Effect of explicit instructions on creativity test performance: a case study of Hong Kong university students

Abstract

Objectives: This study examined the effects of three types of instructions on creative performance, which was operationalized as divergent thinking in terms of fluency, flexibility, and originality. Methods: One hundred and sixty-eight undergraduate students from two Hong Kong universities completed questionnaires that consisted of a creativity personality traits list, four divergent thinking tasks, and a demographic data part. The creativity personality traits list comprised of four subscales of different personality traits: (1) Chinese creative personality traits, (2) Chinese personality trait, (3) Western personality traits, and (4) Western creative personality traits. The four divergent thinking tasks were two verbal and two visual tasks with either “be creative” instructions, “be practical and reasonable” instructions, or standard instructions. Results: Results showed that there was no significant difference between the divergent thinking scores of the groups working under “be creative” instructions and standard instructions. However, detrimental effects on divergent thinking scores were found in the group receiving “be practical and reasonable” instructions. No gender difference was found in the fluency and flexibility scores, but males outperformed females in both areas of verbal and visual originality. Positive significant correlations were found between Chinese creative personality traits and divergent thinking outputs in verbal fluency and verbal flexibility, but not in visual tasks and originality. Also, a positive significant correlation was found between motivation and creativity performance. Discussion: The lack of incremental effect of “be creative” instructions on divergent thinking outputs seems to have theoretical implications, that creativity is not a transient state but a long-standing trait.