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Creative thinking from an information processing perspective: A new approach to Mednick's theory of associative hierarchies

Coney, J. and Serna, P. (2011) Creative thinking from an information processing perspective: A new approach to Mednick's theory of associative hierarchies. The Journal of Creative Behavior, 29 (2). pp. 109-132.

Link to Published Version: http://dx.doi.org/10.1002/j.2162-6057.1995.tb00740...
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Abstract

Mednick (1962) proposed a theory of the creative thinking process which asserts that in generating associative responses to a stimulus, creative individuals are characterized by a flatter associative hierarchy than are less creative individuals. In order to assess this idea, an associative priming paradigm was used to measure latencies to lexical decisions primed by associations of low, medium, or high strength. Mednick's theory was not supported. However, it was found that the responses of creative subjects were uniformly less facilitated at all levels of associative strength. The set of associative strengths employed in the experiment may not have ranged low enough to provide a realistic test of creative processes. If so, then the obtained findings may be consistent with Mednick's theory as it applies to the upper end of the associative continuum.

Item Type: Journal Article
Murdoch Affiliation(s): School of Psychology
Publisher: Wiley-Blackwell
Copyright: © 1995 Creative Education Foundation
URI: http://researchrepository.murdoch.edu.au/id/eprint/33442
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