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Creative thinking and juvenile delinquency: a study of delinquent and nondelinquent youth on the Torrance Tests of Creative Thinking.

Using the T.T.C.T. this study examined the creative thinking of 32 delinquent and 32 nondelinquent adolescent males. The delinquent group was composed of juveniles on parole status. The nondelinquent group was composed of public school students. On the variables of IQ, age, and socioeconomic class, t-test results indicated no significant differences, except on socioeconomic class, between the groups. Analysis of variance procedures were performed to determine the possibility of an interaction between levels of intelligence and delinquent status with regard to verbal and figural creativity test scores. There were no significant main effects or interaction between IQ and adjudication status with respect to figural creativity. There was a significant main effect due to adjudication status for the dependent variable of verbal creativity scores, respectively while blocking on the intelligence variable. The results were parallel to the ANOVAS which did not specifically control for the intelligence variable between the two groups.

Adolescent

Does Inquiry-Based Learning Improve Students' Critical Thinking? A Meta-Analysis Accounting for Control Group Variations.

BACKGROUND: Inquiry learning is widely recognized, through empirical studies, as an appropriate instruction in enhancing students' critical thinking, yet the results were varied across context. The previous meta-analysis did not include the control group variations as a potential moderator and the studies subject domain was limited only to science subjects. Consequently, it is difficult to generalize the effectiveness of IBL in enhancing critical thinking. This meta-analysis aims to investigate whether inquiry learning is effective in improving the students' critical thinking skills and examine the moderating roles of each study characteristic. Methods The literature search applying the PRISMA protocol 2020 was conducted by utilizing SCOPUS, ERIC, and DOAJ databases. A total of 57 studies from 51 articles, published from 2015 to 2025, were synthesized using a random-effects model with standardized mean difference (SMD). RESULTS: The analysis revealed that IBL has a large and significant effect on enhancing students' critical thinking (g = 1.336; 95% CI [1.061, 1.611]). However, substantial heterogeneity was observed (I 2 = 92.09%), suggesting variability across contexts. Moderator analyses revealed that the main moderator, control group variations, was statistically significant in moderating the effectiveness of IBL (Qm = 5.21; p = .022). in contrast, subject domain (Qm = 1.43; p = .698), education level (Qm = 1.11; p = .774), and country ( Q m  = 3.33; p = .650), were insignificantly moderating the effectiveness of inquiry learning. CONCLUSIONS: The present meta-analysis highlighted that IBL is effective in improving students' critical thinking. However, the effectiveness of IBL was relative to the type of control group variations. Its effect on critical thinking was greater when compared with teacher-centered learning but smaller when compared with other student-centered learning.

Thinking

Is disordered thinking unique to schizophrenia?

To provide data on several issues related to disordered thinking in schizophrenia, 200 acutely ill psychiatric patients (including 55 schizophrenics) were evaluated on four instruments to assess thought pathology (the Object Sorting Test, the Rorschach Test, a social comprehension test, and a proverbs test). Patients were assessed at two phases of their disorders (the acute phase and the phase of partial recovery). The results suggest (1) disordered thinking is not unique to schizophrenia; (2) distinctions between mild and severe levels of thought pathology are important; and (3) disordered thinking is influenced by acute psychopathology and acute upset. Inferential evidence suggests (4) disordered thinking fits along a continuum with normal thinking; (5) "thought disorders" are not a discrete, separate entity, standing apart from other aspects of thinking; and (6) older concepts about primary symptoms in schizophrenia need reexamination.

Acute Disease

Psychoticism and thinking.

In view of evidence linking psychosis with high creative ability, an attempt was made to evaluate the relationship between thinking abilities and personality traits. Tests of divergent thinking and convergent thinking were administered, along with the Eysencks' Personality Questionnaire, to 100 university students. The hypothesis that 'psychoticism' is related to divergent thinking was strongly confirmed. The hypothesis that psychoticism would be related inversely to speed in a convergent-thinking task was rejected. No evidence was found for any relationship between extraversion--introversion or neuroticism--stability and either thinking style.

Adolescent

Primitive drive-dominated thinking: relationship to acute schizophrenia and sociopathy.

To investigate primitive drive-dominated thinking in schizophrenic disorders and sociopathic behavior, responses on the Rorschach and other personality tests of 171 acute psychiatric patients were assessed using Holt's system. Results suggested that: (a) Acute schizophrenics were high on primitive drive content, but this was also characteristic of some nonschizophrenics, and other types of disturbed thinking were even more prominent in schizophrenics. (b) There were no significant differences between process and reactive schizophrenics in expression of primitive drive content. (c) Males showed more drive-dominated thinking than females (p less than .10), although sex was not a powerful variable. (d) Depressives showed less drived-dominated thinking than nondepressive (p less than .05). (e) Patients high on sociopathic or rule-breaking behavior tended to show more primitive drive-dominated thinking (p less than .01).

Acute Disease

Overinclusion and transactional thinking on the Object Sorting Test of schizophrenic and nonschizophrenic patients.

Two aspects of "disordered thinking", overinclusion and transactional thinking were studied on the Object Sorting Test responses of 20 young schizophrenic patients and 20 comparable nonschizophrenic patients. Patients' parents were also studied for comparison. In addition, idiosyncratic responses from WAIS Comprehension items were assessed for comparison of another measure on another test. Transactional thinking and idiosyncratic responses were greater in schizophrenic patients. Conceptual overinclusion and bizarre responses also tended to be more frequent in schizophrenics, but behavioral overinclusion showed no differences. Conceptual overinclusion was consistently correlated with transactional thinking and idiosyncratic responses, while behavioral overinclusion showed an inconsistent pattern. The differences were attributed to the differences in the specificity of measures of disordered thinking.

Acute Disease

The impact of artificial intelligence on critical thinking and clinical reasoning in health professions education: A systematic review and meta-analysis.

BACKGROUND: Critical thinking and clinical reasoning underpin healthcare professionals' ability to navigate uncertainties and deliver safe and effective care. With artificial intelligence (AI) advancement and growing adoption, AI-based educational tools are increasingly used to support these cognitive competencies' development. OBJECTIVE: To synthesize randomised and controlled clinical trials on AI-based educational tools in health professions education and examine their effects on critical thinking and clinical reasoning among health professions students. METHODS: Six electronic databases were searched from January 1, 2014 to July 28, 2025 was reviewed: PubMed, Cochrane Central Register of Controlled Trials, CINAHL, Scopus, Embase and Web of Science. Two independent reviewers performed data extraction and quality assessment using standardized JBI checklists. The GRADE approach was used to assess the certainty of evidence. Studies were pooled via random-effects meta-analyses or narrative syntheses. RESULTS: Fourteen randomised controlled trials and seven controlled clinical trials were included (n = 21). Meta-analyses revealed small to medium effect sizes for the surrogate clinical reasoning outcomes of performance-based assessment scores (SMD 0.68; 95% CI [0.38, 0.98], p-value = 0.00; I2 = 38%) and knowledge test scores (SMD 0.39; 95% CI [0.09, 0.69], p-value = 0.01; I2 = 79%). Critical thinking and clinical reasoning skills and dispositions were narratively synthesized, with majority of included studies favouring AI-based interventions but the evidence had low to very low certainty. CONCLUSION: AI-based educational interventions may improve critical thinking and clinical reasoning among health profession students, but the evidence is very uncertain. This review offers preliminary insights but does not allow identification of optimal interventions or discipline-specific recommendations due to small sample sizes and substantial intervention heterogeneity. Further research is required to draw definitive conclusions. PROTOCOL REGISTRATION: CRD42025634074.

Humans

Homospatial thinking in creativity.

"Homospatial thinking" consists of actively conceiving two or more discrete entities occupying the same space, a conception leading to the articulation of new identities. Homospatial thinking has a salient role in the creative process in the following wide variety of fields: literature, the visual arts, music, science, and mathematics. This cognitive factor, along with "Janusian thinking," clarifies the nature of creative thinking as a highly adaptive and primarily nonregressive form of functioning.

Art

A study of curiosity, divergent thinking, and test-anxiety.

A review of the literature suggested that curiosity was positively related to divergent thinking, and negatively related to test-anxiety. Subjects were male and female 9th and 10th graders (N = 67), 11th and 12th graders (N = 67), and college undergraduates (N = 69). Curiosity was measured by an 80-item self-report scale and an adjective checklist, test-anxiety by a 37-item self-report scale, and divergent thinking by two verbal paper-and-pencil test. The results showed that both measures of curiosity were positively related to divergent thinking in all three groups studied, but that test-anxiety was not significantly related to either curiosity or divergent thinking. Differences in performance by the three groups of subjects were discussed.

Adolescent

The Torrance Tests of Creative Thinking and the Rorschach Inkblot Test: relationships between two measures of creativity.

The purpose of this study is to determine whether there are any significant correlations between the subscores and total scores of the Torrance Tests of Creative Thinking and the Rorschach Inkblot Test, as scored by the Rorschach Index of Repressive Style. Twenty-six teachers of Grades 3, 4, and 5 and 51 fourth grade students were given, by group administration, the Torrance Tests of Creative Thinking and the Rorschach Inkblot Test. Results show that although neither the Total Verbal, Total Non-verbal nor Over-all Torrance scores correlate significantly with either the Rorschach Human Movement score or with the Rorschach Total Movement score (HM + FM + m), there are significant relationships between the Total RIR, m score and the Over-all Torrance score. The main conclusion is that the Rorschach HM and Total M score measure artistic, associative, intuitive creativity, while the Torrance Tests of Creative Thinking and RIR Total score measure divergent thinking.

Aptitude Tests

Dichotic listening and allusive thinking.

Previous work suggests that allusive thinkers have a broader attentional process associated with weak central inhibition. The method of dichotic stimulation was used to investigate this concept. Sixty-three university students completed a battery of tests including 2 dichotic listening tasks. The Object Sorting Test was used as a measure of allusive thinking. Allusive thinkers showed a trend towards impaired shadowing performance. Mislabelling of shadow as distractor words and vice versa, on recall and recognition tasks, showed the strongest correlation with allusive thinking. Such mislabelling was considered to reflect impaired discrimination learning, and provides further support for a hypothesis relating allusive thinking to weak Pavlovaian central inhibition.

Acoustic Stimulation

The confusing area of disturbed thinking.

The nature of disturbed thinking is explained from two different psychological perspectives and six major types of thought disorder are presented, classified, and discussed. The overlap between these different types of thought disturbance and some possible functions of disturbed thinking are outlined. A heuristic model for detecting thought disorder is presented; and, in addition, some complex conceptual and research issues involved with investigating and systematizing knowledge about disturbed thinking are explained.

Association

[Relationship between thinking activity and typologic characteristics of personality (material from a study of schizophrenic patients and their relatives)].

The paper presents an analysis of relationships between the expressivity of the change in thinking selectivity and premorbid personality characteristics of schizophrenic patients (242 patients) and the types of personality anomalies in the relatives of the probands with schizophrenia (203 patients). The authors reveal correlation of the expressiveness of the above-mentioned thinking anomaly with definite types of personality anomalies (sthenic, hyperthymic and mosaic schizoids). The circle of the marked personality types according to the analyzed indices are limited both from representatives of the normal population and representatives of other personality types ("model", "deficient", cycloids). The obtained data permit to consider the studied thinking anomaly in the system of typological peculiarities of mental activity.

Cyclothymic Disorder