The Torrance Tests of Creative Thinking - Figural or Verbal: Which One Should We Use?

Abstract

Kim’s CATs framework (2016) identified creative climates (C), attitudes (A) and thinking (T) skills for innovation. Creativity can be measured by testing and non-testing methods. Testing methods include creativity tests for climate, attitude and thinking skills. Among the creativity tests available, two versions of the Torrance Tests of Creative Thinking - Figural and Verbal (TTCT-F and V) are most commonly used. I examined the relationships between the two versions as well as their reliability across gender. From preschool children to adults, 994 participants’ scores on the two versions were used. The results showed that scores on the two versions are significantly related, yet TTCT-F is a more comprehensive, reliable and valid measure of creativity than the TTCT-V.

The association of creativity, creative components of personality, and innovation among nursing students in Taiwan

“…Creativity can be measured with the Torrance Tests of Creative Thinking (TTCT) [18], which are a result of Guilford's hypothesis that an individual's creativity results from the ability to use divergent thinking [19]. The Torrance tests measure both verbal (TTCT-V) and figural (TTCT-F) creativity and are correlated with divergent thinking; they have been shown to be a valid assessment of creativity [20,21] and have been translated into more than 35 languages [22,23]. Guilford suggested divergent thinking was comprised of fluency, flexibility, originality, and elaboration [19].…”

“…Guilford suggested divergent thinking was comprised of fluency, flexibility, originality, and elaboration [19]. Fluency is the ability to generate diverse ideas about a problem quickly, flexibility is the ability to generate diverse ideas to solve many problems, originality is the ability to generate novel ideas, and elaboration is the ability to expand on an idea [18,21,24]. Scores on the TTCT can be used to indicate nursing students' abilities to use strategies and processes to connect ideas and organize creative thoughts.…”

“…The TTCT-V contains six activities; each activity begins with a picture and the student responds with a written description of the picture. Three subscales are used for scoring: fluency, which is the number of ideas related to the picture, originality, which is the uniqueness of the response, and flexibility, which is the variety of different ideas [21]. The range for the subscales scores of fluency, flexibility, and originality are 0-50, 0-26, and 0-100, respectively; total score ranges from 0-176.…”

“…The TTCT-F is comprised of three activities: picture construction, picture completion, and repeated figures of lines and circles. Four subscales score each activity on the TTCT-F: fluency, originality, and flexibility, as describe for the TTCT-V, and elaboration, which involves rich imagery and abstraction [21]. The range for the subscale scores of fluency, flexibility, originality, and elaboration are 0-57, 0-35, 0-114, and 0-171, respectively; total score ranges from 0-377.…”

Longitudinal Study Of The Creative Abilities

“…Theoreticians all over the world argue considering this matter. Widespread application of the creativity tests (Torrance, 2000(Torrance, , 2008Bart et al, 2017;Furnham & Bachtiar, 2008;Kim, 2006Kim, , 2017Jaarsveld, & Lachtmann, 2017) goes along with a serious criticism of this approach (Baer, 2011;Batey et al, 2010;Kim, 2006;Silvia, 2008).…”