Defining creativity is challenging, and measuring it may be even more difficult. However, scientists believe they have developed a remarkably simple way to assess at least one aspect of it. There is a test you can conduct yourself in just two minutes, which works best when you don’t know much about how the analysis operates. Head over to the project page to try it out, then return to read all about it.
The new method, called the Divergent Association Task (DAT), asks people to name 10 names that are as semantically distant as possible. For instance, "cat" and "book" are more divergent than "cat" and "dog." A computer algorithm then measures the semantic distance – how related the two words are to each other – between the names provided by the individual. Based on the analysis of responses from 8,914 volunteers, DAT is at least as effective as current methods in predicting a person's creativity.
The researchers wrote in their published paper: "Many theories assume that creative individuals are capable of generating more divergent ideas. If this is true, simply naming unrelated words and then measuring the semantic distance between them can serve as an objective measure of divergent thinking." The Alternative Uses Task (where you think of as many uses for an object as possible) and the Bridge-the-Associative Gap Task (where you try to connect two words with a third word) are creative measures utilized by DAT.
The creativity scores from DAT are also correlated with other outcomes as they are with each other, meaning they are useful in assessing creativity similar to more complex tools. Furthermore, data shows that its effectiveness appears to apply across different demographics, making it suitable for large-scale surveys.
The main benefits of the new DAT test are its simplicity, quick completion, and the fact that it does not require any form of human assessment, which could introduce bias. However, researchers are keen to point out that it does not measure every aspect of creativity. Psychologist Jay Olson from Harvard University states: "Our task measures only a small piece of one type of creativity. But these findings enable assessments of creativity across larger and more diverse samples with less bias, which will ultimately help us better understand this fundamental human ability."
As Olson notes, the DAT test explores divergent thinking and verbal creativity – it won't show how creative you are when cooking in the kitchen, for example, which uses a different set of skills, but it can predict efficiency at a given moment. Psychologists believe that more creative individuals can connect distant elements in their minds more easily, which is what is being tested here. The research was published in PNAS.
