The App Generation by Howard Gardner & Katie Davis

Author:Howard Gardner & Katie Davis
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Yale University Press
Published: 2013-01-01T05:00:00+00:00

IMAGINING, THEN AND NOW

Before we consider how apps and other digital media affect imagination, let’s first explore whether young people’s imaginative processes have actually changed since the introduction of new media technologies. Imagination is a difficult concept to define, let alone measure. Nonetheless, psychometricians have given it their best effort, typically by administering various tests of creativity. Perhaps the most widely used creativity test is the Torrance Test of Creative Thinking (TTCT). Developed in 1966 and currently used worldwide, the TTCT measures several dimensions of creative potential, including intellectual curiosity, open-mindedness, verbal expressiveness, and originality. Though not without its critics, the TTCT has been found to predict creative achievement better than other standard measures of creative or divergent thinking.7 Empirical evidence suggests that high scores on the test successfully predict subsequent creative careers and accomplishments.8

In a widely publicized study, Torrance scores from approximately three hundred thousand children and adults were used to investigate whether the creativity of Americans has changed over the preceding twenty years.9 The research documents a pronounced decline in scores across all areas of the figural test. The largest drop was seen in scores on elaboration, which includes the ability to elaborate on ideas and engage in detailed and reflective thinking, as well as the motivation to be creative. Declines were also found in fluency (the ability to generate many ideas), originality (the ability to produce infrequent, unique, and unusual ideas), creative strengths (which include emotional and verbal expressiveness, humorousness, unconventionality, and liveliness and passion), and resistance to premature closure (the inclination to remain open-minded, intellectually curious, and open to new experiences). Overall, the declines were steepest in more recent years, from 1998 to 2008, and the scores of young children—from kindergarten through sixth grade—decreased more than those of other age groups.

Curiously, in the same issue of the journal in which this study was published, another group of researchers published an article whose findings paint a more optimistic picture of changes in youth creativity.10 The researchers investigated changes in the pretend play ability of children between the ages of six and ten during a twenty-three-year period. Though not synonymous with creativity, pretend play has been found to predict divergent thinking, which is itself a marker of creativity.11

The researchers analyzed results from fourteen studies conducted between 1985 and 2008. Each study used the same instrument—the Affect in Play Scale (APS)—to measure the pretend play of children in grades one through three. The APS measures multiple dimensions of pretend play, including imagination (How many fantasy elements and novel ideas does the child produce?), comfort (How comfortable is the child engaging in play, and how much enjoyment does he or she experience?), organization (What is the quality and complexity of the play plot?), frequency and variety of affect (How often does the child express emotion, and what is the range of emotions expressed?), and positive and negative affect (How often does the child express positive and negative emotions?).

Of the seven play dimensions measured, only imagination, comfort, and negative affect showed any significant change over the twenty-three-year period.

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