The effects of stimulus words' positions and properties on response words and creativity performance in the tasks of analogical sentence completion

•A significant directionality existed in simile sentences.•Typical analogies led to higher creativity performance than did atypical analogies.•Atypical analogies significantly explained the variance of creativity performance over and above typical analogies.•Participants had a strong proclivity for responding with concrete words.

This study used four types of analogical sentence completion to examine the effects of stimulus words' positions and properties on the words subjects responded with and their creativity performance. The research design was a mixed-design ANOVA model with position as a between-subjects variable and property as a within-subjects variable. Major findings are as follows. A significant directionality existed in simile sentences. Typical analogies led to higher creativity performance but atypical analogies could significantly explain the variance of creativity performance over and above typical analogies. No matter whether stimulus words are concrete or abstract or whether they are placed in the target or in the base of sentence completion items, participants were inclined to respond with concrete words. Abstract stimulus words placed in the target position with concrete words answered in the base position had the highest incidence of all combinations. However, participants did not necessarily tend to respond to concrete stimulus words in the base with abstract words. The directionality of typical analogies and the strong proclivity for responding with concrete words are two factors that affect participants' performance.