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Abstract
The creative character of human message behavior is at once ubiquitous and elusive. Our talk is routinely novel, and yet our understanding of the processes that give rise to such creativity is in its infancy. Moreover, everyday experience suggests that some people are simply better at “thinking on their feet” than are others. The current studies sought to ascertain whether people do, indeed, differ in their ability to produce novel messages or whether our impression of individual differences is more perceived than actual. Two studies involving examination of simple SITUATION-ACTION-BECAUSE narratives are reported. The results of Study 1 suggest that people do differ in their message-production abilities. Additional analyses suggest that this individual difference in message-production ability is distinct from extraversion, neuroticism, and psychoticism as assessed by the Eysenck Personality Questionnaire. EPQ lie-scale scores were, however, related to narrative-production performance, and this may reflect differences in social knowledge and skill. Study 2 replicated the finding of an individual difference in narrative-production ability and again indicated that performance in the experimental paradigm is related to lie-scale scores, but not extraversion or neuroticism (as those dimensions are assessed by the EPI). Additional findings in both studies relate message fluency to the cognitive demands of narrative production. Implications and suggestions for future research are discussed.
Notes
Note. All correlations are significant at p < .01, two-tailed.
One additional subject was not included in the analysis because she was not a native English speaker.
A complete list of other measures is available from the first author.
The EPQ consists of yes/no items. Sample items include: Have you ever cheated at a game? Do you like mixing with people? For more information on the EPQ, contact the Educational and Industrial Testing Service.
See Shrout and Fleiss (1979) on the desirability of reporting both average measure and single measure ICCs.
A total of 67 subjects participated in the study. As result of a technical malfunction, 6 of the subjects' messages failed to be audio recorded. Four other subjects completed only a portion of the EPI.