S.A. Mednick (1962) proposed a theory of creativity suggesting that highly creative individuals can produce more word associations to a stimulus than less creative individuals. Numerous studies have supported this theory using the Remote Associates Test (RAT) as the measure of creativity. Additionally, some studies have suggested that high-frequency words elicit more word associations overall than low-frequency words, and concrete words elicit more associations overall than abstract words. The current study further investigated Mednick’s theory by (a) creating controlled lists of stimuli that can better uncover how word type (abstract versus concrete) and word frequency (high versus low) affect the number of word associations produced to a stimulus, (b) including several creativity tasks besides the RAT, and (c) examining the role of other factors in creative thinking, including intelligence and verbal fluency. Participants first completed a word association task with four different types of words (i.e., high-frequency concrete, low-frequency concrete, high-frequency abstract, and low-frequency abstract), and then completed a variety of tasks, including several creativity tasks. Participants were categorized as highly creative or less creative based on a composite measure of the creativity tasks. Highly creative individuals produced more associations overall, supporting Mednick’s theory. Furthermore, high-frequency stimuli resulted in higher overall associative responses compared to low-frequency stimuli, but contrary to previous research, no differences emerged for concrete versus abstract stimuli. There was also no difference in intelligence scores between the two creativity groups, and only a marginally significant difference in verbal fluency scores.

中文翻译：

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重新审视 Mednick (1962) 的创造力理论与创造力的综合测量：刺激类型对单词联想产生的影响

SA Mednick (1962) 提出了一种创造力理论，表明高度创造力的人比创造力低的人可以对刺激产生更多的词语联想。许多研究都支持这一理论，使用远程关联测试 (RAT) 作为创造力的衡量标准。此外，一些研究表明，高频词总体上比低频词引起更多的词联想，具体词总体上比抽象词引起更多的联想。目前的研究通过（a）创建受控的刺激列表来进一步研究梅德尼克的理论，这些列表可以更好地揭示词类型（抽象与具体）和词频（高与低）如何影响对刺激产生的词关联数量，（b）包括RAT之外的几个创意任务，(c) 检查其他因素在创造性思维中的作用，包括智力和语言流利程度。参与者首先完成了四种不同类型的词（即高频具体、低频具体、高频抽象和低频抽象）的词关联任务，然后完成了多种任务，包括几个创造性任务. 根据对创造力任务的综合衡量，参与者被归类为高度创造性或创造性较低。具有高度创造力的人总体上产生了更多的联想，支持梅德尼克的理论。此外，与低频刺激相比，高频刺激会导致更高的整体联想反应，但与之前的研究相反，具体刺激与抽象刺激没有差异。