Role of Creative Thinking and Intelligence in High School Achievement

A total of 272 Ss of the ninth through twelfth grades of the University of Minnesota High School were administered a battery of tests of creative thinking, Lorge-Thorndike Intelligence Test, and Iowa Tests of Educational Development. Three groups of “gifted” students were identified in each grade: (1) High Intelligence Group—a group in the upper 20% on IQ but not in the upper 20% on creativity, (2) High Creativity Group—a group in the upper 20% on the test of creativity but not in the upper 20% on IQ, and (3) High Intelligence-Creativity Group—a group high on both IQ and creativity. Twenty-six Ss each were placed in the first two groups and 28 in the third group. if IQ alone had been used as the basis for identifying “giftedness,” about 48% of those in the upper 20% on creativity would have been excluded. When rs between IQ and creativity were computed for each grade, it was found that, except in the tenth grade, coefficients were less than .20 and statistically nonsignificant. In the tenth grade, r = .56 and statistically significant. For all 272 Ss, an r of .30 was significant ( p = .01). rs between IQ and creativity in the three “gifted” groups ranged from -.29 to .12 and all were statistically nonsignificant. Although the High Intelligence Group averaged 20 points higher on IQ than the High Creativity Group and 7 points higher on IQ than the High Intelligence-Creativity Group, there was no difference among these three groups on the various achievement measures. No sex difference was found. The findings supported the results of previous studies of Getzels and Jackson (1962) and Torrance (1959).