Torrance Tests of Creative Thinking

Development

Torrance began the development of the tests in the 1950s with the help of graduate assistants based on intense study of creativity definitions, characteristics of creative people, creative behaviors, and extant efforts at measuring creativity. Then, he decided on the criteria that each task had to fit his definition of creativity as a natural, everyday process as well as be:

• 1.
  suitable for students from kindergarten through graduate and professional school,
• 2.
  easy enough for the young or disabled to make a creative response, yet difficult enough to challenge the most able,
• 3.
  unbiased with regard to gender and race,
• 4.
  open ended to allow for responses from different experiential backgrounds,
• 5.
  enjoyable and motivating.

Torrance and his assistants then chose tasks from existing measures and created new ones, which he personally screened as they were administered to various groups. This resultant battery, called the Minnesota Tests of Creative Thinking, [Page 1705]was administered to students in elementary and high school in the Fall and Winter of 1958–1959. In 1966, when Torrance moved to the University of Georgia, the tests were retitled as Torrance Tests of Creative Thinking (TTCT).

Components and Scoring

The complete battery of the TTCT includes a verbal test consisting of six activities and a figural test consisting of three activities. Each test has parallel forms A and B. All raw scores can be converted to standard scores and national percentiles by age and/or grade.