Divergent Thinking Test Scores Research Articles

A Latent Profile Analysis of the Criterion-related Validity of a Divergent Thinking Test

The criterion-related validity of divergent thinking (DT) tests has been questioned because of relatively low correlations between DT test scores and creative performance. A possible inhibiting factor in previous correlations—heterogeneity of the sample—has been ignored. If groups with different DT profiles are involved in this line of research, low correlations would not necessarily be indicative of actual relationships, and criterion-related validity would appear to be lower than it is. Thus, this study identified groups with their own unique DT profiles and examined their creative performance. To this end, elementary children’s (N = 325) responses in 3 DT tasks were analyzed using latent profile analysis. Results suggested 3 groups with unique DT profiles: One group scored moderate on fluency and low on originality; another group scored moderate on fluency and high on originality; the third group scored uniformly low across fluency, originality, and flexibility. Surprisingly, only the low-originality group excelled in creative achievement, but the hypothesis of this investigation was supported by the fact that only the high-originality group significantly excelled in ideation. These results confirm that low correlations between DT indices and creative performance do not necessarily indicate a lack of the criterion-related validity of DT tests. Differences between the creative achievement and the ideation criterion measures are detailed, and idiosyncratic properties in DT profiles and their corresponding creative strengths are discussed as educational implications.

Dialectical Thinking and Creativity among Young Adults: A Postformal Operations Perspective

This study used a post-Piagetian perspective to investigate the relation of dialectical thinking and creative performance in early adulthood. The modified version of the Social Paradigm Belief Scale was employed to measure the development of formal and dialectical thinking among 454 young adults, ages 23 to 40 years (M = 32.1, SD = 4.8). The Divergent Thinking Test estimated their creative performance. Scores on dialectical thinking were positively correlated and scores on formal thinking were negatively correlated with Divergent Thinking Test scores. Planned contrasts indicated that participants in the dialectical thinking group scored higher than did those in the formal thinking group on the six dimensions of the Divergent Thinking Test, i.e., Fluency, Openness, Flexibility, Originality, Elaboration, and Naming. Multiple discriminant analysis with a cross-validation examination showed the linear combination of scores on the six dimensions of creativity included in the Divergent Thinking Test discriminated between formal and dialectical thinking groups; this supported predictions about the relation between postformal thinking and creativity among young adults.

Divergent Thinking and Interview Ratings

This study examined divergent thinking (DT) test scores of applicants taking part in a selection procedure for an undergraduate psychology degree ( N = 370). Interviewers made six specific (creative intelligence, motivation, work habits, emotional stability, sociability, and social responsibility) and one overall recommendation rating on each candidate. Results show that trained interviewers could identify which applicants would receive greater scores for originality for DT test scores. The implications for the use of DT tests in selection are considered.

Meta‐Analyses of the Relationship of Creative Achievement to Both IQ and Divergent Thinking Test Scores

AbstractThere is disagreement among researchers about whether IQ tests or divergent thinking (DT) tests are better predictors of creative achievement. Resolving this dispute is complicated by the fact that some research has shown a relationship between IQ and DT test scores (e.g., Runco & Albert, 1986; Wallach, 1970). The present study conducted meta‐analyses of the relationships between creative achievement and both IQ and DT test scores. The analyses included 17 studies (with 5,544 participants) that established the correlation coefficients between IQ and creative achievement and 27 studies (with 47,197 participants) that established the correlation coefficients between DT test scores and creative achievement. Marginal, but statistically significant, Fisher's Z‐transformed correlation coefficients were revealed. The analysis found a significantly higher relationship between DT test scores and creative achievement (r = .216) than between IQ test scores and creative achievement (r = .167). The differences in the correlation coefficients were explained by differences in DT tests, creative achievement types, predicted time periods, and creativity subscales. The significant independent moderator effect for different DT tests indicates that the Torrance Tests of Creative Thinking (TTCT) predict creative achievement better than any other DT test included in this study. Among the creative achievement types, music is predicted the best by IQ and all others are predicted best by DT tests. Among the time periods evaluated, the relationship between DT test scores and creative achievement had the highest correlation at the period of 11–15 years.

Commentary: The Torrance Tests of Creative Thinking already overcome many of the perceived weaknesses that Silvia et al.'s (2008) methods are intended to correct.

Silvia et al.’s (2008) primary motivations for exploring and proposing their subjective scoring method are their perceived deficiencies of current divergent thinking tests. First, scores on divergent thinking tests frequently correlate highly with general intelligence. Second, the scoring of divergent thinking tests has changed little since the 1960s. Third, the necessity of instructing people to be creative prior to taking divergent thinking tests is integral to obtaining useful responses and needs to be reaffirmed. Fourth, and finally, the problems posed by uniqueness scoring— confounding with fluency, ambiguity of rarity, and the seeming “penalty” imposed on large samples—that need to be addressed. First, Kim’s (2005) meta-analysis indicated that the relationship between divergent thinking test scores and IQ (r .17) is negligible, which supports the underlying belief that creativity and intelligence are separate constructs. According to Kim’s (in press) meta-analysis, divergent thinking test scores predict creative achievement (r .22) better than IQ (r .17). Further, 51.8% of the 274 correlation coefficients incorporated in the study used the Torrance Tests of Creative Thinking (TTCT; Torrance, 1996), and the TTCT predicted (r .33, p .0001) creative achievement better than other measures of creative potential (e.g., Wallach & Kogan Divergent Thinking Tasks [Wallach & Kogan, 1965], Guilford Divergent Thinking Tasks [Guilford, 1967], Sounds and Images [Torrance, Khatena, & Cunnington, 1973], Word Association Tests [Gough, 1976], etc.). In this meta-analysis, art, music, writing, science (including mathematics, medicine, and engineering), leadership, and social skills were used to measure creative achievement. Among these different types of creative achievement, musical achievement was predicted better by IQ than by measures of creative potential, whereas art, science, writing, and social skills were predicted by measures of creative potential better than by IQ. This finding suggests that creativity test scores account for more

Introduction to the Special Issue: Divergent Thinking

This issue of the Creativity Research Journal (CRJ) focuses on divergent thinking. It complements several recent issues of CRJ, including the special issue that was devoted to E. Paul Torrance (Kaufman & Baer, 2006) and the issue that honored the 50th anniversary of J. P. Guilford’s (1950) seminal address to the American Psychological Association (Runco & Plucker, 2000–2001). Although there is a clear focus, this special issue also presents various perspectives on divergent thinking. This variation is entirely consistent with the mission of the CRJ. It is, after all, an interdisciplinary journal, and the topic is itself quite complicated. Creativity has been called a complex, a syndrome, and most recently, a symphony. The last of these may be entirely metaphorical, but it does capture the idea of a “magic synthesis” (Arieti, 1976) quite well. Creative things often do seem to exceed the sum of the individual contributions, and as is the case for a symphony, there is pleasing “blend of inputs.” Blend of inputs does not capture the magic of creativity, which is precisely the reason that symphony may be the best descriptor. Several of the articles in this issue examine divergent thinking tests and divergent thinking test scores. Kim, for example, investigates the factor structure of the Torrance Tests of Creative Thinking (TTCT). She confirmes the existence of two factors. Tacher and Readdick also use the TTCT, and demonstrate that certain indicators (including flexibility) are associated with certain signs of aggression. Two articles deal with domain-specific knowledge. Runco, Dow, and Smith, for instance, examine the possibility that divergent thinking is influenced by memory, information, and experience. Their results have clear implications for our understanding of domain specificity. Sak and Maker also find relations with domain knowledge, but report that years of schooling were also very critical. They explore educational and enhancement implications. Enhancement is the focus of the next three articles. In the first, Brophy examines divergent thinking in the context of the Creative Problem Solving model (CPS). Benedek, Fink, and Neubauer use a computer training enhancement technique to enhance ideation. In the third article, Garaigordobil shows that a 2-week program emphasizing play improved the TTCT verbal scores of children. Other articles in this issue have other foci but say something about divergent thinking. Russ and Schafer, for instance, examine affect in play and memory in young children. They report that negative affect in play is significantly related to all indexes of divergent thinking; affect in memory descriptions was as well. Zha, Walczyk, Griffith-Ross, Tobacyk, and Walczyk uncover differences between American and Chinese graduate students in terms of scores on a measure of divergent thinking. They also confirm that Americans tend toward greater individualism and that the Chinese lean toward collectivism. The last two of the final three articles help to put divergent thinking into the larger context. In first of these articles, Dailey and Mumford demonstrate that there are several sources of error when judging ideas. Some lead to overestimations and some to underestimations. Note here that the focus of their work is on ideas, not necessarily divergent thinking. This is the best way to view the research on divergent thinking: It contributes Creativity Research Journal 2006, Vol. 18, No. 3, 249–250 Copyright © 2006 by Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, Inc.

Predicting Work Activities with Divergent Thinking Tests: A Longitudinal Study

This study examined whether divergent thinking test scores obtained from engineering students during college predicted creative work activities fifteen years later. Results showed that a subscore of the Owens Creativity Test, which assesses divergent thinking about mechanical objects, correlated significantly with self-ratings of creative work activities and number of patent submissions. An overall divergent thinking score obtained from the Structure of the Intellect Learning Abilities Test (SOI-ELCT), however, did not correlate significantly with either creative work activities or patent submissions. Practical and theoretical implications of the results are discussed.

Developmental Trends in the Evaluative and Divergent Thinking of Children

The purpose of this study was to investigate divergent thinking and evaluative skill as important processes in the development of creative thinking in elementary schoolchildren. Children from the 3rd, 4th, and 5th grades (N = 117) received divergent thinking tasks and measures of evaluative accuracy. The latter indicated how well they liked various ideas (i.e., their preferences) and the degree to which the children believed those ideas to be original. Results indicated that the accuracy of their originality judgments increased significantly with age, as did the preference for appropriate ideas. Unlike previous research, evaluative scores were not related to divergent thinking test scores. Also somewhat surprising, given earlier research, was the lack of a "4th-grade slump." In fact, there was a significant peak, rather than slump, in the divergent thinking of 4th-grade children, at least in the raw fluency scores. When fluency ratio scores were compared, there were still some incidents of a 4th-grade peak, but there was also a significant decline with grade in the proportions of 1 index of highly appropriate ideas. Although a relation was not found between evaluative skill and divergent thinking raw fluency scores, an increasing preference for appropriate square ideas was found to contribute significantly to the prediction of decreases in the proportion of high-quality round ideas given. Possible explanations are given to account for this unexpected finding, including differences in interpersonal and intrapersonal evaluative skills, and the distinction between the ability to accurately identify original or appropriate ideas and choosing to selectively express such ideas.

A Longitudinal Study of Exceptional Giftedness and Creativity

This article summarizes a longitudinal study of exceptionally gifted boys, with particular emphasis on ,findings involving their creative potential. The longitudinal investigation began 2 decades ago with 2 exceptionally gifted samples. These samples represented equivalent levels of ability but different areas or domains of talent. One was exceptionally gifted in math and science, the other a high-IQ group (mean IQ = 155). Data were collected from the boys and their parents. The present article summarizes group differences in expectations of independence, California Psychological Inventory (CPI; Gough, 1975) scales, and divergent thinking (DT) test scores. Relations among predictors are also discussed, as are relations with indexes of creative potential. In addition to group differences, notable findings include the strong relation between mothers' expectations for their sons' independence and the DT of the sons and the high flexibility scores of the exceptionally gifted samples on the CPI.

Creativity of undergraduates with and without family history of alcohol and other drug problems

Noble, Runco, and Ozkaragoz (1993) provided evidence that alcoholics’ children differ negatively from recovering alcoholics’ and nonalcoholics’ children in terms of personality characteristics related to creativity. They also found that divergent thinking test scores among the three groups of children are similar, yet the possibility exists that offspring compensate for the personality deficits and maintain productively creative lives in spite of the negative influence of parental substance use. This study investigated the impact of parental substance abuse problems on 163 undergraduates’ creative achievement. With current alcohol consumption as a covariate, analysis of covariance results suggest that parental alcohol and drug problems do not have an appreciable effect on students’ creative achievement, although marginally significant interaction of gender and family history provides limited evidence that gender may influence the impact of parental substance abuse on creativity. Because the true effects of parental substance abuse may not be felt for several years, future research should investigate these issues with older offspring.

Divergent thinking in arts and science students: Contrary imaginations at Keele revisited

ABSTRACT This study replicates, with some modifications, Hartley & Beasley's (1969) study that found that arts students at Keele University differed significantly from science students on two open-ended divergent thinking tests. Students were divided into four groups: those studying (i) pure arts, (ii) arts and social science, (iii) social science and science, and (iv) pure sciences. Weak support was found for the notion that divergent thinking test scores would decline along this arts-science continuum, but the original findings of Hartley & Beasley were supported in that the arts students as a whole scored significantly higher than the science students as a whole on three of the four tests of divergent thinking.

Independence and the creative potential of gifted and exceptionally gifted boys

A 16-item questionnaire concerning independence and three divergent thinking tests were administered to three groups of preadolescent boys and their mothers as part of an ongoing longitudinal investigation of exceptional giftedness. The subjects included one group of exceptionally gifted boys with IQs in excess of 150 (n=28), a second group of exceptionally gifted boys selected for their math-science abilities (also well within the 99th percentile;n=26), and a control group of gifted boys (n=37), with a mean IQ of 133). The three groups were compared with one another in terms of (a) their own independence ratings, (b) their mothers' independence ratings, (c) correlations of boys' and mothers' independence ratings, and (d) correlations of independence ratings with IQ and scores from the divergent thinking tests. Results indicated significant differences among the three groups of mothers, and significant differences between the two exceptionally gifted groups and the control group. In addition, mothers' and subjects' independence scores were moderately correlated with IQ and divergent thinking test scores. These results are discussed and placed in the context of the longitudinal project of which they are a part.

The Psychometric Properties of Four Systems for Scoring Divergent Thinking Tests

The traditional system for scoring divergent thinking tests has been criticized for its lack of predictive and discriminant validity. The present investigation was conducted to evaluate alternative scoring systems. Two divergent thinking tests (Uses and Line Meanings) were administered to 120 seventh- and eighth-grade children; the psychometric properties (i.e., reliability, and predictive and discriminant validity) of four scoring systems were evaluated and compared. Correlational analysis indicated (a) that the Uses test had notably higher validity coefficients than Line Meanings; (b) that the summation score (the sum of fluency, originality, and flexibility), the uncommon score (the number of ideas given by less than 5% of the sample), and the weighted-fluency score had the highest validity coefficients; (c) that ratio scores (e.g., flexibility divided by fluency) were generally unreliable and invalid; and (d) that all divergent thinking test scores were unrelated to IQ, but were related to achievement test scores. These findings have practical and theoretical implications for the testing of divergent thinking and creativity.

Birth-Order and Divergent Thinking

Abstract The present investigation was conducted to evaluate the relationship of birth-order and creativity using a large sample of gifted and nongifted children (N = 234), five divergent thinking tests, and multivariate procedures to test birth-order and its interaction with number of siblings, gender, and age. Results indicated that only children had the highest divergent thinking test scores, followed by eldest, youngest, and finally middle children. Age also accounted for a significant amount of the variance in the scores, with older children having higher scores than younger children. Finally, the number of siblings was important: Children with more siblings had higher scores than children with one sibling.

Exceptional giftedness in early adolescence and intrafamilial divergent thinking

Two groups of boys and their parents (N=54) were given five divergent thinking tests as one part of a longitudinal investigation on exceptional giftedness in early adolescence. One groups of adolescents was selected because their IQs were above 150, and the other group, was selected because of their outstanding math-science abilities. Canonical and bivariate analyses indicated that there was a strong correlation between the adolescents' divergent thinking test scores and their parents' divergent thinking test scores (Rc=.55). Additionally, there was some indication that these correlations differed in the two exceptionally gifted groups, with the high-IQ group having divergent thinking test scores related to those of both parents, and the math-science group having divergent thinking test scores related only to those of their mothers. These findings are very consistent with earlier investigations on exceptionally gifted adolescents.

Divergent Thinking and Creative Performance in Gifted and Nongifted Children

Because intellectual measures often have idiosyncratic psychometric properties in exceptional populations, the relationship between divergent thinking test scores and creative performance was evaluated and compared in gifted and nongifted children (N = 212). The criterion of creative performance was a self-report which estimates the quantity and quality of extracurricular activity in seven domains. Results of canonical and bivariate analyses indicated that divergent thinking and creative performance scores were moderately related in the gifted sample, but unrelated in the nongifted sample. Additionally, the quantity of extracurricular performance was more predictable than its quality. Finally, there were particular areas of performance (e.g., writing and art) that were more strongly related to divergent thinking than other areas (e.g., music and science). These results are discussed in the context of the criterion-related validity of divergent thinking tests.

The Discriminant Validity of Gifted Children's Divergent Thinking Test Scores

Previous research suggests that the indices drawn from divergent thinking tests (i.e., ideational fluency, originality, and flexibility) lack discriminant validity. This is a serious problem because of the popularity of these tests, and because divergent thinking is probably our most useful model of creative thinking. Still, the research demonstrating a lack of discriminant validity was conducted primarily with nongifted subjects, and the findings may not apply to gifted individuals. The present project evaluated the discriminant validity of gifted children's ( N = 97) divergent thinking test scores with multitrait-multimethod and factor analytic procedures. Results indicated that the indices drawn from the divergent thinking tests did lack discriminant validity in this gifted sample.

Characteristics of students on related science courses in further education colleges: Part III—Achievement and divergent thinking ability

Summary Tests of attainment in Chemistry and Physics, together with tests of divergent and convergent thinking were administered to a sample of 633 students on GCE Advanced level, OND and ONC courses in a total of 39 colleges of further education. Factor analyses of all the data showed that the divergent thinking tests were measuring something different from the tests of convergent thinking and also that divergent thinking, as measured by these tests, had only limited association with attainment in Chemistry and Physics. At the lower levels of convergent verbal ability, the divergent thinking score correlates well with the convergent thinking score, but once a certain minimum convergent verbal ability is reached, convergent and divergent thinking become independent of one another until a high level of convergent verbal ability is reached when there is once again good correlation between convergent and divergent thinking scores. Part-time students were significantly inferior to their full-time counterparts on the divergent thinking test scores and were still inferior after allowance was made for their poorer convergent verbal ability.

Relations of Divergent Thinking and Intelligence Test Scores with Social and Nonsocial Make-Believe Play of Preschool Children

Relations of Divergent Thinking and Intelligence Test Scores with Social and Nonsocial Make-Believe Play of Preschool Children

Effects of explicit instructions to "be creative" on the psychological meaning of divergent thinking test scores.

The Alternate Uses Test was administered to 50 undergraduate males instructed to produce creative (i.e., novel and worthwhile) uses and to 55 comparable subjects simply instructed to produce as many uses as possible. All uses were rated for creativity. An index of self-assessed creative thinking ability correlated significantly more strongly (p less than .05) with the number of creative uses produced in the qualitatively-oriented condition than with the number of creative or total uses produced in the standard, quantitatively-oriented condition. The correlation between self-rated creative ability and creative uses production in the qualitatively-oriented condition remained significant (p less than .001) after indices of achievement motivation and general verbal aptitude were partialled out. The results were interpreted as demonstrating the value of coordinating informative divergent thinking test instructions with qualitative scoring criteria.