A measure of creativity or intelligence? Examining internal and external structure validity evidence of the Remote Associates Test.

Abstract

The Remote Associates Test (RAT) is often assumed to be a measure of creativity; however, the RAT has been broadly applied in psychological studies. Originally developed to assess individual differences in associative processing, the RAT has been used to study various constructs, such as creativity, problem solving, insight, and memory. Aside from early validation studies, the psychometric properties of the RAT remain largely unexplored. This study examines the internal and external structure validity evidence of a computer-based, 30-item RAT based on scores from a sample of undergraduate students. We examined internal structure via classical test theory item statistics, dimensionality analysis, item response theory analysis, and differential item functioning analysis. Results showed that the twoparameter logistic (2PL) model, in which items have unique discrimination and difficulty parameters, had good fit to item responses from our 30-item RAT. In addition, the relationships among scores on the RAT and a series of other cognitive measures including divergent thinking, intelligence, and working memory tasks were examined to assess the external validity of the RAT scores. Results indicate that the RAT assesses cognitive processes similar to those from a wide range of other analytical and convergent thinking test, distinguishing it from traditional, divergent thinking tests of creativity. In light of concerns regarding the internal and external psychometric properties of creativity measures, our findings help to clarify the item and test characteristics of the RAT.

Remotely Close Associations: Openness to Experience and Semantic Memory Structure

“…Although the task examines the ability to form associative elements into novel and remote combinations, there has been some debate about whether the RAT actually measures creativity (Lee, Huggins, & Therriault, 2014;Taft & Rossiter, 1966). Most of the literature suggests that the RAT is a convergent thinking task (has a single correct answer), which is supported by relationships to other measures of convergent thinking such as working memory and intelligence (Harris, 2004;Lee & Therriault, 2013).…”

What relates newspaper, definite, and clothing? An article describing deficits in convergent problem solving and creativity following hippocampal damage

“…In the current project, we investigated the necessity of hippocampus for normal convergent problem solving using a neuropsychological methodology and an established task of convergent problem solving ability (Bowden and Jung-Beeman, 2003) that has been linked to creativity (Ansburg, 2000;Storm et al, 2011;Aiello et al, 2012) (but see Lee et al, 2014). We enrolled human patients with bilateral hippocampal damage and severe amnesia ("amnesic group"; N 5 5; 1F, 4M) and healthy comparison participants ("NC group"; N 5 5; 1F, 4M) case-matched to the patients on sex, age, education, and handedness.…”

The “Creative Right Brain” Revisited: Individual Creativity and Associative Priming in the Right Hemisphere Relate to Hemispheric Asymmetries in Reward Brain Function

“…Moreover, it has been reported that divergent and convergent thinking abilities are not related (Lee et al 2014), that they differently rely on DA neuromodulation (Chermahini and Hommel 2010), and engage distinct brain regions (Razoumnikova 2000). Moreover, adults diagnosed with attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder score higher than controls on divergent thinking tasks, but lower on convergent thinking tasks (White and Shah 2006).…”