A new look at the creativity‐intelligence distinction 1

For several years we have been concemed with two modes of thinkmg m young children, which, it turns out, bear directly upon what has assumed the proportions of a controversy m recent psychological history The nature of the controversy might be put somewhat as follows: Is there an aspect of cognitive functionmg which can be appropnately labeled "creativity" that stands apart from the traditional concept of general mtelhgence? A close appraisal of the quantitative findmgs available on this subject led us to a pessimistic answer. We shall pass some of these findmgs qmckly m review Our exammation of this hterature opened up to us, however, the possibility of a valid distmction between creativity and mtelhgence that had not, m our view, been sufficiently pursued and developed The next step, therefore, was empurical research in terms of this distmction FmaUy, if creativity and mtelhgence could be validly distmguished, we were mterested in studymg the possible psychological correlates that might distmguish mdividual differences on these two dimensions considered jomtly Specifically, we were concemed with correlates m such areas as the child's observed behavior m school and play settings, his aesthetic sensitivities, his categonzmg and conceptualizmg activities, his test anxiety and defensiveness levels We can, of course, give but an overview of this work For a complete presentation, see Waliach and Kogan (1965)