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Abstract
It is commonly recognized that messages are simultaneously patterned and creative, but studies of message production have tended to focus on repetitive features of messages, to the relative exclusion of examination of their novel characteristics. This study is concerned with creative facility—the ability readily to construct novel, appropriate messages. In order to investigate this phenomenon, subjects produced a series of simple SITUATION-ACTION-BECAUSE narratives and also completed measures of speed of information processing (Digit-Symbol Substitution Test, DSST), cognitive tempo (Matching Familiar Figures Test, MFFT), and need for cognitive structure (Personal Need for Structure scale, PNS). Results indicate each of these measures was related to the speed with which participants were able to formulate their narratives. Moreover, the impact of both cognitive tempo, assessed as number of errors on the MFFT, and need for cognitive structure was heightened under more cognitively demanding message-production conditions. Implications of these results and suggestions for future research are discussed.
The authors wish to thank Kelly Vibber, Jenny Kordas, and Lisa Stanforth for their assistance in coding and transcribing the messages examined in this study.
Notes
∗p < .01, two-tailed.
“Appropriate” is used here simply to invoke the general notion that messages may be more or less well adapted to meet the demands (pragmatic, social, semantic, grammatical, etc.) of a message-production situation. Hence, for example, things we “blurt out” may well have the properties of being genuinely creative, and of being produced with rapidity, but we are not likely to think of them as instances in which we were “quick-witted” if we subsequently regretted them because of their negative social consequences.
It is noteworthy, however, that in these studies creative facility was shown to be associated with the lie scales of the Eysenck Personality Inventory (EPI; Eysenck & Eysenck, Citation1975) and Eysenck Personality Questionnaire (EPQ; Eysenck & Eysenck, Citation1968), perhaps because these measures are thought to tap components of social skill or knowledge.
Two subjects were dropped from the analyses due to problems with the audio equipment. One additional subject failed to complete a substantial portion of the PNS and was also dropped.
The value of b 00 in this data set was 3.311 seconds.
The finding that propensity to make errors on the MFFT was associated with less fluent S-A-B narratives is in keeping with other research that has demonstrated negative relationships between impulsivity and language and social skills (e.g., Seisdedos, Citation1991; Spira & Fischel, Citation2005).
The correlation between need for cognitive structure (NPS) and inhibition/rigidity (MFFT-errors) was positive but not statistically significant, r = .13, p = .30.