The Relation Between Creativity and Fluid Intelligence in Secondary School Students

• In Event: AERA Roundtable Session 3
  In Roundtable Session: Research on Creativity, Talent Development, and Giftedness Roundtable 2

Abstract

The threshold hypothesis is a popular theory on the relation between intelligence and creativity, proposing that both constructs are only correlated up to a certain intelligence level, above which they become uncorrelated. However, many years of research have failed to convincingly support the hypothesis. Moreover, the statistical methods commonly used to examine the nature of this relation have recently been criticized, calling into question the robustness of a large portion of the available evidence. In the present study, we investigated the relation between intelligence and creativity in a high ability sample of 524 secondary students (grade 7-9, mean age = 13.77 years) using three different statistical approaches. We found no evidence for a threshold or a nonlinear relation.

Authors

• Moritz Lion Breit, University of Trier

• Vsevolod Scherrer, University of Trier

• Julian Preuß, University of Trier

• Franzis Preckel, University of Trier