Tests that evaluate creativity

Creativity is a skill that we all, to a greater or lesser extent, possess. It can be trained and its manifestation includes beyond the uses associated with it. Creativity is not only in painting, music or the rest of the arts. It accompanies us in our daily lives to put it into practice; from the simplest daily tasks to the most complex.

How to solve problems or situations that arise depends, to a large extent, on how creative we are.. In psychology there are different ways to train and measure creativity. For this, there are different tests or tests that evaluate it. Below, we describe 4 tests that evaluate creativity.

1) Test of alternative uses

The American psychologist JPGuildford, in 1967, developed the alternative uses test. Guildford brought his field of study to the development of intelligence and creativity.

This test consists of mentioning for 2 minutes a use different from that associated with a specific object. For example, a different use than that which can be given to a pencil. The idea is that the most creative people are able to appreciate reality from more points of view.

Therefore, the greater the number of uses we conceive of an object, the greater the level of creativity. However, This test not only measures creativity based on these uses, but also evaluates the divergent thinking.

Divergent thinking is the cognitive process carried out by the brain in order to generate creative ideas by analyzing and exploring many solutions in this regard. It is a type of thinking that allows us to develop different valid responses to a given problem.

This test evaluates divergent thinking through 4 categories: fluidity, originality, elaboration and flexibility. The answers given in this test are evaluated by such classification:

Fluency: It is evaluated through the number of responses given, that is, the total sum of the uses granted in the two-minute period.Originality: evaluates the infrequent and novel use of the answers given. The more unusual and infrequent the elaborate use, the more original the response will be, and therefore, the greater creativity.Elaboration: This classification is given by the amount of detail and how elaborate the answer is. The greater the elaboration, the greater the creativity.Flexibility– This feature evaluates the areas covered by the responses. For example, answering that a pencil is used for writing or coloring covers one area, saying that it is also used to tie hair corresponds to another.

2) Incomplete figure test

The psychologist Ellis Paul Torrance, in the 60s, created several tests to measure creativity and the best known is the Incomplete Figure Test. The objective of this test is to complete a drawing, on paper, based on a specific image. The maximum time is 5 minutes and during that time different shapes and perspectives can be drawn. In this test two categories are evaluated:

Elaboration: Evaluates the amount of details and how elaborate the drawing is. The greater the amount of details, the greater the elaboration, and therefore, the greater the creativity.Originality: originality is determined by the frequency of uses. An infrequent and novel use of the outlined image is a sign of greater creativity.

3) Riddle

It is about answering a riddle or riddle in the shortest possible time, correctly. The sooner the correct answer is given, the higher the level of creativity.

In this case, unlike in the Alternative Uses test, there is only one valid answer. If this test measures divergent thinking, riddles assess convergent thinking.

Guilford defined convergent thinking as “that ability to give the correct answer to a question by logically ordering the available information.”

Psychologists also use riddles to measure problem-solving potential or convergent thinking.

4) Remote associations

This test consists of promoting relationships between different words or concepts. Thus, three words are exposed, to which we must find a fourth that relates them. This test evaluates creativity, but also the ability to establish relationships

The Mednick remote associations test is made up of 30 items and the questions are answered for 30 minutes, to later score the correct answers.

The theoretical basis on which it is based is that The less frequent the relationships established, the higher the level of creativity.. All of these tests, although they are not an exact science, are very useful for measuring creativity. In addition, some have the advantage of being self-applicable and therefore offer the opportunity to self-examine. In this way, we can also train creativity.

The simplicity of these tests allows them to be accessible and, therefore, They can be used in any area where creativity needs to be evaluated.. An example of this is that these tests are used in various areas of psychology, from psychological evaluation in psychotherapy to the selection of personnel in human resources, with the purpose of knowing people’s creativity.

You might be interested…