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Most standardized educational tests are not intended to assess creativity. Past research in this domain has been largely correlational, examining the associations between creative beliefs or performance and scores on such tests. Hence, the primary aim of the current investigation was to determine the degree to which different metrics of creativity account for performance on standardized academic tests. Specifically, measures of creative performance, potential, self-reports, and beliefs were collected along with personality indicators and academic data (grade point averages, Australian Tertiary Admission Ranking [ATAR] scores) for Australian student participants. Results from a hierarchical multiple regression indicated that various creative potential, ability, and trait measures accounted for 18% of unique variance in ATAR scores over and above the contribution of GPA, higher conscientiousness, and higher introversion. Specifically, significant creativity variables were self-rated scholarly creativity and intellectual risk-taking, independently scored flexibility on a divergent thinking task, and objectively rated originality in generating a math equation. The findings suggest that both convergent and divergent thinking abilities play an important role in traditional academic outcomes. Limitations and suggestions for future research are discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We developed a novel conceptualization of one component of creativity in narratives by integrating creativity theory and distributional semantics theory. We termed the new construct divergent semantic integration (DSI), defined as the extent to which a narrative connects divergent ideas. Across nine studies, 27 different narrative prompts, and over 3500 short narratives, we compared six models of DSI that varied in their computational architecture. The best-performing model employed Bidirectional Encoder Representations from Transformers (BERT), which generates context-dependent numerical representations of words (i.e., embeddings). BERT DSI scores demonstrated impressive predictive power, explaining up to 72% of the variance in human creativity ratings, even approaching human inter-rater reliability for some tasks. BERT DSI scores showed equivalently high predictive power for expert and nonexpert human ratings of creativity in narratives. Critically, DSI scores generalized across ethnicity and English language proficiency, including individuals identifying as Hispanic and L2 English speakers. The integration of creativity and distributional semantics theory has substantial potential to generate novel hypotheses about creativity and novel operationalizations of its underlying processes and components. To facilitate new discoveries across diverse disciplines, we provide a tutorial with code (osf.io/ath2s) on how to compute DSI and a web app (osf.io/ath2s) to freely retrieve DSI scores. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The present study examines effort in narrative creative writing (operationalized as time‐on‐task) using a new assessment approach, the storyboard task. Participants (N = 125) completed alternate forms of the storyboard task in two sessions five weeks apart. They also completed measures of divergent thinking and self‐reported ideational behavior. Time‐on‐task, story length, and rated creativity scores were obtained for the participants' stories. The storyboard task demonstrated good alternate form reliability and convergent validity with the criterion measures. Although time‐on‐task was strongly, positively associated with creativity scores, this relationship was confounded by the contribution of story length. Relationships amongst these variables were similar when creativity was rated by novice raters using a rubric or experienced raters using the consensual assessment technique. Additionally, story length and time‐on‐task were moderately correlated with the external criterion measures of creativity. Thus, the strong associations between rated creativity, story length, and time in creative writing raise important issues and avenues for future research, and results for the storyboard task suggest that it is a valuable assessment of narrative creative writing. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Although the relationship between creativity and ADHD is uncertain, recent studies examining how dimensionally assessed characteristics of ADHD relate to creativity and divergent thinking in adults suggest an occasional positive, linear relationship between the constructs. However, the executive functions proposed to underlie characteristics of ADHD have not been examined in relation to creativity. This study was conducted to determine how different characteristics of ADHD related to executive functioning (as assessed by the Brown ADD Scales) predict different components of figural divergent thinking, intellectual risk‐taking, and creative self‐efficacy. Undergraduate engineering students (N = 60) completed the Brown ADD Scales, a figural divergent thinking task, and self‐report measures of intellectual risk‐taking and creative self‐efficacy. A series of multivariate regression models demonstrated that several components of divergent thinking (i.e., fluency, originality, and resistance to closure) were predicted by different characteristics of ADHD. Although fluency was predicted by affect only and originality was predicted by activation only, resistance to closure was predicted by activation, effort, and attention. Additionally, intellectual risk‐taking was predicted by memory, effort, and activation, whereas creative self‐efficacy was predicted by effort. The implications of these results relating to the relationship between ADHD and creativity, as well as for engineering undergraduate education are discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Amusement Park Theory of Creativity, which represents both domain‐specific and domain‐general perspectives of creativity, calls for more research on how individual difference constructs are related to creativity at all ends of the domain‐specificity and general spectrum. Toward this goal, this study examined emotional intelligence (using the Emotional Intelligence Scale) in relationship with both a domain‐general measure (the Abbreviated Torrance Test for Adults) and a domain‐specific measure (Kaufman Domains of Creativity Scale) in a sample of 281 Chinese undergraduates. Although emotional intelligence demonstrated no relationship with divergent thinking, it did positively predict all five domains of creativity on the self‐report measure (ranging from.52 to.77). These findings add to the nuanced relationship between emotional intelligence and creativity and serve as a call for more work of this nature. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Creativity is increasingly recognized as an important skill for success in the field of engineering, but most traditional, post‐secondary engineering education programs do not reward creative efforts. Failing to recognize creativity or creative efforts can have particularly negative effects for those students with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), who may exhibit enhanced divergent thinking ability yet struggle in the traditional educational environment. Purpose/Hypothesis: This study was conducted to investigate how ADHD characteristics, academic aptitude, and one important component of creativity (divergent thinking) contribute to academic performance in engineering programs and how traditional markers of academic performance and ADHD characteristics predict divergent thinking. Design/Method: Undergraduate engineering students (n = 60) completed measures of ADHD symptoms and divergent thinking. Scholastic Aptitude Test (SAT) scores and grade point average (GPA) were collected from university records, and hypotheses were tested using a series of multivariate regression models. Results: Verbal SAT scores were the only positive predictor of overall GPA and engineering GPA. ADHD characteristics did not significantly predict overall GPA but negatively predicted engineering GPA. ADHD characteristics were the only positive predictor of divergent thinking ability. Conclusions: ADHD characteristics negatively predict academic performance (i.e., GPA) in engineering programs but are more predictive of divergent thinking ability than traditional markers of academic performance. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

An important step in understanding domain-specific qualities of creativity is determining what patterns exist in self-perceived creativity across domains and how these patterns associate with other characteristics relevant to creativity. In two studies involving high school (Study 1) and undergraduate (Study 2) students, hierarchical cluster analyses revealed four clusters in self-perceived creativity: “I am creative,” “I am not creative,” “I might be creative in math/science,” and “I might be creative, but not in math/science.” In the first study, a discriminant function analysis indicated that the “I am creative” and “I might be creative, but not in math/science” clusters were associated with higher openness and extraversion. In the second study, the “I am creative” and “I might be creative, but not in math/science” clusters were similarly associated with higher openness, extraversion, creative self-efficacy, and self-esteem, whereas lower agreeableness and conscientiousness were associated with the “I am creative” and “I might be creative in math/science” clusters. These findings suggest that clusters of self-perceived creativity are described by both overall magnitude (low vs. high) and domain (math/science vs. other domains), and relative associations with different personal characteristics vary across these clusters. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: Empirical studies on the relationship between affect and creativity often produce conflicting results. This inconsistency has led us to believe that the relationship between affect and creativity may be better understood by looking at potential moderators. Our study looked specifically at trait affect and self‐perceived creativity. Using the Affect Infusion Model (AIM) theory with problem clarity as the potential moderator, we hypothesized that when individuals are faced with problems that lack clarity, trait affect has greater sway over their self‐perceived creativity. Our results provided evidence that problem clarity moderated the relationship between positive trait affect and self‐perceived creativity; the positive relationship between positive trait affect and self‐perceived creativity is stronger when problem clarity is low and weaker when problem clarity is high. No moderating effect was found in the relationship between negative trait affect and self‐perceived creativity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This brief essay argues for the importance for more work on how creativity predicts positive outcomes, with a particular emphasis on expanding our definitions of these positive outcomes. The way that creativity may lead to increased equity and social justice is used as an example of these type of potential research questions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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Creative metacognition (CMC) is an understudied component of creative growth. It refers to people's ability to monitor and evaluate their creative functioning. In this study we focus on an important element of CMC, creative metacognitive accuracy: people's ability to recognize and properly assess the creativity of their ideas when solving divergent thinking tasks. More specifically, we explored how creative ability and intelligence interact to explain people's self-ratings of their newly generated ideas' creativity. A large sample of adults (n = 500) completed 3 divergent thinking tasks and immediately after provided general ratings of their responses' creativity. External judges independently rated creativity of all generated responses. Expert-rated creativity was positively linked to participants' creativity self-ratings, yet negatively related to participants' intelligence. More important, creativity and intelligence interacted with each other: self-ratings of creativity corresponded with experts' assessment among more intelligent people, whereas people with lower intelligence overestimated the creativity of their ideas, especially when these ideas were less creative. Thus, a clear effect of metacognitive accuracy was observed among participants with higher intelligence. We discuss the results in the light of potential mechanisms that analytical and creative skills may play for CMC. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Self-reported dark creativity has been related to lower concerns for all moral foundations, especially among those with dark personality traits. The present study aimed to extend these findings using real-world divergent thinking tasks with ethical and unethical instructions. Data (N = 1346, males = 388, females = 840, Mage = 20.93, SD = 5.48) were collected on creative performance, moral foundations, and dark personality traits, including trait deceptiveness. Divergent thinking responses were coded for fluency, flexibility, creativity, goal-directedness, deception, moral valence, and a virtue caveat (where participants explicitly denied to give unethical responses). Results indicated that for both ethical and unethical tasks, lower binding foundations (loyalty, authority, purity) were associated with higher creative performance, whereas higher concerns for moral foundations were related to more noble and positive responses and lower deception used in responses. Among dark personality traits, only trait deceptiveness was a significant mediator between low binding foundations and high creativity. Contrary to our predictions, none of the Dark Tetrad traits were significant mediators. These findings reinforce the salience of deception in the process and outcomes related to dark creativity; implications and suggestions for future research are discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]