Test Your Creativity in 4 Minutes

Sometimes it’s easy to see if someone expresses their creativity more than others, but what if creativity could actually be measured?  Scientists believe they’ve found a way to measure—and test—your creativity with a simple exercise.               

                Based on research from three international universities, measuring creativity is as simple as a 4- minute test, which you can give yourself and your friends!  It’s called the Divergent Association Task which was created by a McGill University Psychiatry graduate.  In this exercise, you think of 10 words in a 4-minute period that are as unrelated from one another as can be. 

                The DAT test uses a computer algorithm to gauge the distance between words, based on their semantic relationships. By measuring how much distance there is between the words, divergent creativity can be measured.  Researchers linked brain’s semantic processing with creativity tests, recognizing diverse methods for measuring creativity.

                While the brain’s mechanism for divergent thinking remains incompletely understood, the DAT test offers a way to exercise creative brain muscles. It’s a conversation starter or parlor game that can challenge yourself and others.  Although lacking a computational algorithm, this cognitive performance test offers enjoyment in just 4 minutes of spare time!

Further Reading

Jay A. Olson, Johnny Nahas, Denis Chmoulevitch, Simon J. Cropper, Margaret E. Webb. Naming unrelated words predicts creativity. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 2021; 118 (25): e2022340118 DOI: 10.1073/pnas.2022340118

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