Torrance Test of Creative Thinking: The question of its construct validity

A validation study of the Torrance Tests of Creative Thinking with a sample of Korean elementary school students

In Japan, recently many laboratories are adopting Idea-Marathon System (IMS) for creative training of their researchers. It becomes more important how IMS can contribute to improve creativity through the typical IMS training in quantitative analysis. This paper explains analysis of empirical experiment for measuring effect of creativity improvement before and after IMS training method for about a 3 months period, especially for researchers in R&D and laboratories. To confirm the creativity influence to researchers in details, TTCT (Torrance Tests of Creative Thinking) Figural tests were selected. One major food manufacturer's laboratory in Tokyo, Japan offered us the cooperation for this experiment. There are two tests of TTCT Figural tests, i.e. Pre-test and Post-test. This paper describes the statistical analysis result of both Pre-test (Figural A test of TTCT) and the Post-test (Figural B test of TTCT) between which Idea-Marathon training was continued for about three months by all the participants. As the result of analysis between two TTCT tests scoring before and after IMS training for three months, IMS was found significantly effective to improve creative factors proposed in the TTCT test.

The Torrance Tests of Creative Thinking (TTCT) was developed in 1966 and renormed five times: in 1974, 1984, 1990, 1998, and 2008. The total sample for all six normative samples included 272,599 kindergarten through 12th grade students and adults. Analysis of the normative data showed that creative thinking scores remained static or decreased, starting at sixth grade. Results also indicated that since 1990, even as IQ scores have risen, creative thinking scores have significantly decreased. The decrease for kindergartners through third graders was the most significant.

Creativity has been a key graduate attribute and transferrable skill for the universities nowadays. A better understanding of freshmen students’ level of creativity thinking facilitates the cultivation of the ways for nurturing the development of creativity in students throughout their university education studies. The purpose of this study was to investigate creative thinking abilities of first-year undergraduates in Hong Kong using the Torrance Tests of Creativity Thinking (TTCT) – a commonly known assessment for creativity. A total of 492 first-year undergraduates at a university in Hong Kong were asked to complete TTCT Figural Form consisting of picture construction, picture completion and lines activities. Generally, the creative potential of Hong Kong undergraduates was well above the average. The students demonstrated their abilities in generation of a number of relevant ideas (fluency), producing novel responses (originality), abstract thinking (abstractness of titles), and open-minded thinking (premature closure). They exhibited creative strength of, for example, flexible imagination, thinking with senses, and thinking beyond boundaries. However, students’ elaborative thinking, metaphorical-thinking and sense of humor had a lot of room for improvement. Based on the assessment results, some implications on the possible institutional strategies for nurturing creativity among students during university education were discussed.

This study investigated university students' evaluation of their own level of creativity, their teachers' level and their colleagues' level of creativity, as well as the relationship between results in creative thinking measures and in the evaluation of their own level of creativity by the university students. Four hundred and twenty eight Brazilian university students were asked to rate their level of creativity, their university teachers' and colleagues' level of creativity in a seven point scale, after completing the Torrance Tests of Creative Thinking (Verbal form A). Students judged themselves and their colleagues as significantly more creative than their teachers. It was also found that most students evaluated their teachers as presenting low levels of creativity. Moreover, significant relationships were observed between different measures of creative thinking and the level of their own creativity as evaluated by the students. The results suggest that university teachers are ill-equipped in designing a facilitative environment for creativity. They also give support for the concurrent validity of the Torrance Tests of Creative Thinking.

On the basis of contradictory findings regarding the factor structure of the Torrance Tests of Creative Thinking (TTCT) Figural scale, the objective of this study was to compare, through a confirmatory factor analysis (CFA), four theoretical models that explain the operationalized creativity construct with the TTCT. We evaluated a sample of 577 Spanish-speaking school children of both genders, aged 9 to 14 years. The CFA of most satisfactory fit identified two correlated factors: (a) innovative and (b) adaptive. Besides, multigroup CFA revealed that the 2-factor solution was invariant (configural, metric, and structural) across gender. Finally, MANOVAs were conducted to analyze the differences in each factor and subscale according to gender, revealing significant group differences. The methodological and educational implications of the results are discussed.

The Torrance Test of Creative Thinking (TTCT) is the most widely used norm-referenced creativity test used in gifted identification. Although commonly used for identifying talent, little is known about how creativity tests, like the TTCT-Figural, contribute to the probability of being identified as gifted especially with underrepresented populations. Using nominated students ( n = 1,191) from a diverse midsized urban school district, this study examined the differential predictive validity among student demographics (i.e., race/ethnicity, free/reduced price lunch status, English learning status, sex) and the TTCT-Figural to the probability of being identified as gifted. Results of a multilevel hierarchical generalized linear regression indicated underrepresented groups showed no difference in the probability of being identified after controlling for cognitive ability and academic achievement; the same was true when the TTCT-Figural was included within the model. The inclusion of the TTCT-Figural does contribute to the probability of identification; however, the disproportionality of underrepresented student groups remains in this school district. Gifted administrators looking to enhance equity may not find the solution with the mere inclusion of a creativity assessment. Implications for practice and future directions are discussed.

50 pupils from self-contained classrooms for learning disabled students in Grades 5 and 6 were subjects. The Torrance Tests of Creative Thinking were used as pretests and posttests to measure the effect of instruction for creativity on drawings by these subjects. For 14 wk. the Purdue Creative Thinking Program was used to stimulate the learning disabled group. These children made significantly higher scores than a control group on the figural subtests of drawing of the Torrance Tests of Creative Thinking.

PurposeThis study aims to meta-analytically investigate the impact of educational technology interventions on the development of creative thinking in educational settings. In recent years, the debate among researchers has persisted regarding the impact of various educational technologies, including interactive learning environments, digital instruction and platforms, and educational games and robotics, on students' creative thinking in diverse educational settings due to inconsistent findings.Design/methodology/approachThis study, conducting a meta-analysis by synthesizing 35 relevant empirical studies with 2,776 participants, aims to investigate the association between educational technology interventions and the Torrance Tests of Creative Thinking (TTCT) and its subscales (fluency, flexibility, originality and elaboration).FindingsNo evident publication bias was found. From a general perspective, the results demonstrate a moderate level of influence of educational technology on the overall TTCT scale, with high heterogeneity attributed to the adopted instruments, mixed methods and target outcomes. Additionally, the results indicate that only three of the TTCT subscales (fluency, flexibility and originality) are influenced by educational technologies. Among the interventions, interactive learning environments yielded medium to the largest mean effect size. Furthermore, moderator analyses suggest that the effects of interventions on two subscales of TTCT (flexibility and originality) are moderated by school types, research design and the duration of intervention. The conclusion drawn is that interventions promoting students' creative thinking in different educational settings are efficacious.Originality/valueDespite the low homogeneity of the results, which might have influenced the findings, the large fail-safe N suggests that these findings are robust. The study examined potential causes of heterogeneity and emphasized the importance of further research in this area.

This research provides evidence of the validity of the Torrance Tests of Creative Thinking (TTCT; 1966, 1990). The sample consisted of 59 Brazilians (29 males, 30 females) who have received public recognition through awards and 69 Brazilians (31 males, 38 females) who have not received recognition. The TTCT were administered to all participants and scored using Torrance's procedure as well as Wechsler's procedure (1985). Results analyzed through Pearson correlations indicated there were significant relationships among creative achievements and the creative indicators in the TTCT (r = .14 to r = .33, p ≤ .05 to p ≤ .001). Persons with recognized and without recognized achievements also could be distinguished on the basis of the presence of creative indicators in the TTCT using t tests. Figural and Verbal Creative Indexes were significantly related. The validity of the Verbal and Figural TTCT to the Brazilian culture was confirmed.

This study investigated the commonalities and differences between motor creativity and creative thinking in children and how executive functions differently influence them. Thirty-one children, aged 7 to 8 years, were administered Bertsch Test of Motor Creativity, Torrance Test of Creative Thinking, the Random Number Generation (RNG) task tapping executive functions, and the Movement Assessment Battery for Children (M-ABC). Scores for three dimensions of motor creativity and creative thinking (fluency, flexibility, and originality), selected indexes of executive function (inhibition and working memory updating) and motor competence scores were submitted to correlational and regression analyses. Results showed that there is no association between motor creativity and motor competence, but a significant association between creative moving and thinking for all their dimensions except for originality. Moreover, originality in thinking was predicted by low inhibitory ability, although originality in moving by high inhibitory ability. Results suggested that there are commonalities in the processes responsible for the fluent and flexible production of creative thoughts and movements, whereas there was a domain-specificity as concerns the role played by inhibitory functions in the production of original solutions during creative moving.

This study examined how affective states and exposure to diverse information influence figural divergent thinking using a pretest-posttest design. A total of 148 participants were divided into 4 conditions: positive affect, negative affect, information, and control. In the positive and negative affect conditions, participants respectively listened to the elation and depression statements of the Velten procedure. In the information condition, participants listened to the neutral statements of the Velten procedure. In the control condition, participants listened to word-processing instructions. Divergent thinking was measured using the figural form of the Torrance Tests of Creative Thinking (TTCT), and affect was measured using a mood questionnaire and the State-Trait Anxiety Inventory. Multivariate analyses of covariance were conducted using the TTCT, mood, and state-trait anxiety premeasures as covariates; the TTCT, mood, and state-trait anxiety postmeasures as the dependent variables; and treatment condition as the independent variable. Results showed a significant effect of condition on posttreatment TTCT scores, F(3, 140) = 3.37, p = .0203; mood, F(3, 140) = 7.44, p = .0001; and state anxiety, F(3, 140) = 6.27, p = .0005. Comparison tests showed that the information exposure treatment resulted in significantly higher TTCT scores than the control condition, indicating that exposure to diverse information can enhance divergent thinking. Results further indicated that, although the positive affect manipulation was effective in enhancing mood and reducing state anxiety, it did not enhance divergent thinking scores. The negative affect manipulation did not appear to be effective. Possible explanations for these results are discussed.

Measurement is fundamental to scientific inference, yet educational and psychological research often relies on instruments that are shortened, partially administered, or otherwise modified without evidence that the resulting scores remain valid. This article examines measurement fragmentation, defined as the use of selected parts, abbreviated forms, or derivative versions of an instrument as though they were interchangeable with the validated form. The Torrance Tests of Creative Thinking (TTCT) are used as a case example because their strong full-version psychometric foundation and frequent fragmented use in published research make the consequences of non-equivalent measurement unusually visible. The full TTCT is supported by stronger reliability and validity evidence than fragmented TTCT uses, whereas derivative forms such as the Abbreviated Torrance Test for Adults have weaker support. When these non-equivalent forms are treated under a single instrument label, apparent theoretical inconsistency and attenuated meta-analytic estimates may reflect measurement artifacts rather than properties of creativity itself. The article concludes that stronger educational and psychological research requires explicit reporting of test versions, version-specific reliability and validity evidence, and closer editorial scrutiny of altered measurement procedures.

This study aimed to evaluate the effectiveness of Behavioral Activation Therapy (BAT) in enhancing subjective happiness and creative thinking among university students. By addressing psychological well-being and cognitive functioning concurrently, the study sought to provide a comprehensive intervention model for student development. A randomized controlled trial design was employed, involving 30 university students randomly assigned to either an intervention group (n=15) or a control group (n=15). The intervention group participated in eight 75-minute BAT sessions over two months, while the control group received no intervention. Subjective happiness was measured using the Subjective Happiness Scale (SHS), and creative thinking was assessed using the Torrance Tests of Creative Thinking (TTCT). Assessments were conducted at baseline, post-intervention, and at a two-month follow-up. Data analysis included repeated measures ANOVA and Bonferroni post-hoc tests using SPSS version 27. The results indicated a significant increase in subjective happiness and creative thinking scores in the intervention group compared to the control group. The intervention group showed substantial improvements in SHS and TTCT scores from baseline to post-intervention and sustained these gains at the two-month follow-up. The repeated measures ANOVA confirmed significant main effects for time and group, with post-hoc tests revealing specific time points of significant change. Behavioral Activation Therapy significantly enhances subjective happiness and creative thinking among university students. These findings suggest that BAT is an effective intervention for improving psychological well-being and cognitive functioning in this population. Integrating BAT into university wellness programs could provide substantial benefits for student mental health and academic performance.

An alternative method for testing creativity was investigated. A multiple-choice paper-and-pencil test called the Abedi–Schumacher Creativity Test (CT) was developed in an attempt to shorten the amount of time required for the administration and scoring of creativity tests. This instrument was translated into Spanish and was administered with the Torrance Tests of Creative Thinking (TTCT) and the Villa and Auzmendi Creativity Test (VAT) to 2,270 students in Spain. Teacher ratings of student creativity were also examined. Significant but low correlations were found between the 4 CT subscale scores and the students' academic achievement measures and TTCTsubscale scores. The reliability coefficient of the CT subscale scores was at an acceptable level; however, the correlation coefficients between the CT and the TTCT and VAT were moderate or higher. The results of this study have influenced further modification of the CT test items.