Capturing Creativity:TCT-DP

Test for Creative Thinking / Drawing Development

Klaus Urban (Hannover University, Germany)Hans Jellen (University of California)

Andrea KárpátiFulbright Research Scholar

at NIU, School of ArtsELTE University, Budapest,

Hungarykarpatian@t-online.hu

The Creative Person:Motivation and attitudes

Creatrix Inventory (C & RT) (Byrd, 1986)

ReproducerModifierChallengerPracticalizerInnovatorSynthesizerDreamerPlanner

Creativity tests measure specific cognitive processes such as thinking divergently, making associations, constructing and combing broad categories, or working on many ideas simultaneously.

8 styles:

Creativity is the result of the relation between

the person that is marked as creative, the evaluator who provides that judgment the social context in which evaluation happens.

(Westmeyer, 1998)

Sternberg Triarchic Abilities Test (STAT)

Creative skills - performance tasks

Written and oral storiesStories are rated on 5 points scales for:

• Originality• Complexity• Emotional

evocativeness• Descriptiveness

(Sternberg, 2006)

Torrance Tests of Creative Thinking (TTCT) (Torrance,

1966~1999)”Thinking Creativity with Words”Six verbal activities:

1. Asking2. Guessing Causes,3. Guessing Consequences, 4. Product Improvement, 5. Unusual Uses,6. Unusual Questions,7. Just Suppose.

• Scores on three dimensions:Fluency, Flexibility and Originality.

Creative Product Semantic Scale (Besemer and O’Quin, 1987):

Novelty: original, surprising

and germinal

Resolution: valuable, logical,

useful, and understandable

Elaboration and Synthesis:

organic, elegant, complex,

and well- crafted)

Torrance Tests of Creative Thinking (TTCT)

(Ellis Paul Torrance, 1966-1999)

• Drawing task: ”Thinking Creativity with Pictures”

• Three figural activities:– Picture Construction

– Picture Completion,

– Lines/Circles.

• Scores on five mental characteristics:

– Fluency

– Originality

– Elaboration

– Abstractness of Titles

– Resistance to Premature Closure.

Test for Creative Thinking-Drawing Production

(TCT-DP - Urban-Jellen, 1993)

An incomplete drawing containing 5 elements in a large square frame:

1. semi-circle,

2. right angle,

3. point,

4. curved line,

5. dashed line),

6. small open square (located outside the square frame)

Test sheet A

Test sheet B

Test sheet Test sheet „A”„A”

Test sheet „B”Test sheet „B”

Same elements, rotated with 180 degrees

Test sheet Test sheet „A”„A”

Test sheet „A” Test sheet „A” solutionssolutions

Test sheet Test sheet „B”„B”

Test sheet „B” Test sheet „B” solutionssolutions

Evaluation criteria

Continuation, (Cn) Completion, (Cm) New Elements, (Ne) Connections made with Lines, (Cl) Connections that Contribute to a Theme,

(Cth)

Boundary-breaking being Fragment-dependent, (Bfd)

Boundary-breaking being Fragment–independent,(Bfi)

Perspective, (Pe)

„A” test sheet

Continuation

„A” test sheet

Completion

„A” test sheet

Completion Completion (with text)

„A” test sheet

New elements

„A” test sheet

Connections made by lines

„A” test sheet

Connections made by theme

„B” test sheet

„A” test sheet

„A” test sheet

„A” test sheet

„A” test sheet

Boundary-breaking, Fragment independent

„A” test sheet

Boundary-breaking, Fragment independent

„A” test sheet

Perspective

„B” test sheet

Perspective

Unusual scoring criteria

Humor or Affectivity /Emotionality/ Expressive Power of the drawing, Hu)

Unconventionality, (Uc) in the use of tools or paper

Sebesség (Speed, Sp) is only assessed if drawing is near or above average

A” test sheet

Humorous or emotional qualities

A” test sheet

Humorous or emotional qualities

„A” test sheet

Humorous or emotional qualities

A” test sheet

Humorous or emotional qualities

A” test sheet

Unconventional solution

A” test sheet

Unconventional solution

A” test sheet

Unconventional solution

„„A” test sheet

Unconventional solution

Conventional solution

„A” test sheet

Conventional solution

„A” test sheet

„A” test sheet

„A” test sheet

„B” test sheet

Solutions in different drawing styles

Solutions in different drawing

styles

Solutions in different drawing styles

Coloured solutions

Coloured solutions

Coloured solutions

Tanja, aged 14

I drew a bear standing on two legs and playing with a ball. He throws the ball over a very low tree, low as he himself. But that tree in fact is not small, but he is very big, the biggest bear alive. Lonely, without company, he goes to take his ball that he made in order to be big enough for him. The bear, a dangerous animal, and in addition to that if he is the biggest in the world, cannot make friends as some other kinds of animals. He remains alone with his ball.

TCT-DP and narrative about image

Example No. 1: LIVING ROOM (Jana, girl, aged 13)

In my grandma’s house, on the ground floor, there is a room that I will always

remember. In that room, playing, I spent the first years of my childhood, and that is

why I have nice memories about it.

I made my first steps in it, spoke my first words and learned to recognise colours and

shapes. In my favourite corner, there was a big blue armchair where my granny often

sat and told me bedtime stories, swinging me gently in her lap. I would also usually fall

asleep there together with my granny, and woke up again the next day in her warm

embrace. In front of it there was a shelf with the picture of me, my mom and dad and a

big lamp. I had always loved that lamp. While I was young, my dream was to grow tall

enough and reach for that lamp. Next to it, there was a big picture of a girl praying for

something. I kept asking granny who was in the picture, but she just smiled

mysteriously. Beneath it was a small table where there were always fresh flowers

picked in our garden.

Today when I enter the room, only the most beautiful memories stir inside of me. I

slowly walk on the black-and-white tiles and come closer to the lamp on the shelf. I

remember my childhood dream and light it with a smile.

Results of Hungarian sample– Test Sheet „A”(Kárpáti, A. and Gyebnár, V., 1993-95)

Results (means), Test sheet Results (means), Test sheet „A” „A”

N (N (total sampletotal sample) = 1037) = 1037

AgeAge

A magyar vizsgálati minta eredményei – B / lap(Kárpáti A. és Gyebnár V., 1993-95)

Results (means), Test sheet „Results (means), Test sheet „BB” ”

N (total sample) = 803N (total sample) = 803

AgeAge

Simultaneous verbal and graphic use of TCT-DP

Study: Qualitative Analysis Of Creative Products Of Primary School Pupils by Slavica Ševkušić* & Slavica Maksić, Institute for Educational Research, Belgrade, Serbia

Pupils wrote a story about the drawing as their solution of TCT-DP

Connections revealed between the tale, indicator of verbal creativity, and scores obtained on TCT-DP, indicator of graphic creativity.

Qualitative story analysis

could be valid method of measuring creativity and that it can be used as a way to improve the quantitative measures of creative products of pupils.

contributes to the more complete description of a creative product than quantitative measures, because it shows the variety and richness of the components involved in a creative product.

Method: Narrative analysis

Narrative analysis is scientific procedure of studying language structures based on the assumption that objects of reality are grounded in language, its structures and grammar as well as the ways of its usage.

Evaluation: searching for creative format of the story, meanings and components that were built in it, which could point out to the creative expression of pupils.

Criteria are applied most often:

• who are the characters

• whether the text has the beginning, the middle and the end

• whether it is oriented towards the past

• whether it has a linear sequence

• whether it has a plot

• whether it makes sense to the person telling it

• variations that can raise the tension in the story

(Denzin, 1989).

Evaluation of the stories (N=151)

The creativity of stories was evaluated independently by 2 qualified evaluators (a psychologist and a pedagogue).

1. Using global-synthetic approach (based on the first impression), 20% of stories was singled out (1st evaluator), that is, 30% (2nd evaluator).

2. Through discussion and clarification of meanings, evaluators singled out 14 most creative stories, which comprises nearly 10% of evaluated stories.

Structure of results

1) Characteristics of linear and non-linear format of the story;

2) Creative components of stories in both formats;

3) The link between evaluation of story creativity and scores obtained on TCT-DP.

Linear format of the story

• linear timeline • regular, expected sequence of events• participants are most often people• events are oriented towards the past • good composition (part-whole ratio;

introduction, elaboration and conclusion)

• type: once upon a time...

Creative components of linear format

– detailed, rich descriptions– elegant sentences, stylistic figures of

speech – creating atmosphere, emotional

experiences– responding to the “topic”– successfully guided narration – taking a moral stand (what good is,

what happiness is...)

Example No. 1: LIVING ROOM (Jana, girl, aged 13)

In my grandma’s house, on the ground floor, there is a room that I will always

remember. In that room, playing, I spent the first years of my childhood, and that is

why I have nice memories about it.

I made my first steps in it, spoke my first words and learned to recognise colours and

shapes. In my favourite corner, there was a big blue armchair where my granny often

sat and told me bedtime stories, swinging me gently in her lap. I would also usually fall

asleep there together with my granny, and woke up again the next day in her warm

embrace. In front of it there was a shelf with the picture of me, my mom and dad and a

big lamp. I had always loved that lamp. While I was young, my dream was to grow tall

enough and reach for that lamp. Next to it, there was a big picture of a girl praying for

something. I kept asking granny who was in the picture, but she just smiled

mysteriously. Beneath it was a small table where there were always fresh flowers

picked in our garden.

Today when I enter the room, only the most beautiful memories stir inside of me. I

slowly walk on the black-and-white tiles and come closer to the lamp on the shelf. I

remember my childhood dream and light it with a smile.

Non-linear format of the story

• sequence, meanings and logic of events are irregular, unpredictable or unclear

• events are placed in the future• sudden, dramatic turns, unexpected resolution• there is a tension between text elements (for

example, between the title and the story)• participants are often imaginary creatures or

animals • participants have non-stereotypical thoughts,

feelings and behaviour

Creative components of non-linear format

- existence of unreal- connecting the non-connectable- unusual, non-stereotypical solutions- atypical word meaning, neologisms- multi-perspectiveness- humour- taking a critical attitude (what is not

good, what could be better)

Tanja, aged 14

I drew a bear standing on two legs and playing with a ball. He throws the ball over a very low tree, low as he himself. But that tree in fact is not small, but he is very big, the biggest bear alive. Lonely, without company, he goes to take his ball that he made in order to be big enough for him. The bear, a dangerous animal, and in addition to that if he is the biggest in the world, cannot make friends as some other kinds of animals. He remains alone with his ball.

TCT-DP and narrative about image

The link between evaluation of story creativity & scores obtained on TCT-DP

Analysis of variance factor – the group chosen according to the evaluation of the story by 2 evaluators; dependent variable – total score on TCT.

There is a significant statistical difference between the groups by Mean on TCT-DP.

Table 2: M and S.D. on TCT-DP score for creative and non-creative story writers

Groups N Mean Std. Deviation

Non-creative

Creative

Total

137

14

151

25.9051

35.7143

26.8146

10.96108

12.14292

11.39556

F=9.98 Df=1,149 Mse=122.53 P=0.002

Results of qualitative analysisindicate that…

• essential characteristics of creativity are recognised in larger measure in non-linear format and its components, while the influence of school curriculum as the context in which creativity is encouraged is perceived in the linear.

• significance of broader conception of creativity which is defined as the novel and personally meaningful interpretation of experiences, actions, and events (Beghetto & Kaufman, 2007).

Conclusions• It is difficult to explain why something was evaluated as

“creative”, and something else as “non-creative”.

• It is difficult for different evaluators to have the same relation towards the actual product if they are guided by the defined criteria, because the characteristics of an actual product never exactly match the previously planned categories.

• It is more useful for evaluation of a creative product to clarify the subjective meanings of independent evaluators and to reach an agreement on these meanings for an actual product, than the previously developed criteria for evaluation of creativity.

Some implications for school syllabus

• The need for introducing creative writing as a special subject in, with the aim of nurturing pupils’ creativity.

• Pupils to get introduced with different narrative formats and components of creative writing (the linear narrative format is encouraged in a larger degree in school).