Conference Presentations by Jovana Milićević
The aim of this paper is to present a possibility of assessing general creativity using a multidi... more The aim of this paper is to present a possibility of assessing general creativity using a multidimensional test based on contemporary theories in this research area. The specificity of this test, compared to the existing instruments for assessing creativity, is the existence of pre-established, objective tasks-scoring criteria, as opposed to the most commonly used method of consensual assessment. Newly designed test consists of 21 tasks, of both verbal and non-verbal type, organized into four subscales: Fluency, Productivity, Originality and Elaboration. Reliability of the test, compared to creative thinking tests of similar structure, is very good (α = .89), and remains in a similar range when applying the test to different groups of subjects (students of art faculties α = .91, high school students α = .88, students of non-artistic faculties α = .87). The most reliable estimate is obtained on the subscales of Productivity and Fluency (α = .89 and α = .80 respectively). Elaboration and Originality subscales showed slightly lower reliability (α = .75 and α = .52), but the reliability has improved after the revision of these subscales (α= .87 and α= .78). According to the previous studies, test shows good criterion validity. Thus, artists and non-artists differ on the basis of Originality subscale (t (71) = 3.662, p <0.01), while the achievement on the Elaboration subscale significantly correlated with the grade on the writing assignment in Serbian language (r = .276, sig = .000).
Given that in our area there is no standardized test of creative thinking, the aim of this study ... more Given that in our area there is no standardized test of creative thinking, the aim of this study was the presentation and psychometric evaluation of a multidimensional test for the assessment of creative thinking which can be used both in exploratory and practical purposes. Due to the lack of a theoretical determination of the phenomenon of the creativity, for an objective score interpretation test should be based on some of the contemporary creative thinking theories. On the one hand, this test is based on a Guilford's model of creative thinking, and on the other, on the Torrance creativity model which is one of the most widely used operationalizations in this field of research. The test consists of 21 tasks (of both verbal and non-verbal type), organized into four subscales: Fluency (6 tasks), Productivity (5 tasks), Originality (5 tasks) and Elaboration (5 tasks). Consensual evaluation is often applied in creativity measurement, which faces a number of specific problems in practice. Taking this into account, this test was designed so that the response assessment criteria is as objective as possible. In order to establish the criteria for the evaluation of individual tasks, a preliminary version of the test was administered to a sample of 55 Belgrade University students. The final version of the test was administered to a sample of 130 respondents (high school students (N=57); artistic college students (N=32); non-artistic college students (N=41), in order to assess the psychometric properties of the test. On the whole, it turned out that the psychometric properties of the test are more than satisfactory. Reliability of the test, compared to creative thinking tests of similar structure, is very good (α = .89), and remains in a similar range when applying the test to different groups of subjects (students of art faculties α = .91, high school students α = .88, students of non-artistic faculties α = .87). Given the number of tasks, the reliability of the individual subscales were very good: Fluency (α= .80), Productivity (α = .89), Elaboration (α = .75). Only the subscale of Originality has shown slightly poorer psychometric properties (α = .52). Knowing that in the previous research this scale proved to be the most difficult to operationalize, this result is not surprising and is likely to be a consequence of the more complex nature of the originality construct. In order to validate the instrument, the achievements of students of artistic and non-artistic faculties were compared on the basis of the total score on the test, but also on each subscale individually. The results showed the following: (1) students of art faculties have significantly higher scores on the Originality subscale (t (71) = 3.662, p < 0.01); (2) the difference on the Productivity subscale was on the borderline statistical significance (t (71) = 1.843, p = 0.068); (3) on the Fluency and Elaboration subscales no significant differences were obtained between these two groups. These findings were all supported by the previous research. Factor analysis was conducted in order to evaluate the assumed dimensional nature of the construct. Despite the existence of conceptually independent subscales, results showed that first factor accounts for a significantly higher percentage of variance (32%) compared to the other five factors whose eigenvalues barely exceed the limits. These results lead to the conclusion that designed test measures a general creative ability. Therefore, domains specified as subscales on the basis of previous theories can rather be considered as descriptive constructs that can be used to facilitate the tasks and evaluate criteria construction more easily.
Previous research on the development of creative abilities predominantly examined differences in ... more Previous research on the development of creative abilities predominantly examined differences in divergent thinking abilities of children under 12 years of age, and only occasionally have examined differences between children in pre-adolescent and adolescent period, whereas studies comparing creativity of adolescents and adults are very rare. The findings of these few studies indicate that there is no significant difference in achievement on verbal tasks of divergent production among these two groups, while the results are contradictory when it comes to non-verbal tasks. Due to the lack of research on the development of creativity in the period between adolescence and early adulthood, this research was conducted in order to identify differences in creative achievement among high school and university students. A sample of 45 high school students with an average age of 15.81 (SD = 0.39) and 35 university students with an average age of 21.6 (SD = 2.77), participated in the study. All participants completed a multidimensional creativity test based on the Guilford's model of creative thinking. The test consists of 21 tasks of verbal and non-verbal types, organized into four subscales: Fluency, Productivity, Originality and Elaboration. Results indicate superior achievement of university students in terms of the total score (F (1, 79) = 45,769, p <0.01), but also in terms of the individual subscales of creative achievement: Fluency (F (1, 79) = 52.857, p<0.01); Productivity (F (1, 79) = 46.321, p<0.01); and Elaboration (F (1, 79) = 28.803, p<0.01). On the subscale of Originality there was no significant difference between these two groups. Furthermore, university students perform better on both verbal (F (1, 79) = 52,448, p <0.01) and non-verbal tasks (F (1, 79) = 8.679, p = 0.01). These results are consistent with the findings of previous studies in this research area which point out the superiority of "young adults" in regard to adolescents in non-verbal tasks of divergent production. The result indicating equally expressed an ability of producing unique and unusual ideas is not surprising neither. However, results in favor of the university students obtained on the subscales of Fluency and Productivity question the previous findings, indicating the possibility that the development of the multiple idea generation and alternative problem solving abilities is not over in the adolescence.
This study combines two independent directions in memory research: one indicating that informatio... more This study combines two independent directions in memory research: one indicating that information in accordance with pre-existing attitudes are easier to remember and slower to forget, and the other showing that autobiographical memory is reconstructive in nature, subject to modifications, and even to false memory “implantation“. Assumption derived from these findings was that false memories would be easier to implant if they are congruent with ones attitudes, in regard to more difficult false memory implanting when ones attitudes are incongruent with false memory content. Therefore, we exposed Serbian respondents to negatively connoted events whose participants were members of either serbian or albanian nacionality: half of them were true, and the other half was fabricated for the purpose of research. Respondents who expressed a stronger relative preference for their own group were more likely to believe in the authenticity of fake events whose protagonists were Albanians (F(1, 120) = 4.392, p < .05); and were less successful in distinguishing true and false events if their actors were Albanians (F (1, 120) = 4.392, p < .05); the bias and accuracy indices are borrowed from the signal detection theory. The results confirm the initial hypothesis of easier false memory implantation of those events that are congruent with ones attitudes, probably due to the fact that these events could be observed as more plausible.
A simple composition with well-focused center of interest is known to be one of the most importan... more A simple composition with well-focused center of interest is known to be one of the most important preconditions for the high quality photographs. In digital optics this feature is known as depth of field (Depth Of Field - DOF) and refers to the distance in front of and behind the subject which is said to be "in focus". In the shallow depth of field photographs the object of interest is sharp and the background is blurred, while large depth of field leads to the fact that everything in the frame is sharp enough, and therefore the center of attention is not highlighted. Studies in this research area indicate that the small depth of field photos are often assessed as preferable. Considering that former studies have not explicitly researched this phenomenon, this research was conducted in order to identify dimensions of subjective image experience of the greatest depth of field impact. A total of 46 Belgrade university students were shown sequence of 40 black-and-white art photographs of landscapes (20 of low and 20 of high-DOF). The criterion of image categorization was aperture (small depth-to f5, large depth-through F15). Respondents evaluated each photo on 9 bipolar seven-degree scales that measure three basic dimensions of subjective experience of the form: evaluation (pleasant-unpleasant, happy-sad, clear-overcast), arousal (interesting-boring, complex-simple, versatile-uniform) and regularity (related-unrelated, clear-clear, smooth-tune). The photos were balanced with respect to the other relevant characteristics (ISO value, size, contrast, lightness). Results indicate that the experience of images with large and small DOF differs on dimensions of arousal (t (45) = 8.065, p <0.01) and evaluation (t (45) = 2.023, p <0.05), while on regularity dimension there was no significant difference. Large DOF images were evaluated as more interesting (t (45) = 6.949, p <0.01); complex (t (45) = 8.018, p <0.01) and "diverse" (t (45) = 5.686, p <0.01) , while, on the other hand those with a small DOF were estimated as more pleasant (t (45) = 3.455, p <0.01). These results indicate that the depth of field is primarily associated with the evaluation and arousal as the subjective experience of the form dimensions; photos with a small DOF are seen as simpler, uniform and poorer but cause more intense emotional experience. The findings are consistent with the Berlyne theory of the neural arousal as the basis of aesthetic preference, according to which complex stimuli tend to be perceived as less pleasant, but more interesting and intriguing at the same time.
It has long been known that formal education shapes role models that children refer to. In order ... more It has long been known that formal education shapes role models that children refer to. In order to examine models of conflict resolving presented in texbooks for elementary and secondary scholars we conducted content analysis of folk epic poems. The main reason for analysing folk epic poems is extremly positive evaluation of main characters and their actions in Serbian culture and education. All folk epic poems containing conflict and its resolution covered in texbooks for elementary and secondary school were included in the analysis. A total of 9 poems were analysed, and 11 conflicts were extracted. In conflict analysis we focused on the following questions: was the conflict resolved with a settlement or with a physical violence. We set up three levels of physical violence: without death outcome, with death outcome and extreme violence. The results of content analyses have shown that only 3 out of 11 conflicts (27.2%) were resolved with settlement. On the other hand, the rest of the conflict resolutions contained physical violence (72.8%), from which 2 were without death outcome (25%), 2 conflicts resulted in death outcome (25%), and 4 conflicts were resolved with extreme violence (50%). The poems containing extreme violence were ''Marko Kraljevic ukida svadbarinu'', ''Marko Kraljevic i Musa Kesedzija'', ''Mali Radojica'' and ''Banovic Strahinja''. As the results show, extreme violence is the most frequent way of resolving conflicts in folk epic poems included in textbooks for children.The question that this research propose is: How does these models of conflict resolution influence developement in childhood and early adolescence?
Uploads
Conference Presentations by Jovana Milićević