants to complete creativity tests on an online creativity task platform. Participants were randomly assigned to either cooperative or competitive task situations. Their performance was analyzed using two creativity tests: the Alternative Uses Test (AUT) and Chinese Radical Remote Associates Test (CRRAT). Participants completed tasks alone (i.e., in single player mode) and in a cooperative or competitive situation (i.e., in paired-player mode). The results revealed that participants in the competitive task situation showed higher levels of competitive anxiety. Moreover, their AUT and CRRAT performances in paired-player mode were better than those in single player mode. In the cooperative task situation, participants’ CRRAT performance was significantly better than in the competitive task situation. This study had two main findings. First, it strengthens the understanding of how group work enhances individual online creative performance. Second, it distinguishes the influences of cooperative or competitive task situations on different creative performance. This study revealed the differences in creative performance in distinct task situations.

Effects of nature virtual backgrounds on creativity during videoconferencing

Previous research has demonstrated that exposure to nature environments versus urban environments can help restore cognitive processing and improve overall well-being. The current study examined the restorative effects of nature on creativity using virtual backgrounds during videoconferencing on Zoom. Eighty participants completed the Alternative Uses Test (AUT) of creative divergent thinking when viewing one of three different virtual background images: nature setting, urban setting, plain grey background (control). Results showed that the nature background facilitated higher creativity performance compared to either the urban or control backgrounds (which did not significantly differ from each other). The results are discussed in terms of practical implications for workplace and educational environments that involve videoconferencing sessions between users.

Regular Vigorous-Intensity Physical Activity and Walking Are Associated with Divergent but not Convergent Thinking in Japanese Young Adults.

The beneficial effects of regular physical activity (PA) on cognitive functions have received much attention. Recent research suggests that regular PA may also enhance creative thinking, an indispensable cognitive factor for invention and innovation. However, at what intensity regular PA brings the most benefits to creative thinking remains uninvestigated. Furthermore, whether the levels of regular PA affect the acute PA effects on creative thinking is also unclear. In the present study, using a previous dataset that investigated the effects of an acute bout of aerobic exercise on creative thinking in healthy Japanese young adults (22.98 ± 1.95 years old) in the year 2020, we tested the association between different intensities of regular PA (i.e., vigorous, moderate, and walking) and creative thinking with the cross-sectional baseline data using multiple linear regression. We also investigated whether regular PA levels were associated with the acute aerobic exercise intervention effects on creative thinking. The results showed that cross-sectionally, the regular PAs were differentially associated with divergent but not convergent thinking. Specifically, whereas the amount of vigorous-intensity PA was positively associated with fluency and flexibility, the amount of walking was positively associated with novelty on the alternate uses test (AUT) measuring divergent thinking. Importantly, the explained variances of fluency, flexibility, and novelty were 20.3% (p = 0.040), 18.8% (p = 0.055), and 20.1% (p = 0.043), respectively. None of the regular PAs predicted convergent thinking (i.e., an insight problem-solving task), nor were they associated with the acute aerobic exercise intervention effects on divergent and convergent thinking. These findings suggest that engaging in regular vigorous-intensity PA and walking may be useful strategies to enhance different aspects of divergent thinking in daily life.

Interactivity and materiality matter in creativity: educational robotics for the assessment of divergent thinking

ABSTRACT Idea generation in interactive learning environments requires the consideration of the interactivity and materiality aspects of creativity. In educational robotics, idea generation is mediated through a technological object in a process allowing us to observe the three main components of divergent thinking: fluency, flexibility, and originality. Nevertheless, divergent thinking assessment has been mainly evaluated in the last decades through semantic idea generation tasks such the Alternative Uses Test (AUT), asking participants to write different uses for familiar objects. In our study, we aimed to analyze differences in the three divergent thinking components (fluency, flexibility, and originality) through the AUT as a semantic task and through an educational robotic task that engaged the participants in building their ideas interactively. Results show that the creative components are strongly correlated within but not between the two tasks, leading us to consider the differences in the creative processes engaged when generating ideas through building with robotic objects. The role of affordances in idea generation through educational robotics is discussed as an important difference to consider in the evaluation of creativity in interactive learning environments.

Individual differences in trait creativity moderate the state-level mood-creativity relationship.

The relationship between mood states and state creativity has long been investigated. Exploring individual differences may provide additional important information to further our understanding of the complex mood-creativity relationship. The present study explored the state-level mood-creativity relationship from the perspective of trait creativity. We employed the experience sampling method (ESM) in a cohort of 56 college students over five consecutive days. The participants reported their state creativity on originality and usefulness dimensions at six random points between 9:00 a.m. and 11:00 p.m., along with a 10-item concurrent mood state report. Their trait creativity was measured by the Guildford Alternative Uses Test (AUT) and the Remote Associates Test (RAT). We found moderating effects of the participants' trait creativity on their state-level mood-creativity relationship. Specifically, whereas the positive correlation between positive mood state and originality of state creativity was stronger for the participants with higher AUT flexibility scores, stronger positive correlations between negative mood state and originality of state creativity were observed for individuals with higher AUT originality scores. Our findings provide evidence in support of introducing individual differences to achieve a more comprehensive understanding of the mood-creativity link. The results could be of practical value, in developing individualized mood state regulation strategies for promoting state creativity.

Traumatic brain injury and creative divergent thinking

ABSTRACT Primary Objective The current study examined how creative divergent thinking (i.e., the ability to produce varied and original solutions to a problem) is impacted by moderate-to-severe traumatic brain injury (TBI). Research Design Descriptive, observational. Methods and Procedures We administered two tasks of divergent thinking, the Abbreviated Torrance Test for Adults (ATTA) and the Alternative Uses Test (AUT), as well as a battery of neuropsychological tests and psychosocial variables (assessing memory and learning, processing speed, set shifting and psychological distress), to 29 individuals with TBI and 20 demographically-matched healthy comparison participants. Main Outcomes and Results Individuals with TBI performed similarly to healthy individuals on both tests of creative thinking, although they were impaired on the neuropsychological tasks. Moreover, there was no significant correlation between performance on the ATTA and performance on neuropsychological tests, but within the TBI group AUT performance and memory were significantly and positively associated. Conclusions Our findings reveal that divergent thinking, as measured by the ATTA and AUT, might be spared following moderate-to-severe TBI. These findings further our understanding of the higher-level cognitive sequelae of TBI and suggest that divergent thinking might be leveraged during treatment planning.

The Opposite of Stress.

Cognition is affected by psychophysiological states. While the influence of stress on cognition has been investigated intensively, less studies have addressed how the opposite of stress, a state of relaxation, affects cognition. We investigated whether the extent of parasympathetic activation is positively related to divergent thinking. Sixty healthy female participants were randomly allocated to a standardized vagus nerve massage (n = 19), a standardized soft shoulder massage (n = 22), or a resting control group (n = 19). Subsequently, participants completed the Alternative Uses Test (AUT), a measure of divergent thinking. Respiratory sinus arrhythmia (RSA), a vagally mediated heart rate variability component, was monitored throughout the experiment. The area under the curve with respect to the increase was calculated for RSA trajectories as an indicator of vagal tone during the relaxing intervention. Regressions tested the effect of vagal tone on AUT outcomes. We found an association between vagal tone and subsequent AUT outcomes. Yet, this association was no longer significant when controlling for the effect of the creative potential of an individual, which was strongly related to AUT outcomes. Being exploratory, we found a positive association between creative potential and vagal tone. These results imply that creative potential might be related to the capacity to relax.

Does Visual Fixation Affect Idea Fixation?

Abstract Divergent thinking, an aspect of creativity, is often studied by measuring performance on the Alternative Uses Test (AUT). There is, however, a gap in creativity research concerning how visual stimuli on the AUT are perceived. Memory and attention researchers have used eye-tracking studies to reveal insights into how people think and how they perceive visual stimuli. Thus, the current work uses eye tracking to study how eye movements are related to creativity. Participants orally listed alternative uses for twelve objects, each visually presented for 2 min in four different views. Using eye tracking, we specifically explored where and for how long participants fixate their eyes at visual presentations of objects during the AUT. Eye movements before and while naming alternative uses were analyzed. Results revealed that naming new instances and categories of alternative uses correlated more strongly with visual fixation toward multiple views than toward single views of objects. Alternative uses in new, previously unnamed categories were also more likely named following increased visual fixation toward blank space. These and other findings reveal the cognitive-thinking styles and eye-movement behaviors associated with naming new ideas. Such findings may be applied to enhance divergent thinking during design.

Acute Stress Shapes Creative Cognition in Trait Anxiety.

This study examined the cognitive mechanism underlying acute stress in creative cognition among individuals with high and low trait anxiety. Specifically, cognitive inhibition was assessed using the flanker task during acute stress. Fifty-two participants (26 with high trait anxiety, 26 with low trait anxiety, with a mean age of 18.94 years) underwent stress induction via the Trier Social Stress Test (TSST). They all completed the Alternative Uses Test (AUT) and the Remote Associates Test (RAT) before and after the TSST. Biochemical markers (salivary cortisol and salivary alpha amylase) were recorded at regular intervals. The results showed that cognitive inhibition was influenced by trait anxiety and acute stress. In low-trait anxious individuals after experiencing acute stress, there was a lack of cognitive inhibition and they performed better in AUT (fluency), compared to before experiencing acute stress, whereas high-trait anxious individuals showed a decreased interference effect and reduced performance in AUT (fluency, flexibility, and originality). In the RAT, there were shorter response times and increased accuracy after acute stress in both high- and low-trait anxiety groups. Thus, we suggest that cognitive control, which modulates changes in acute stress, influences creative cognition. These findings provide evidence that inhibition control mediates the effect of stress on the creativity of individuals with different trait anxiety.

The underlying cognitive mechanisms of the rater effect in creativity assessment: The mediating role of perceived semantic distance

It is accepted fact that people often disagree with each other when they evaluate the creativity or originality of a product. At least three types of factors have been found to influence judgements of creativity, including people’s own originality, product characteristics, and evaluation criteria. However, little research has systematically investigated those influences, especially their interactions. In addition, the underlying cognitive mechanisms of the influences are still unknown. The purpose of the present study, therefore, was to first examine how evaluations of creativity depend on rater’s originality, on the variations in two underlying dimensions of creativity in products – originality and usefulness, and on variations in criteria. A further aim was to investigate the cognitive underpinning of those influences on the basis of both the associated theory of creativity and spreading-activation theory. Two experiments were conducted. In Experiment one, 156 students in a Chinese university completed an Alternative Uses test (AUT) and two creativity ratings tasks using different criteria. The results of Experiment 1 demonstrate that highly original people, compared to their less original counterparts, tend to give lower ratings to others’ ideas 1) when they use explicit criteria, which emphasize the unusual aspect of creativity, to evaluate creative as well as strange ideas, and 2) when they use the implicitly theory of creativity to evaluate strange ideas. In Experiment two, another 151 students completed an AUT task, a distance rating task, and an originality rating task. The results indicate that highly original raters’ tendency of underestimation is more apparent when the products being evaluated are the combinations of remote ideas/concepts, which suggests that perceived semantic distance mediates the effect of rater’s originality on ratings of originality.

Effects of acute stress on divergent and convergent problem-solving

This study examined the effects of acute stress on creative problem-solving. Thirty-five male participants underwent stress induction via the Trier Social Stress Test; another 35 male participants engaged in a comparable, but less stressful, control task. Subsequently, they all took the Alternative Uses Test (AUT) and the Remote Associates Test (RAT), both of which are standard creative problem-solving tasks. Heart rate (HR) and salivary cortisol were recorded at regular intervals. Compared to controls, stressed participants responded with higher HR and salivary cortisol and reported more negative affect. A comparison of the effects of acute stress on two forms of creative problem-solving tasks, convergent and divergent problem-solving, showed stress-related reductions in the flexibility of solving. These effects were manifested according to the nature of the tasks: in convergent solving, stress induced faster, but less accurate responding; in divergent solving, stress reduced the flexibility of solution production, resulting in less variety of solutions.

Object Reorientation and Creative Performance

Functional fixedness refers to a cognitive bias that prevents people from using objects in new ways and more abstractly from perceiving problems in new ways. Supporting people in overcoming functional fixedness could improve creative problem solving and capacities for creative design. A study was conducted to detect whether a relationship exists between participants' tendency to reorient objects presented as stimuli in an alternative uses test (AUT) and their creativity, also measured using the Wallach Kogan (WaKo) pattern meanings test. The AUT measures creativity as a function of identifying alternative uses for traditional objects. The WaKo pattern meanings test detects the ability to see an abstract pattern as different possible objects or scenes. Also studied is whether Kruglanski's need for closure (NFC) scale, a psychological measure, can predict the ability to incorporate reorientation cues when identifying uses. This study revealed highly significant, high correlations between reorientation and several creativity measures, and a correlation between reorientation and the predictability subscale of the NFC scale. A qualitative exploration of participants' responses reveals further metrics that may be relevant to assessing creativity in the AUT.