CREATIVITY – help please
July 7th, 2011
I am writing an essay on creativity and education. A frequent statement made by people discussing this refers to a test carried out by a George Land using an instrument applied by NASA to test levels of “genius”. Here is an example:
Genius level creativity
In 1968, George Land distributed among 1,600 5-year-olds a creativity test used by NASA to select innovative engineers and scientists. He re-tested the same children at 10 years of age, and again at 15 years of age.
Test results amongst 5 year olds: 98%
Test results amongst 10 year olds: 30%
Test results amongst 15 year olds: 12%
Same test given to 280,000 adults: 2%
“What we have concluded,” wrote Land, “is that non-creative behavior is learned
Commonly those who cite this research refer to a book by Land and Beth Jarman entitled “Breakpoint and Beyond”.
I have the book. I have searched the web. A colleague has even contacted the librarian at NASA.
None of this has yielded a copy of the actual instrument (or test) used to arrive at these results. There is in fact no reference in the book to this.
Can anyone out there find the test that Land used and which is referred to in all this literature?