Remote Associates Test (RAT)

Background

The Remote Associates Test (RAT) is a classic measure of creative and convergent thinking by asking participants to find a single word that links three seemingly unrelated words (e.g., cream / skate / water -> ICE). It was developed by Sarnoff Mednick in 1962 and is based on the theory that the creative process involves the ability to form useful connections between seemingly unrelated or "remote" ideas. Connections between the "unrelated" words are typically made through compound word formation (e.g., Fish / Mine / Rush -> GOLD), semantic associations (Coin / Quick / Spoon -> SILVER), and Synonymy (e.g. Help / Aid / Assist -> SUPPORT).

Edward Bowden and Mark Jung-Beeman (2003) published a data base of 144 compound remote associate problems ('triads') that Millisecond leveraged to select 30 problems that can be divided into 'easy' (10), 'medium' (10) and 'hard' (10) triad problems. The following classification rules were used:

1. easy: proportion of participants solving triad (at 15s) > 0.75
2. medium: 0.45 < proportion of participants solving triad (at 15s) < 0.55
3. hard: proportion of participant solving triad (at 15s) < 0.25

The test can either be run with an item-by-item procedure that presents the triads one-by-one with a 1-minute time limit for each (that also provides response time measures) or with a survey style procedure that presents all triads on one scrollable surveypage with a 30-minutes time limit for all. The tests can be easily edited to run a different set of triad problems.

Task Procedure

After learning about the task, participants are presented with the triads. In the item-by-item format, participants receive a triad and a textbox to enter their response. Each triad has a time-limit of 1 minute. By default, the order of the triads is determined randomly for each participant.

What it Measures

The Remote Associates Test (RAT) is a measure of creative thinking

Psychological domains

• Creative Thinking: Ability to find connections between seemingly unrelated items
• Problem Solving & Insight: Insight problem-solving refers to the "aha!" experience that occurs when a remote connection is suddenly realized.
• Memory: Accessing lexical-semantic and associative networks within long-term memory

Main Performance Metrics

• Number Correct Triads: number of correctly solved triads

Psychiatric Conditions

The RAT has been used to examine various clinical and subclinical patient groups, primarily to explore the relationship between creative cognition and psychopathology.

• Schizophrenia
• Bipolar Disorder
• Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD)

Test Variations

References

Search Google Scholar for peer-reviewed, published research using the Inquisit Remote Associates Test (RAT).

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Mednick, S. A. (1962). The associative basis of the creative process. Psychological Review, 69, 220-232.

Mednick, S. A. (1968). Remote Associates Test. Journal of Creative Behavior, 2, 213-214.

Bowden, E.M., & Jung-Beeman, M. (2003). Normative data for 144 compound remote associate problems. Behavioral Research Methods, Instrumentation, and Computers, 35, 634-639.

Ansburg, & Hill. (2003). Creative and analytic thinkers differ in their use of attentional resources. Personality and Individual Differences, 34(7), 1141-1152.

Kim, S., Hasher, L., & Zacks, R. (2007). Aging and a benefit of distractibility. Psychonomic Bulletin & Review, 14(2), 301-305.

Storm, Benjamin C., Angello, Genna, & Bjork, Elizabeth Ligon. (2011). Thinking Can Cause Forgetting: Memory Dynamics in Creative Problem Solving. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Learning, Memory, and Cognition, 37(5), 1287-1293.

Jarosz, Colflesh, & Wiley. (2012). Uncorking the muse: Alcohol intoxication facilitates creative problem solving. Consciousness and Cognition, 21(1), 487-493.

Lee, C., Huggins, A., Therriault, D., Reiter-Palmon, Roni, & Tinio, Pablo. (2014). A Measure of Creativity or Intelligence? Examining Internal and External Structure Validity Evidence of the Remote Associates Test. Psychology of Aesthetics, Creativity, and the Arts, 8(4), 446-460.