Feasibility of online divergent thinking assessment

Two studies explored whether assessment of creative thinking is feasible using web-based methods and how participants reacted to the imposition of time constraints in online settings. Sixty-five participants (Study 1) completed a verbal fluency task and a divergent thinking task, half of the participants doing so over the Internet. Online administration did not affect originality, but led to slightly fewer responses overall. This demonstrated that online administration of creative thinking is indeed feasible and reliable, though steps must be taken to ensure participants exhaust all possible responses. To test the effect of time limits on responses, 84 participants (Study 2) completed a verbal fluency task and three divergent thinking tasks online, half of the participants doing so under time pressure (3 min). There were significant interactions between time limits and task content for both time-on-task and fluency variables, but the task type was the dominant force in the varying fluency and time-on-task scores. Originality was not significantly affected by time limits, but did vary across tasks. In all cases the results illustrate that assessment of divergent thinking, as a proxy of creative thinking, is feasible using online methods. Implications for future work in this area are discussed.