Revisiting Mednick's (1962) Theory of Creativity with a Composite Measure of Creativity: The Effect of Stimulus Type on Word Association Production

Autor/inn/en	Vitrano, Deana; Altarriba, Jeanette; Leblebici-Basar, Deniz
Titel	Revisiting Mednick's (1962) Theory of Creativity with a Composite Measure of Creativity: The Effect of Stimulus Type on Word Association Production
Quelle	In: Journal of Creative Behavior, 55 (2021) 4, S.925-936 (12 Seiten)Infoseite zur Zeitschrift PDF als Volltext Verfügbarkeit
Zusatzinformation	ORCID (Vitrano, Deana)
Sprache	englisch
Dokumenttyp	gedruckt; online; Zeitschriftenaufsatz
ISSN	0022-0175
DOI	10.1002/jocb.498
Schlagwörter	Word Frequency; Associative Learning; Task Analysis; Creativity; Theories; Creative Thinking; Intelligence; Comparative Analysis; Verbal Ability; Scores; Intelligence Tests; Remote Associates Test + Suchen Sie Ihr Suchwort? Word analysis; Frequency; Wortanalyse; Häufigkeit; Aufgabenanalyse; Kreativität; Theory; Theorie; Kreatives Denken; Intelligenz; Klugheit; Mündliche Leistung; Intelligence test; Intelligenztest
Abstract	S.A. Mednick (1962) proposed a theory of creativity suggesting that highly creative individuals can produce more word associations to a stimulus than less creative individuals. Numerous studies have supported this theory using the Remote Associates Test (RAT) as the measure of creativity. Additionally, some studies have suggested that high-frequency words elicit more word associations overall than low-frequency words, and concrete words elicit more associations overall than abstract words. The current study further investigated Mednick's theory by: (1) creating controlled lists of stimuli that can better uncover how word type (abstract versus concrete) and word frequency (high versus low) affect the number of word associations produced to a stimulus; (2) including several creativity tasks besides the RAT; and (3) examining the role of other factors in creative thinking, including intelligence and verbal fluency. Participants first completed a word association task with four different types of words (i.e., high-frequency concrete, low-frequency concrete, high-frequency abstract, and low-frequency abstract), and then completed a variety of tasks, including several creativity tasks. Participants were categorized as highly creative or less creative based on a composite measure of the creativity tasks. Highly creative individuals produced more associations overall, supporting Mednick's theory. Furthermore, high-frequency stimuli resulted in higher overall associative responses compared to low-frequency stimuli, but contrary to previous research, no differences emerged for concrete versus abstract stimuli. There was also no difference in intelligence scores between the two creativity groups, and only a marginally significant difference in verbal fluency scores. (As Provided).
Anmerkungen	Wiley. Available from: John Wiley & Sons, Inc. 111 River Street, Hoboken, NJ 07030. Tel: 800-835-6770; e-mail: cs-journals@wiley.com; Web site: https://www.wiley.com/en-us
Erfasst von	ERIC (Education Resources Information Center), Washington, DC
Update	2024/1/01