Script Author: Katja Borchert, Ph.D. (katjab@millisecond.com), Millisecond
Created: January 17, 2017
Last Modified: April 07, 2026 by K. Borchert (katjab@millisecond.com), Millisecond
Script Copyright © Millisecond Software, LLC
This script implements a variant of the Remote Associates Test, a test of creativity, originally proposed by Mednick (1962).
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.
30 minutes
Participants are presented 30 triads consisting of 3 remotely associated words of the kind (paint/doll/cat) and are asked to come up with a fourth item that is associated with all three (here: "house"). The 30 triads are presented on one scrollable surveypage. Participants can go back and forth between questions. A default time limit of 30 minutes is enforced for the entire test.
- 30 triads are presented on 3 surveyPages (10 triads per page) - participants can go back and forth
- 10 triads are categorized as "easy", 10 triads are categorized as "medium", 10 triads are categorized as "hard"
Categorization (Bowden & Jung-Beeman, 2003 - Appendix):
easy: proportion of participants solving triad (at 15s) > 0.75
medium: 0.45 < proportion of participants solving triad (at 15s) < 0.55
hard: proportion of participant solving triad (at 15s) < 0.25
- the order of the triads is determined randomly for each participant (by default - can be edited under section Editable Lists)
- triads are selected from Bowden & Jung-Beeman (2003), Appendix
- triads can be replaced under section "Editable Stimuli"
Instructions are not original to the task. They are provided by Millisecond
as htm/html pages and can be edited by changing the provided htm/html files.
To edit htm/html-files: open the respective documents in simple Text Editors such as TextEdit (Mac)
or Notepad (Windows).
File Name: remoteassociatestest_survey_summary*.iqdat
| Name | Description |
|---|---|
| inquisit.version | Inquisit version number |
| computer.platform | Device platform: win | mac |ios | android |
| computer.touch | 0 = device has no touchscreen capabilities; 1 = device has touchscreen capabilities |
| computer.hasKeyboard | 0 = no external keyboard detected; 1 = external keyboard detected |
| startDate | Date the session was run |
| startTime | Time the session was run |
| subjectId | Participant ID |
| groupId | Group number |
| sessionId | Session number |
| elapsedTime | Session duration in ms |
| completed | 0 = Test was not completed 1 = Test was completed |
| nrTriads | The number of triads presented (default: 30) |
| maxTestDuration | The maximum time (in ms) allowed for the RAT in this script |
| numberCorrect | Number of correctly solved triads |
| propSolved | Proportion correctly solved triads |
| list.accuracy.itemCount | The number of items |
| numberCorrectEasy | Number of correctly solved 'easy' triads |
| propSolvedEasy | Proportion correctly solved 'easy' triads list.accuracyEasy.itemCount:the number of Easy items |
| numberCorrectMedium | Number of correctly solved 'medium' triads |
| propSolvedMedium | Proportion correctly solved 'medium' triads |
| list.accuracyMedium.itemCount | The number of Medium items |
| numberCorrectFard | Number of correctly solved 'hard' triads |
| propSolvedHard | Proportion correctly solved 'hard' triads |
| list.accuracyHard.itemCount | The number of Hard items |
| survey.remoteassociaTestestSurvey.elapsedTime | Time (in ms) spent on the survey |
| question1-question30 | Stores the triads in presented order |
| solution1-solution30 | Stores the triad solutions in presented order |
| response1-response30 | Stores the responses to question1-30 |
| correct1-correct30 | 1 = triad was solved correctly 0 = otherwise for all 30 presented triad questions |
File Name: remoteassociatestest_survey.iqdat
| Name | Description |
|---|---|
| date | Date the session was run |
| time | Time the session was run |
| subject | Participant ID |
| group | Group number |
| session | Session number |
| build | Inquisit version number |
| q*_response | Response given (in assigned values) |
| q*_latency | How much time (in ms) the participant spent on the surveyPage with this particular question (the last time this particular surveyPage was visited) |
The procedure can be adjusted by setting the following parameters.
| Name | Description | Default |
|---|---|---|
Design |
||
| nrTriads | The number of triads presented | 30 |
Timing Parameters |
||
| maxTestDuration | The maximum time (in ms) allowed for the RAT in this script | 1800000 |