E. Paul Torrance

A Longitudinal Examination of the Fourth Grade Slump in Creativity

From September 1959 to May 1964 the children enrolled in a university and a public elementary school were tested each year with a battery of tests of creative thinking. Relatively complete data were obtained for 350 children. A random sample of 100 cases was drawn from this pool for further analysis. All raw scores were converted to standard or T-scores based on fifth grade comparison group norms. The results showed that when studied longitudinally, there are statistically significant slumps in fluency, flexibility, originality and elaboration. Although from 45 to 61 percent of the subjects showed significant slumps (losses of five or more standard score points), there were a few who showed significant increases ranging from 11 percent on fluency to 38 percent on elaboration. There is a general recovery trend in the fifth grade but from 16 to 29 percent show decreases of five or more standard score points between the third and fifth grades. Many children end up with lower scores in the fifth grade than they attained in the third grade. The proportion ranges from 21 percent on elaboration to 52 percent on fluency. In general there is the strongest tendency for growth in elaboration and the weakest In fluency.

Predicting the Creativity of Elementary School Children (1958-80) —and the Teacher Who "Made a Difference"

This is a preliminary report of 22 years of research on predicting the adolescent and adult creative achievements of elementary school children and some of the things their teachers did that &dquo;made a difference.&dquo; Beginning in 1958 and continuing through 1964, all pupils enrolled in two Minneapolis elementary schools were administered various batteries of the Torrance Tests of Creatiue Thinking each year. Scores over a three-year period were combined to yield a Creativity Index. In 1979-80, follow-up data of adolescent and adult creative behavior were obtained from 220 (118 women and 102 men) of the 400 originally tested, for three or more years. Five indexes of creative achievement were derived from questionnaire responses: 1. number of high school creative achievements, 2. number of posthigh school creative achievements, 3. number of &dquo;creative style of life&dquo; achievements, 4. ratings of the quality of the highest creative achieve-

Your Style of Learning and Thinking, Forms a and B Preliminary Norms, Abbreviated Technical Notes, Scoring Keys, and Selected References

to the current interest in right--left cerebrzzl hemisphere learning modes, that we feel an exception is justified. Though much is not fully clear in this area, it is possible that early and rapid communication of this sort will advance research in an important area. For this reason, we have also included the subsequent bibliography. Publication of this test does not constitute permission to use it; such permission should be sought by writing Dr. Torrance, %

Are the Torrance Tests of Creative Thinking Biased Against or in Favor of "Disadvantaged" Groups?.

Efforts to identify gifted children among disadvantaged and ethnic minority groups have been seriously handicapped by the lack of tests and screening procedures that will give such children a fair chance to perform in a gifted manner. A variety of studies extending over many years have shown that disadvantaged children, especially blacks, usually perform quite poorly on most measures of intelligence, cognitive development, and educational achievement (e.g., Bloom, Davis & Hess, 1965; Deutsch, Katz and Jensen, 1968; Frost and Hawkes, 1970; Kennedy, Van d e Riet and White, 1963). T h e tests used in these studies have rather generally involved experiences common among middle class, rather advantaged children in our society but uncommon among more disadvantaged and culturally different groups. Such tests have required that t h e child being tested assume t h e frame of reference of t h e examiner or test makers and have limited t h e extent to which he can draw upon his own experiences.

The Role of Creativity in Identification of the Gifted and Talented

Throughout history, a common characteristic of those who have made outstanding artistic and scientific contributions, social improvements, technological breakthroughs, and the like has been their creativity. The importance of identifying and developing creative talent has been argued by historians such as Toynbee (1964), futurists (Polak, 1973), scientists (Seaborg, 1963), educators (Torrance, 1979). Today there are additional reasons why it is necessary to give a fair chance to creative children, young people, and adults. We are living in an age of increasing rates of change, depleted natural resources, threats of nuclear war, interdependence, and destandardization. All of these forces require us to utilize increased ingenuity and creativity. These matters are widely acknowledged facts, yet legislators, educational leaders, and even scholars of gifted education express a peculiar ambivalence about using creativity

Prediction of Adult Creative Achievement Among High School Seniors.

There continues to be much controversy concerning what test results or other indicators should be considered in predicting the adult creative achievement of high school seniors. Issues concerning the prediction of adult creative achievement are especially critical for high school seniors, since it is at this stage that colleges, universities, foundations, and other agencies decide who shall be admitted to higher education and what kind of financial support should be given. It is also at this time that students themselves make decisions concerning their aspirations.

Insights about creativity: Questioned, rejected, ridiculed, ignored

The intent of the author was to identify some of his insights from creativity research which have not been widely accepted, describe what generated the insight, summarize the evidence in support of the insight, and to state what is at stake. It was soon evident that this was a larger task than could be accomplished in an article. The author stated the problem, discussed two examples, and identified fifteen of these insights. A few of them are supported by considerable research evidence but none of them have yet come into acceptance and widespread practice. Others are supported by enough research to convince the author but not enough to convince very many others. The author urges other investigators to examine these insights and to test the validity of some of them. New instruments will have to be created and developed. Longitudinal studies, statistical and qualitative, will be necessary. Experimental studies will also be needed. The author hopes that investigators will be intrigued by some of these insights and will be compelled to investigate them further. Who knows what a new generation of creative investigators will produce?

Influence of Dyadic Interaction on Creative Functioning

Two experiments, one with college students and the other with 5-yr.-old children as Ss, were conducted to test the hypothesis that dyadic interaction will facilitate the production of original ideas among individuals. 20 college Ss were administered 4 tasks from the Torrance Tests of Creative Thinking under standard conditions; 20 others randomly assigned to dyads from the same population were tested under the same conditions except that they were encouraged to hitchhike on one anothers ideas but forbidden to repeat an idea produced by the other. Similarly, 24 5-yr.-olds were tested alone and 22 of their randomly selected classmates were tested in dyads. Results indicate that dyadic interaction facilitated originality of thinking but the differences are stronger for the college students than for the 5-yr.-olds.

SOME CREATIVITY AND STYLE OF LEARNING AND THINKING CORRELATES OF GUGLIELMINO'S SELF-DIRECTED LEARNING READINESS SCALE

In an exploratory study of the construct validity of Guglielminos Self-directed Learning Readiness Scale, 41 graduate students in education were administered the following criterion measures: Sounds and Images (Originality), Thinking Creatively About the Future (Fluency and Originality), Schaefers Simile Test (Originality), Templetons Photoanalogies Test, Gershon and Guilfords Possible Jobs test, Khatena and Torrances What Kind of Person Are You? and Something About Myself, and Torrances Style of Learning and Thinking test, Product-moment coefficients of correlation between the total Self-directed Learning Readiness Scale scores and the criterion measures supported the construct validity of the Self-directed Learning Readiness Scale with statistically significant relationships for all three of the originality measures (rs = .52, .38, and .52), the measure of ability to produce analogies (r = .48), creative achievements and experiences (r = .71), and the right and left hemisphere styles of learning (rs = .43 and —.34, respectively).

Career Patterns and Peak Creative Achievements of Creative High School Students Twelve Years Later.

Dr. Torrance is head of Department of Educational Psychology, University of Georgia, Athens, Ga. As a rather clear profile of the characteristics of the creative child unfolded during the 1960’s, there arose widespread skepticism and opposition to concerns about the more humane treatment of creative children and about a more creative kind of education in general. The skeptics expressed doubt that the children we have identified as creative will produce useful creative achievements as adults. The opponents contended that creative children such as those identified in our research