Tool No. 4 – Creativity Tool (B. K. Passi.

Passi Test of Creativity (PTC) Hindi/ English, 2006, 2001) Like

Related to intelligence, a great deal of research has been completed, yet it has not led to any
universally accepted definition. Creativity is relatively a 'new area of research and has not been
explored as thoroughly as intelligence and personality.

The definition of creativity which was used as the basis of these tests (PTC) is as below: Creativity is a
multidimentional (verbal and non-verbal) attribute ‘differentially’ distributed among people and
includes chiefly the factors of seeing problems, fluency, flexibility, originality, inquisitiveness and
persistence.

Measurement of Creativity The measurement of creativity poses complex problems. According to

The assessment of creativity through the PTC includes verbal and non-verbal test situations.

General Description The PTC (both in English and Hindi) are developed for the purpose of measuring
creativity in school children. In all six tests, namely: (i) The Seeing Problems Test, (ii)' The Unusual
Uses Test, (iii) The Consequences Test, (iv) The Test of Inquisitiveness, (v) The Square Puzzle Test and
(vi) The Blocks Test of Creativity, are included in the test battery. These tests are classified on the
lines of Torrance (1962) as follows: (a) Tests consisting of verbal tasks, namely, the Seeing Problems
Test, the Unusual Uses Test and the Consequences Test; (b) Test with verbal response tasks using
mostly non-verbal stimuli, namely, the Test of Inquisitiveness, (c) Test consisting of non-verbal tasks
comprising the Sauare Puzzle Test and the Blocks Test of Creativity. The nature of the Tests of
Creativity permitted freedom of responses, both qualitative and quantitative, within specified time
limits, thus ensuring suitability of the tools for measuring divergent thinking. Instructions and
practice items are provided before the actual commencement of the administration of the different
tests.

The subjects are supposed to write their responses in the answer book provided for the purpose. All
the tests are available both in Hindi and English. Responses are acceptable in anyone of the known
languages like English-Hindi etc. A brief and specific outline of all the six tests of creativity is given in
the following captions : (i) The Seeing Problems Test- It is a verbal, and an individual and group
administered test. The Seeing Problems Test was developed by adopting the pattern followed by
Guilford, et al. (1952). It is designed to measure a factor of sensitivity to problems, which is a
component dimension of creativity as described by Guilford. The test is proposed to measure the
ability to comprehend problems concerning the working of simple and handy articles of common
use. The test of Seeing Problems includes four items, namely, Shoes, Pen, Chair, and Post-card. The
maximum time limit for the test is kept eight minutes so that two minutes could be devoted to each
of the items. Instructions to this effect are specifically mentioned in the instruction booklet.

(ii) The Unusual Uses Tests-It is a verbal, and an individual and group administered test. This is
designed on the lines of the Brick Uses Test by Guilford at al. (1952) and Torrance's (1962) the
Unusual Uses Tests. This test includes the names of things which could be used for numerous
purposes. It includes only those items which have proximity with the psychological and physical
environment of the subjects. The test of Unusual Uses includes two items, namely, Piece of Cloth
and Bottle. The subjects are expected to write down as many interesting and unusual responses to
each stimulus article (item) as they can. The maximum time limit for the test is kept eight minutes so
that four minutes could be devoted to each of the items. Instructions to this effect are specifically
mentioned in the instruction booklet.' (iii) The Consequences Test - It is a verbal, and an individual
and group administered test. The pattern of the test is based on the test of Guilford, et al. (1952)
and Torrance (1962). The test measures the dimensions of fluency, originality and creativity
(creativity score is the sum of the scores of fluency and originality). The Consequences Test includes
four items, namely, "If human beings start flying like birds"; "If all houses start flying"; "If all people
become mad"; and "If all females become males", The maximum time limit for the test is kept eight
minutes so that two minutes could be devoted to each of the items. Instructions to this effect are
specifically mentioned in the instruction booklet. (iv) The Test of Inquisitiveness - It is a verbal, and
an individual and group administered test. In order to provide an unfamiliar and novel situation, the
test includes a relatively less familiar object providing sound and movement as the test content, a
metronome. In order to provide a situation for greater inquisitiveness a play card bearing in
capita/letters “A FEW CHILDREN CANNOT TOUCH IT”, is displayed alongwith the metronome in a
working condition. The subjects are expected to imagine and write as many questions as possible
within six minutes. They are told that the questions should be mutually exclusive to one another in
contents and meaning. The test, thus, presents the non-verbal stimuli but the responses are to be
accepted in writing in any of the languages--English, Hindi or Mother tongue. Instructions to this
effect are specifically mentioned in the instruction booklet.

(v) The Square Puzzle Test (Test of Persistency) - It is a non-verbal and an individually administered
test. The rationale, for including the dimension of persistency in creativity was, firstly based on the
comments made by Eysenck (1947) about the significance of persistency for the effective use of a
person's ability and secondly, on the plea of Fernald (1912) that "The success or failure of an
individual depends largely on the ability to endure and continue to strive for the sake of
achievement inspite of fatigue and discouragement.” The present test aims at measuring persistency
with the help of a performance test. A difficult situation is set-up for the subjects with the help of a
puzzle-The Square Puzzle Test. The Square Puzzle Test consists of five identical right-angled triangles
and five identical quadrilaterals made-up of plastic. Instructions are clearly laid down for
constructing a square by using all the ten given plastic pieces without leaving any gap for overlay in
between the pieces. The response square can be constructed in more than one way so that if any
subject happened to construct the square before the maximum time of 40 minutes, he is asked to
take a chance to rearrange the pieces in different combination to get a square again. The score of
persistency is considered as the time taken in complete minutes on the task. Instructions to this
effect are specifically mentioned in the instruction booklet. (vi) The Blocks Test of Creativity (BTC) –
It is a non-verbal and an individually administered test. The Blocks Test of Creativity is a performance
test and is administered individually. This test chiefly follows the pattern of the Lowenfeld Mosaic
Test LMT (1952) which was described by Ames and Frances (1962) as useful tool for providing
greater opportunity to observe individuals engaged in performing dynamic designs. The Blocks Test
of Creativity consists of nineteen identical cubes and twelve diagonally cut semicubes. The material
provided two types of blocks and three types of surfaces namely, squares, rectangles and right-
angled triangles. The six surfaces of the cubes are painted in red (top), blue (bottom), yellow (face),
green back), white (Ieft side) and black (right side). The twelve diagonally cut semicubes have in all
twenty four right-angled triangular surfaces twenty four squared surfaces and twelve rectangular
surfaces. These twelve semicubes are so cut that the four triangular faces of each colour can be
obtained. The rectangular faces obtained as a result of cutting the cubes diagonally are painted
brown colour. In this way, the test material employed a colour scheme consisting of seven different
colours. The subjects have the option of using two types of blocks, three types of surface, and seven
types of colours in different combinations simultaneously. Besides this, a 10" x 10" wooden board
covered with a white paper is also provided to be used as a base for assembling the blocks to make
designs or structures.

The subjects have to produce as many interesting and unusual designs as can be possible in ten
minutes. They are further required to write down the headings (titles) of designs. While students are
busy in constructing designs, the investigator is simultaneously drawing the figures of these designs,
so that this record may be used for scoring and analysis of the responses at a later stage. The scores
of fluency, flexibility, originality and creativity (creativity score is the sum of the scores of fluency,
flexibility and originality) are proposed to be scored from the designs and structures developed by
the students. Instructions to this effect are specifically 93 mentioned in the instruction booklet. The
material for non-verbal tests of the Square Puzzle Test and the Block Tests of Creativity is separately
available with the publisher. But in case of the test of Inquisitiveness the metronome may be
available from any laboratory of Psychology. For the purpose of standardization of the PTC, the usual
steps of preparing the preliminary draft, item analysis, reliability, validity, norms, etc. were
undertaken and are being described below.

Reliability The test-retest reliability was found to be most workable with the PTC. The split-half
technique was also employed with tests having more than one item. Parallel form method was not
applicable since parallel form tests were not prepared. The K-R formula could not be used for the
simple reason that the nature of responses on the test items were not available in the form of
proportion to correct responses. It was, however, thought worthwhile to test internal consistency in
terms of inter-test correlations. Test-retest reliability coefficients for the PTC and the composite
scores of creativity were established on a sample of sixty students. The age of the sample ranged
from 15 to 17 +. A gap of a fortnight was kept between the first administration and second
administration. The stability of the PTC was determined through t-test of significance of difference
between mean scores of first and second administrations. Split-half reliability method could be used
with only three verbal tests, namely, the Seeing Problems Test, the Unusual Uses Test and the
Consequences Test. The results were obtained by employing the Spearman Brown formula. The
reliability results are given in the following Table 3.6.

TABLE - 3.6 Test Retest Reliability Coefficients and Split Half Reliability Coefficients of the PTC Having
More Than One Item Sr. No. Name of the Test Test-Retest Reliability Split-Half Reliability r11 I Seeing
Problems Test 0·68 0·88 II Unusual Uses Test 0·97 0·51 III Consequences Test 0·71 0·80 IV Test of
Inquisitiveness 0·74 - V Square Puzzle Test 0·91 - VI Blocks Test of Creativity 0·83 - Creativity (Total)
a·92 –

The review of reliability literature helped to evaluate the present findings. Torrance (1963) found the
test-retest reliability of the Minnesota Tests of Creative Thinking as 0·80 with the stability of the part
scores to be in the vicinity of 0·65 to 0·70. Wodtka (1964) reported reliability coefficients ranging
from 0·28 to 0·75 for verbal creative test battery. Hoepfner (1967) reported test-retest reliability
coefficients of the Torrance's Tests of Creative Thinking which ranged from 0·71 o 0·93 over two
weeks interval and from 0·35 to 0·73 over three years interval. Moss and Duenk (1967) estimated
the reliability of the Minnesota Tests of Creative Thinking which ranged from 0·68 to 0·83. In the
light of above results and related literature it seems that the PTC should be considered as a reliable
tool.

Validity

The concurrent i.e., convergent and divergent and factorial validity methods were employed to
validate the PTC. Validity studies were conducted on the sample of sixty subjects. The scores of
subjects on the PTC were taken separately and collectively; and the scores on the Things Done-On-
Your-Own check-list, non-verbal intelligence, verbal intelligence, and achievement, were also
obtained. Thus, four external criteria were employed to see the validity of the PTC. These criteria
were:

(i) The things Done — On-Your-Own check-list adopted from Torrance's (1962) check-list
(ii) (ii) Non-verbal intelligence (The Raven's 1960, Standard Progressive Matrices).
(iii) (iii) Verbal Intelligence (The Jalota's 1964; Group Test of General Mental Ability), and
(iv) (iv) Achievement (Common examination marks in school subjects).

The concurrent validity results are of two types. Firstly, convergent validity, that is fairly
high correlations with other tests of the same trait and with measures of behaviour that
should be associated with it. (refer Adams, 1966, p. 138), against the criterion of the
Things-Done-On-Your-Own, which was assumed to measure creative behaviour, was
worked out. Secondly, the results relate to the discriminant validity, 96 that is low
correlations with the tests from which it is supposed to differ (refer Adam, 1966, p. 138)
against the criteria of non-verbal intelligence, verbal intelligence and achievement.

Scoring
The responses to the six tests of the PTC are of divergent nature. It is not possible to
employ ordinary stencil scoring system because the content and nature of responses are
not known in advance. Consequently, for each tool of measurement, a separate system
of scoring had to be devised with the help of a panel of judges comprising eleven post-
graduate students of the Department of Education. They were asked to give their
opinions about relevance and categorization of responses to different tests or items
wherever and whenever necessary. Besides this, the investigator himself analysed the
relevance and categorization of responses and, in case of conflicts, discussions with the
judges were held in order to take a final decision. The detailed scoring procedure for
each test's given in the separate Booklet namely Scoring Key for PTC. The Passi Test of
Creativity (PTC) provides fifteen different types of variables related to creativity. These
are. Seeing Problems (SP) ; Unusual Uses Fluency (UF) ; Unusual Uses Flexibility (UX) ;
Unusual Uses Originality (UO) ; Unusual Uses Creativity (UC) ; Consequences Fluency (CF)
; Consequences Originality (CO); Consequences Creativity (CC) ; Inquisitiveness (INO) ;
Persistency (PER) ; Blocks Fluency (BF) ; Blocks Flexibility (BX) ; Blocks Originality (BO) ;
Blocks Creativity (BC) and Total Creativity (CY).

Norms
Based upon a sample of 600 students, the scores of creativity on the battery of the PTC
were subjected to the descriptive statistic in terms of mean, median, mode, standard
deviation, skewness and kurtosis. Percentile norms of the total scores of the tests of
Seeing problems, unusual uses, consequences, inquisitiveness, square puzzle and blocks
test of creativity as well as the total scores on the PTC were worked out for grades IX.