Linkage between interests and verbal fluency of primary school pupils

Abstract

The incentive for studying the linkage between interests and creativity is based on the results of biographical studies that indicate that highly creative individuals had wider and more intensive interests than their peers already in the period of childhood. In the process of defining interests, the child tests his/her capacities and discovers the domain in which he/she will later provide creative contributions. The subject of this paper is the linkage between interests of primary school pupils and their verbal fluency, as basic characteristic of creative thinking. It was determined that the wideness of the span of interests is positively correlated with verbal fluency, whereby the correlation between interests and verbal fluency is somewhat higher for boys (r= 0.33, p = .007) than for girls (r = 0.24, p = .030). Also, the intensity of scientific interest of boys and girls is significantly correlated with their verbal fluency (for boys: = 0.39; for girls: r=0.35). But, when school achievement is statistically controlled, the correlation between the intensity of scientific interests and verbal fluency remains significant for boys, while it disappears for girls. It was concluded that the results confirmed the theoretical assumptions about the importance of interest in creativity and pointed out to the need for paying attention to the effect of gender. Besides the span and intensity of interests, the domain in which interests are manifested and creativity is measured is also important for the linkage with creativity.