The relation between intelligence and creativity in different intelligence levels

Three views follow from the literature that addresses the relation between intelligence and creativity: the single construct view, the independence view, and the threshold view. The hypotheses proposed in this paper followed from a fourth view suggested from a preliminary study and a meta analysis of the literature. This fourth view included the assumption, supported by both the preliminary study and the meta analysis, that intelligence and creativity are related at all levels of intelligence, but that the exact relation differs across the IQ range. College students completed tests of intelligence and two creativity tests: a traditional creativity measure, and a measure of creative cognition. The two creativity tests did not correlate with each other but their shared relations with a creativity survey indicate that they measure different aspects of creativity. Although the traditional creativity measure had no significant relation with IQ, regression analyses showed significant linear relations between the measure of creative cognition and both composite and crystallized IQ and a reverse threshold relation between creative cognition and fluid IQ. Possible explanations for the pattern of results are offered.