Measuring creativity

Group 6 - task group 2

Erko Risthein
Kristaps Renga
Aleksejs Razzivins

Creativity tests
1.Divergent thinking
2.Convergent thinking
3.Artistic assessments
4.Self assessments

1. Divergent thinking

Definition
"Divergent thinking is a thought process or method used to
generate creative ideas by exploring many possible solutions."

Scoring
1. Originality - statistical infrequency of response
2.Quantity - number of responses
3.Quality - the degree of difference of the responses, in other
words do they come from a single domain or multiple
domains

Some sample questions

Ways to cross a lake?
Possible uses for a pencil?
Possible uses for a paperclip?

Measurement
1. Originality - All the responses will be ranked by their
frequency. Less frequent answers = higher score.
2.Quantity - All the subjects will be ranked by their number
of responses. Higher number of responses = higher score.
3.Quality - A group of experts will score the flexibility
(difference) of the answers. The final score will be the mean
of the all the experts scores.

2. Convergent thinking

Convergent thinking
Convergent thinking is the opposite of divergent thinking. It
generally means the ability to give the "correct" answer to
standard questions that do not require significant creativity,
for instance in most tasks in school and on standardized
multiple-choice tests for intelligence.

Sample questions
1. Draw four continuous straight lines, connecting all the dots
without lifting your pencil from the paper.

2. Sally Li likes eucalyptus more than pines. She likes electric

lighting and doesn't like to use candles. She likes eccentric
people more than calm. What profession do you think she has economist or accountant?

3. Draw two straight lines so that to separate Greek cross into 4

figures, which have similar size and form, and from which
afterwards it would be possible to make a square.

4.Draw the triangle that would have a maximum size in such a

way that it would not touch any triangles that are on the picture
a would not cross the borders.

5. By changing the positions of only 4 sticks, make 3 equilateral

triangles.

3. Artistic assessments

Definition
Artistic assessments are the evaluations of an artistic product
(e.g. drawing).

Incomplete drawings

Example outcome

4. Self assessments

Sample questions
1. Are you a person who likes frequent change?
2. Are you a person who likes to work on one thing at a
time?
3. Are you a person who believes rules exist for good
reasons?
4. A person who likes to operate on the basis of instinct?
5. A person who likes crossword puzzles?
6. A person who likes to find short-cuts?
7. A person who is good at getting their own way?
8. Do you dare to make decisions easily, without having
much information?
9. Are you often willing to take risks?
10. Do alternative solutions come to you spontaneously
when facing a problem?

Sample of the test group

References
http://www.smekalka.pp.ru/mensa/answer_mensa
_10.html
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Divergent_thinking
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Convergent_thinking
http://www.indiana.edu/~bobweb/Handout/cretv_
6.html