CREATIVE-THINKING FROM AN INFORMATION-PROCESSING PERSPECTIVE - A NEW APPROACH TO MEDNICKS THEORY OF ASSOCIATIVE HIERARCHIES

Mednick (1962) proposed a theory of the creative thinking process whic h asserts that in generating associative responses to a stimulus, crea tive individuals are characterized by a flatter associative hierarchy than are less creative individuals. In order to assess this idea, an a ssociative priming paradigm was used to measure latencies to lexical d ecisions primed by associations of low, medium, or high strength. Medn ick's theory was not supported. However, it was found that the respons es 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 t est of creative processes. If so, then the obtained findings may be co nsistent with Mednick's theory as it applies to the upper end of the a ssociative continuum.