Remote Associates Test

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Remote Associates Test
Purposecreativity test

The Remote Associates Test (RAT) is a creativity test used to determine a human's creative potential. The test typically lasts forty minutes and consists of thirty to forty questions each of which consists of three common stimulus words that appear to be unrelated. The subject must think of a fourth word that is somehow related to each of the first three words.[1] Scores are calculated based on the number of correct questions.

Development

The Remote Associates Test (RAT), adult form was originally published in 1959, and then again in 1962, by Professor Sarnoff Mednick and Martha T. Mednick.[2] In 1971, Mednick and Mednick published the high school form of the RAT.[3] Mednick and Mednick defined the creative thinking process in the test manual as "the forming of associative elements into new combinations which either meet specified requirements or are in someway useful. The more mutually remote the elements of the new combination, the more creative the process or solution."[4][5] Mednick reported a Spearman-Brown reliability of RAT=0.92 in one sample of students at an Eastern women’s college, and 0.91 in a sample of men tested at the University of Michigan.[2]

Layout

The two adult forms of the RAT consist of 30 items each. The respondent is allowed 40 minutes to complete the test. Each item provides three stimulus words that are remote from one another; the respondent is then required to find (via the creative process) another word that is a criteria-meeting mediating link, which can be associated with them all in a meaningful way. The test-taker's score is the number correct.[2]

Example items[2]

Widow, Bite, Monkey Bass, Complex, Sleep Bald, Screech, Emblem Room, Blood, Salts
Spider Deep Eagle Bath

Compound Remote Associates Test

In Mednick’s two college-level versions of the test, each consisting of 30 items, each item can be associated with the solution word in a number of ways.

reliability, but at the price of losing complexity and ending up with a less challenging test, in terms of creativity.[6][7][8]

Example items[6]

Fox, Man, Peep Sleeping, Bean, Trash Dust, Cereal, Fish
Hole Bag Bowl

Validity

According to Mednick, the RAT could be used to test "all fields of creative endeavor" and suggest that those who excel on the RAT will be gifted creatively as well as in the

educational programs. However there is no data that shows that students who have done well on the RAT excel in any particular subject leading to criticism of the validity of the RAT.[1] Worthen and Clark (1971)[9] concluded that the RAT measured sensitivity to language
rather than creative potential. The correct response is often the most common response and does not link the other three words in any conceptual way. Worthen and Clark improved upon the RAT to create the Functionally Remote Associates Test (FRAT) that depends on functional relationships.

Impact

Despite the original intent for the RAT to be used as a measure of individual differences in associative ability, the RAT has fallen out of use as a self-standing test of creativity.[7] This test has been used to assess a wider range of cognitive abilities thought to underline creative thinking.[10][11][12][13][14][15]

Over the years, the RAT has been used to assess various cognitive abilities linked to creativity including insight, memory and problem solving.[10][11][14] It has been used to study the relation between creativity and rapid eye movement sleep (REM),[16] peripheral attention,[17] attention deficit,[18] memory,[14] synesthesia,[19] and mental illness.[20] In a meta analysis,[21] surveying 45 studies concerning creativity and neuroimaging, the RAT is shown as the second most used standardized test, following the Alternate Uses Test[22][23] and placing the Torrance Test of Creativity[24] in third place.

Whether the RAT should be used and interpreted as a measure of associative processing, convergent thinking and/or creative thinking remains an open question on both theoretical and empirical grounds.[7] Currently, the debate surrounding the proper use of the RAT is difficult to settle due to the absence of additional empirical studies examining the internal and external structure of the RAT. Findings from one study[7] provide evidence for the RAT as a convergent thinking test, but much still remains to be understood regarding potential subprocesses of convergent thinking theorized to be assessed by the RAT[2] and how these processes are linked to actual creative behaviors.[7]

International versions

The RAT has been adapted into several versions. Researchers have developed a

Hebrew,[26] Dutch,[27] Italian,[28] Chinese,[29] Japanese[30] and German[31]
versions.

References

  1. ^
    JSTOR 1433810
    .
  2. ^ a b c d e f Mednick, S. A., & Mednick, M.T. (1959,1962). Remote Associates Test, college and adult form.
  3. ^ Mednick, S. A., & Mednick, M.T. (1967). Remote Associates Test, high school form.
  4. PMID 14472013
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  5. ^ Baird, L.L. (1972). [Test review of Remote Associates Test]. In O. K. Buros (Eds.), The seventh mental measurements yearbook.
  6. ^
    PMID 14748508
    .
  7. ^
    doi:10.1037/a0036773
    .
  8. PMID 14620371
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  9. JSTOR 1433966
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  10. ^
    doi:10.7771/1932-6246.1128
    .
  11. ^
    S2CID 143276113
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  12. doi:10.1016/S0191-8869(99)00076-8
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  13. S2CID 141948491
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  14. ^
    PMID 21707211
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  15. PMID 11761311
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  16. PMID 19506253
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  17. doi:10.1016/s0191-8869(02)00104-6
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  18. doi:10.1016/j.paid.2005.11.007
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  19. S2CID 19732833
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  20. PMID 22088366
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  21. S2CID 16666568
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  22. ^ Guilford, J.P. (1967). The nature of human intelligence. New York, NY: McGraw-Hill.
  23. ^ Guilford, J.P., Christensen, P.R., Merrifield, P.R., & Wilson, R.C. (1978). Alternate uses: Manual of instructions and interpretation. Orange, CA: Sheridan Psychological Services.
  24. ^ Torrance, E.P. (1966). Torrance tests of creative thinking: Norms-technical manual (Research ed.). Verbal Tests, Forms A and B. Figural Tests, Forms A and B. Princeton, NJ: Personnel Press.
  25. S2CID 144754147
    .
  26. ^ נבו, ב, לוין, א, Levin, I., & Nevo, B. (1978). An Hebrew Remote — Associates — Test: An Hebrew Version for Assessment of Creativity / מבחן הקשרים רחוקים — כלי לאבחון חשיבה יוצרת. Megamot / מגמות, כ"ד(1), 87-98.
  27. doi:10.1016/j.tsc.2012.02.003
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  28. PMID 26148823
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  29. PMID 29558590
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  30. PMID 24205744
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  31. PMID 29665228
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