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Mental Imagery and CreativeThinkingMarí Angeles González a , Alfredo Campos b & MaríaJosé Pérez ca University of A Coruñab University of Santiago de Compostelac University of VigoPublished online: 02 Apr 2010.

To cite this article: Marí Angeles González , Alfredo Campos & María JoséPérez (1997) Mental Imagery and Creative Thinking, The Journal of Psychology:Interdisciplinary and Applied, 131:4, 357-364, DOI: 10.1080/00223989709603521

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The Journal of Psychology, 1991, I31(4), 351-364

Mental Imagery and Creative Thinking

MAR~A ANGELES GONZALEZ University of A Coruiia

ALFRED0 CAMPOS University of Santiago de Compostela

University of E g o M A R ~ A JOSE PEREZ

ABSTRACT. Relationships between imagery and creative thinking were evaluated in a sample of 560 high school students. The Spatial Test of Primary Mental Abilities (Thur- stone & Thurstone, 1989) was used to evaluate imaging ability; the Gordon Test of Visu- al Imagery Control (Richardson, 1969) was used to evaluate image control; and the Tor- rance Tests of Creative Thinking (Torrance & Ball, 1992) was used to evaluate creativity. Significant correlations were detected between imaging ability and creative thinking. Flu- encey, originality, and resistance to premature closure correlations were stronger for stu- dents with high IQs than for those with low IQs. Analyses of variance indicated that imag- ing ability had significant effects on fluency, originality, elaboration, and resistance to premature closure.

THE EXISTENCE OF A RELATIONSHIP between mental imagery and cre- ativity has been suggested by various authors (Durio, 1975; Martindale, 1990; Paivio, 197 1; Richardson, 1969). However, empirical studies designed to confirm such a relationship have not produced conclusive results. Most studies have been carried out with nongifted individuals, usually students. Qpically, those studies have involved a search for a correlation between scores on tests of imaging abil- ity and tests for creativity. In some cases, the influence of imaging ability on cre- ativity has been evaluated.

Schmeidler (1965). in one of the pioneer studies in this field, found a slight but statistically significant positive correlation between scores obtained on ques- tionnaires of visual imaging ability and those of creativity. Individuals who were strong image makers tended to obtain high creativity scores, whereas weak image makers obtained either high or low creativity scores.

Address correspondence to Aljredo Campos. University of Santiago de Compostela, Dpto. Psicologia Social y Bhica, 15706 Santiago de Compostela, Spain.

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358 The Journal of Psychology

Subsequent studies have evaluated imaging ability on the basis of tests of creative attitude. For example, Khatena (1 975a) found that an individual’s degree of autonomy was positively correlated with a creative self-perception score. Khatena ( 1975b) also detected significant correlations between self-perceived creativity and visual, auditory, and tactile imagery vividness and found that indi- viduals who made strong images typically had higher self-perceived creativity than weak image makers. An analysis of variance, however, showed that the dif- ferences were not statistically significant.

Campos and Gonzhlez (1993a, 1993b) found weak but significant correla- tions between imaging ability (as evaluated by questionnaires and performance tests) and performance on tests of creative attitude. In both studies, the influence of imaging ability on creativity was only slight. In a later study, Campos and Gonzalez ( 1995) found that imaging ability (whether evaluated by questionnaires or by performance tests) had a significant influence on creativity. In general, individuals who obtained high imaging ability scores obtained high creativity scores; as in previous studies, however, imaging ability explained only a small proportion of the variance in creativity.

Other studies have used scores on tests of creative thinking or divergent thinking as a measure of creativity. Ernest (1976) found that the score on the Alternate Use Test was weakly but significantly correlated with both imaging ability (whether measured by performance tests or questionnaires) and with image control. Forisha (1 978) detected significant correlations in women but not in men between imaging ability and scores on the Unusual Uses Test. Campos and Perez (1989) found that the Torrance creative thinking variables of fluency, flexibility, and elaboration were all significantly correlated with imaging ability scores. Furthermore, participants with strong and weak imaging ability differed in scores obtained for all three variables.

Other researchers have found significant correlations between imaging abil- ity measures and certain measures of creative thinking. Durndell and Wetherick (1976), for example, found that image control (but not imaging ability) was sig- nificantly correlated with certain measures of divergent thinking. Rhodes (198 1) found that auditory imaging ability was significantly correlated with a number of Torrance creative thinking variables (flexibility, originality, elaboration, and total score); visual imaging ability, by contrast, was significantly correlated only with elaboration and total score (the remaining correlations being either very weak or negative). Subsequently, Parrot and Strongman (1985) found that imagery vivid- ness was negatively correlated with figural fluency and positively correlated with elaboration; image control was significantly correlated only with verbal elabora- tion.

Shaw and Belmore (1982-83) found that scores on the VVIQ were signifi- cantly correlated with scores on the Circle Test (Torrance, 1974) and the Just Suppose Test (Torrance, 1974). and likewise that scores on the VM (an image memory test) were significantly correlated with scores on the Circle Test. In view

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GonzBlez, Carnpos, & PCrez 359

of evidence suggesting that creative thinking abilities are of limited variability in individuals with intelligence below a certain threshold, Shaw and DeMers (1986) took two groups (one of participants with normal IQs and another of participants with IQs greater than 115) and looked for correlations between measures of imagery (imaging ability, image control, and visual image memory) and scores obtained on the verbal and figural subsections of the Torrance test. The results indicated that imagery characteristics were closely related to originality and flex- ibility, and that such relationships were more frequent in individuals with high IQs than in individuals with normal intelligence.

As is apparent from these results, the nature of the relationship between imagery and creativity has yet to be clearly defined. In the present study, and in view of the evidence to suggest that the relationship between imagery and cre- ativity may be influenced by intelligence, we investigated the relationship between creative thinking and the capacity to generate and manipulate mental images in a group of students classified by intelligence.

Method

Participants and Instruments

Participants were 560 high school students (236 boys, 324 girls) between 13 and 18 years old (mean, 15.6 years). All the students completed the D-48 Intel- ligence Test (Anstey, 1990), the Spatial Test of Primary Mental Abilities (Thur- stone & Thurstone, 1989); the Gordon Test of Visual Imagery Control (Richard- son, 1969), and Figural Form A of Torrance Tests of Creative Thinking (Torrance & Ball, 1992).

The D-48 Test is a general intelligence test that evaluates a person’s capaci- ty to conceptualize and apply systematic reasoning to new problems. It contains 48 drawings of sets of dominoes arranged in logical series, with each set includ- ing a domino with one blank face (the missing value) that the individual must fill in.

The Spatial Test of the Primary Mental Abilities (PMA; Thurstone & Thur- stone, 1989) measures a person’s capacity to imagine and conceive objects in three dimensions, that is, spatiovisual ability, which is presumably closely relat- ed to imaging ability. This test contains 20 elements, each of which consists of a two-dimensional geometric figure and six similar figures; those taking the test must select the figures that are identical (regardless of rotations) to the master.

The Gordon Test of Visual Imagery Control (Richardson, 1969) evaluates a person’s capacity to control mental image formation. It contains 12 items for which the person is asked to imagine an object and subsequently to imagine a series of transformations of that object and its context. The items are arranged in increasing order of difficulty. The more objects the participant is capable of imagining, the higher the score.

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360 The Journal of Psychology

The Torrance Tests of Creative Thinking (Torrance & Ball, 1992) contains two verbal sections and two figural sections. Each verbal section has six subsec- tions, and each figural section, three subsections. We used Figural Form A, per- mitting evaluation of fluency, originality, elaboration, abstractness of titles, and resistance to premature closure.

Results

Participants were classified first according to intelligence (IQ > 120 = high; IQ < 120 = low). Table 1 contains the results of a Pearson analysis of correlation between imagery (PMA imaging ability and Gordon image control) and Torrance creative thinking variables (fluency, originality, abstractness of titles, elaboration, and resistance to premature closure) for each IQ group and for the sample as a whole.

Imagery (whether PMA imaging ability or Gordon image control) was gen- erally correlated with fluency, originality, and resistance to premature closure. In many cases, the correlations were weak but significant. Furthermore, in almost all cases the correlation between imaging ability and the creativity variables was stronger for students with high IQs than for students with low IQs. That not all of the aforementioned creativity variables were significantly correlated with imagery in students with high IQs is probably attributable to the relatively small sample size (n = 88).

TABLE 1 Pearson Correlation Between Torrance Creative-Thinking Variables and Imagery

(PMA Imaging Ability or Gordon Imagery Control)

PMA Variable IQ>120 IQ<120 Total

Gordon IQ>120 IQc120 Total M SD

F .18 .14** .17** 0 .36** .18** .22** A .09 .07 .08 E .I3 .03 .08 R .33** .12* .19** Total M 32.80 13.45 22.53 SD 7.66 6.99 12.08

.20 .09 .11* 19.27 5.77

.30* .11* .14** 13.63 4.79

.06 .06 .06 10.84 4.73

.01 .12* .11* 6.06 1.61

.26* .02 .07 9.39 2.91

11.62 7.71 8.93 .I6 2.04 2.46

Note. F = fluency. 0 = originality. A = abstractness of titles. E = elaboration. R = resistance to pre- mature closure. *p < .01. " p < .001.

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Gonzalez, Campos. & Pirez 361

To investigate whether imagery characteristics influenced creative thinking, we carried out a multivariate analysis of variance (MANOVA) with two factors (PMA imaging ability, levels high and low, and Gordon image control, levels high and low) and all five Torrance creative thinking variables as dependent vari- ables. Table 2 contains the creativity scores at each level of each factor.

Participants with high and low Gordon image control did not differ signifi- cantly in creativity, F(5, 552) = 1.73, p > .05; Wilks’s h = .98. However, PMA imaging ability was a significant source of variance in creativity variables, F(5, 552) = 6.38, p < .001, Wilks’s h = .95. Subsequent univariate analyses revealed that PMA imaging ability was a significant source of variance in fluency, F( l , 556) = 19.03, p < .001, originality, F( 1,556) = 28.99, p c .001, elaboration, F( 1, 556) = 4.22, p < .05, and resistance ta premature closure, F( 1,556) = 17.58, p < .001. None of the possible interactions were significant.

Discussion

The results of the present study indicate that imaging ability and image con- trol are significantly correlated with various aspects of creative thinking. How- ever, the correlations detected were generally weak. Similar results have been obtained in previous studies of the relationships between imagery and creative thinking (Campos & PCrez, 1989; Ernest, 1976; Parrot & Strongman, 1985; Shaw & DeMers, 1986), and between imagery and other measures of creativity (Campos & Gonzalez, 1993a, 1993b; Khatena, 1975a, 1975b; Schmeidler, 1965).

In the high-IQ group, the observed correlations were generally higher than in the low-IQ group and over the whole sample. This is in accordance with the results of Shaw and DeMers (1986). The results of the present study and those of previous studies (Campos & Gonzilez, 1994; Shaw & DeMers, 1986) clearly demostrate the importance of controlling for intelligence in studies aimed at characterization of the relationship between imaging ability and creativity (see Campos & Gonzilez, 1994; Shaw, 1985; Shaw & DeMers, 1986).

In the present study, PMA imaging ability had a significant influence on cre- ativity. Good imagers scored significantly better than poor imagers on Torrance tests of fluency, originality, elaboration, and resistance to premature closure. These results are similar to those of previous studies (Campos & Gonzilez, 1993a, 1993b, 1995; Campos & PCrez, 1989; Shaw, 1987; Schmeidler, 1965) and in accordance with research suggesting that imagery plays an important role in creative processes (Forisha, 1978; Shaw, 1987; Shaw & Belmore, 1982-83; Shaw & DeMers, 1986).

However, good and poor imagers did not differ significantly in their abstract- ness of titles scores. This was the only Torrance creativity variable that did not show at least one significant correlation (in at least one of the groups studied) with PMA imaging ability or Gordon image control. A multivariate analysis of variance indicated that neither Gordon image control nor the PMA x Gordon

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TABL

E 2

Mean T

orra

nce

Cre

ativ

ity V

aria

ble Scores

for

Indi

vidu

als,

Cla

ssili

ed b

y PM

A I

mag

ing

Abi

lity

or b

y G

ordo

n Im

ager

y C

ontr

ol

Mea

sure

F

0

A

E

R M

SD

M SD

M SD

M SD

M SD

Hig

h PM

A

20.3

2 6.

17

14.7

4 5.

45

11.3

4 4.

96

6.18

1.

68

9.91

3.

07

Low

PM

A 18

.30

5.26

12

.62

3.85

10

.38

4.47

5.

95

1.57

8.

92

2.66

Low

Gor

don

19.0

3 5.

35

13.3

4 4.

60

10.6

7 4.

75

5.92

1.

46

9.24

2.

67

Hig

h G

ordo

n 19

.81

6.57

14

.29

5.19

11

.22

4.66

6.

38

1.86

9.

73

3.43

Nor

e. F

= fl

uenc

y. 0 =

ori

gina

lity.

A =

abstractness o

f titl

es. E

= el

abor

atio

n. R

= re

sista

nce t

o pr

emat

ure c

losu

re.

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Gonzalez, Campos, & Ptrez 363

interaction had a significant effect on the Torrance creativity variables considered. Further research on the relationship between imagery and creativity is need-

ed before any general conclusions can be reached. As has been pointed out pre- viously (Campos & Gonziilez, 1995), one interesting approach might be to carry out studies with individuals of recognized creative ability (though the difficulties inherent in such research are of course considerable). The results of such studies might allow confirmation of a relationship whose existence has been supported to date only by self-reports and weak experimental evidence.

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