Intelligence, divergent thinking, and creativity

Abstract

Guilford's Alternate Uses, Plot Titles, and Consequences tests were given to 94 university students along with the Concept Mastery Test, a traditional measure of verbal intelligence. These measures were correlated with an inventory of creative activities and accomplishments. A composite index of ideational fluency correlated with four creativity indices: Crafts, Performing Arts, Math-Science, and Total Creativity, while the Concept Mastery Test correlated with three indices: Art, Literature, and Total Creativity. With the exception that verbal intelligence was a better predictor of creativity in literature, no statistical difference between the predictive accuracies of ideational fluency and verbal intelligence were found. The need to re-examine the widely accepted association of divergent thinking with creativity was discussed. © 1980.