Does an IQ Test Measure Creativity? IELTS Reading: Translation & Detailed Explanation

For decades, the intelligence quotient (IQ) has been regarded as the benchmark for human intellectual capacity. However, when faced with great discoveries or world-changing works of art, the question arises: Does a top-tier IQ score guarantee exceptional creative thinking? The reading passage Does An IQ Test Prove Creativity? takes learners on an in-depth journey through electroencephalography and behavioral psychology to untangle the delicate boundary between pure intelligence, creativity, and even mental disorders.

For IELTS candidates, this text serves as a rigorous critical thinking exercise, challenging qualitative reasoning skills as they compare and contrast a series of theories from the world’s leading neuroscientists and anthropological experts.

Reading Passage

Everyone has creativity, some a lot more than others. The development of humans, and possibly the universe depends on it. Yet creativity is an elusive creature. What do we mean by it? What is going on in our brains when ideas form? Does it feel the same for artists and scientists? We asked writers and neuroscientists, pop stars and AI gurus to try to deconstruct the creative process-and learn how we can all ignite the spark within.

In the early 1970s, creativity was still seen as a type of intelligence. But when more subtle tests of IQ and creative skills were developed in the 1970s, particularly by the father of creativity testing, Paul Torrance, it became clear that the link was not so simple. Creative people are intelligent, in terms of IQ tests at least, but only averagely or just above. While it depends on the discipline, in general beyond a certain level IQ does not help boost creativity; it is necessary but not sufficient to make someone creative.

Because of the difficulty of studying the actual process, most early attempts to study creativity concentrated on personality. According to creativity specialist Mark Runco of California State University, Fullerton, the “creative personality” tends to place a high value on aesthetic qualities and to have broad interests, providing lots of resources to draw on and knowledge to recombine into novel solutions. “Creatives” have an attraction to complexity and an ability to handle conflict. They are also usually highly self-motivated, perhaps even a little obsessive. Less creative people, on the other hand, tend to become irritated if they cannot immediately fit all the pieces together. They are less tolerant of confusion. Creativity comes to those who wait, but only to those who are happy to do so in a bit of a fog.

But there may be a price to pay for having a creative personality. For centuries, a link has been made between creativity and mental illness. Psychiatrist Jamison of Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore, Maryland, found that established artists are significantly more likely to have mood disorders. But she also suggests that a change of mood state might be the key to triggering a creative event, rather than the negative mood itself. Intelligence can help channel this thought style into great creativity, but when combined with emotional problems, lateral, divergent or open thinking can lead to mental illness instead.

Jordan Peterson, a psychologist at the University of Toronto, Canada, believes he has identified a mechanism that could help explain this. He says that the brains of creative people seem more open to incoming stimuli than less creative types. Our senses are continuously feeding a mass of information into our brains, which have to block or ignore most of it to save us from being snowed under. Peterson calls this process latent inhibition, and argues that people who have less of it, and who have a reasonably high IQ with a good working memory can juggle more of the data, and so may be open to more possibilities and ideas. The downside of extremely low latent inhibition may be a confused thought style that predisposes people to mental illness. So for Peterson, mental illness is not a prerequisite for creativity, but it shares some cognitive traits.

But what of the creative act itself? One of the first studies of the creative brain at work was by Colin Martindale, a psychologist from the University of Maine in Orono. Back in 1978, he used a network of scalp electrodes to record an electroencephalogram, a record of the pattern of brain waves, as people made up stories. Creativity has two stages: inspiration and elaboration, each characterised by very different states of mind. While people were dreaming up their stories, he found their brains were surprisingly quiet. The dominant activity was alpha waves, indicating a very low level of cortical arousal: a relaxed state, as though the conscious mind was quiet while the brain was making connections behind the scenes. It’s the same sort of brain activity as in some stages of sleep, dreaming or rest, which could explain why sleep and relaxation can help people be creative.

However, when these quiet minded people were asked to work on their stories, the alpha wave activity dropped off and the brain became busier, revealing increased cortical arousal, more corralling of activity and more organised thinking. Strikingly, it was the people who showed the biggest difference in brain activity between the inspiration and development stages who produced the most creative storylines. Nothing in their background brain activity marked them as creative or uncreative. “It’s as if the less creative person can’t shift gear,” says Guy Claxton, a psychologist at the University of Bristol, UK. “Creativity requires different kinds of thinking. Very creative people move between these states intuitively.” Creativity, it seems, is about mental flexibility: perhaps not a two-step process, but a toggling between two states. In a later study, Martindale found that communication between the sides of the brain is also important.

Paul Howard-Jones, who works with Claxton at Bristol, believes he has found another aspect of creativity. He asked people to make up a story based on three words and scanned their brains using functional magnetic resonance imaging. In one trial, people were asked not to try too hard and just report the most obvious story suggested by the words. In another, they were asked to be inventive. He also varied the words so it was easier or harder to link them. As people tried harder and came up with more creative tales, there was a lot more activity in a particular prefrontal brain region on the right-hand side. These regions are probably important in monitoring for conflict, helping us to filter out many of combining the words and allowing us to pull out just the desirable connections, Howard-Jones suggests. It shows that there is another side to creativity, he says. The story-making task, particularly when we are stretched, produces many options which we have to assess. So part of creativity is a conscious process of evaluating and analysing ideas. The test also shows that the more we try and are stretched, the more creative our minds can be.

And creativity need not always be a solitary, tortured affair, according to Teresa Amabile of Harvard Business School. Though there is a slight association between solitary writing or painting and negative moods or emotional disturbances, scientific creativity and workplace creativity seem much more likely to occur when people are positive and buoyant. In a decade-long study of real businesses, to be published soon, Amabile found that positive moods relate positively to creativity in organisations, and that the relationship is a simple linear one. Creative thought also improves people’s moods, her team found, so the process is circular. Time pressures, financial pressures and hard-earned bonus schemes on the other hand, do not boost workplace creativity: internal motivation, not coercion, produces the best work.

Another often forgotten aspect of creativity is social. Vera John-Steiner of the University of New Mexico says that to be really creative you need strong social networks and trusting relationships, not just active neural networks. One vital characteristic of a highly creative person, she says, is that they have at least one other person in their life who doesn’t think they are completely nuts.

Questions

Questions 14 – 17 Do the following statements agree with the information given in Reading Passage? In boxes 14 – 17 on your answer sheet, write:

• YES if the statement agrees with the claims of the writer

• NO if the statement contradicts the claims of the writer

• NOT GIVEN if it is impossible to say what the writer thinks about this

14. People with high IQ are guaranteed to be more creative than those with low IQ.

15. In a competitive society, individuals’ language proficiency is more important than other abilities.

16. A wider range of resources and knowledge can be integrated by more creative people into bringing about creative approaches.

17. A creative person not necessarily suffers more mental illness.

Questions 18 – 22 Use the information in the passage to match the people (listed A-F) with the opinions or deeds below. Write the appropriate letter, A-F, in boxes 18 – 22 on your answer sheet.

List of People:

A Jamison

B Jordan Peterson

C Guy Claxton

D Paul Howard-Jones

E Teresa Amabile

F Vera John-Steiner

18. Instead of producing the negative mood, a shift in mood state might be important in inducing creative thinking.

19. Where individuals achieve more positive moods, there is higher creativity.

20. Good interpersonal relationships and trust contribute to a person with more creativity.

21. Creativity demands an ability to change among different kinds of thinking.

22. Our minds can be upgraded to be more creative if we are put into more practice in assessing and processing ideas.

Questions 23 – 26 Complete the sentences below. Choose NO MORE THAN THREE WORDS from the passage for each answer. Write your answers in boxes 23 – 26 on your answer sheet.

But what of the creative act itself? In 1978, Colin Martindale made records of the pattern of brain waves as people made up stories by applying a system constituted of many 23. _______________. The two phases of creativity, such as 24. _______________ were found. While people were still planning their stories, their brains showed little active sign and the mental activity showed a very relaxed state as the same sort of brain activity as in sleep, dreaming or rest. However, the experiment proved the signal of 22. _______________ went down and the brain became busier, revealing increased cortical arousal, when these people who were in a laidback state were required to produce their stories. Strikingly, it was found the person who was perceived to have the greatest 26. _______________ in brain activity between two stages, produced storylines with the highest level of creativity.

Complete Translation of the Reading Passage

Everyone possesses creativity, though some have significantly more than others. Human development, and quite possibly the evolution of the universe itself, depends on it. Yet creativity remains an elusive concept. What do we actually mean by it? What happens in our brains when ideas take shape? Does the experience feel the same for artists and scientists alike? We spoke with writers, neuroscientists, pop stars, and AI gurus to deconstruct the creative process—and to discover how we can all ignite that inner spark.

In the early 1970s, creativity was still widely regarded as a form of intelligence. However, when more refined tests of IQ and creative skills were developed during that decade—pioneered notably by the father of creativity testing, Paul Torrance—it became evident that the relationship was far from simple. Creative individuals are intelligent, at least according to IQ tests, but generally only to an average or slightly above-average degree. While it varies by discipline, beyond a certain threshold, a higher IQ does not enhance creativity; it is a necessary yet insufficient condition for someone to be creative.

Because studying the actual creative process poses significant challenges, early research largely focused on personality traits. According to creativity specialist Mark Runco from California State University, Fullerton, the “creative personality” tends to place a high value on aesthetic qualities and possesses broad interests, providing a rich reservoir of resources to draw from and knowledge to recombine into novel solutions. Creative individuals are drawn to complexity and possess a strong capacity to handle conflict. They are also typically highly self-motivated, perhaps even slightly obsessive. Conversely, less creative individuals tend to grow frustrated if they cannot immediately fit all the pieces together. They have a lower tolerance for ambiguity. Creativity favors those who wait, but only those who are comfortable doing so amidst a degree of uncertainty.

Yet possessing a creative personality may come at a price. For centuries, a link has been drawn between creativity and mental illness. Psychiatrist Jamison from Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore, Maryland, discovered that established artists are significantly more likely to suffer from mood disorders. However, she also suggests that a shift in mood state, rather than the negative mood itself, may be the key to triggering a creative breakthrough. Intelligence can help channel this cognitive style into remarkable creativity, but when combined with emotional difficulties, lateral, divergent, or open-ended thinking can instead lead to mental illness.

Jordan Peterson, a psychologist at the University of Toronto, Canada, believes he has identified a mechanism that helps explain this phenomenon. He argues that the brains of creative people appear more open to incoming stimuli than those of less creative individuals. Our senses continuously flood our brains with a massive volume of information, most of which must be blocked or filtered out to prevent us from becoming overwhelmed. Peterson terms this process “latent inhibition” and argues that individuals with lower latent inhibition—coupled with a reasonably high IQ and good working memory—can juggle more data, thereby exposing themselves to a wider range of possibilities and ideas. The downside of extremely low latent inhibition can be a disorganized thought style that predisposes individuals to mental illness. Therefore, in Peterson’s view, mental illness is not a prerequisite for creativity, though the two share certain cognitive traits.

But what about the creative act itself? One of the earliest studies on the working creative brain was conducted by Colin Martindale, a psychologist at the University of Maine in Orono. Back in 1978, he utilized a network of scalp electrodes to record an electroencephalogram (EEG)—a record of brainwave patterns—while subjects composed stories. Creativity unfolds in two stages: inspiration and elaboration, each characterized by vastly different mental states. While individuals were brainstorming their stories, he found their brains were surprisingly quiet. The dominant activity consisted of alpha waves, indicating a very low level of cortical arousal: a relaxed state, as though the conscious mind rested quietly while the brain forged connections behind the scenes. This mirrors the brain activity observed during certain stages of sleep, dreaming, or rest, which may explain why sleep and relaxation foster creativity.

However, when these calm-minded individuals were asked to begin writing their stories, alpha wave activity dropped off and their brains grew more active, exhibiting heightened cortical arousal, tighter mental focus, and more organized thinking. Strikingly, the subjects who exhibited the most dramatic shift in brain activity between the inspiration and development stages produced the most creative storylines. Nothing in their baseline brain activity distinguished them as either creative or uncreative. “It’s as if the less creative person simply cannot shift gears,” remarks Guy Claxton, a psychologist at the University of Bristol, UK. “Creativity demands different modes of thinking. Highly creative individuals transition between these states intuitively.” Creativity appears to hinge on mental flexibility: perhaps not a rigid two-step process, but a fluid toggling between two states. In a subsequent study, Martindale discovered that communication between both hemispheres of the brain is equally crucial.

Paul Howard-Jones, who collaborates with Claxton at Bristol, believes he has uncovered another dimension of creativity. He asked participants to compose a story based on three words while scanning their brains using functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI). In one trial, participants were instructed not to overexert themselves and simply report the most obvious story prompted by the words. In another, they were challenged to be inventive. He also varied the words to make connecting them either easier or more difficult. As participants pushed themselves harder and generated more creative tales, activity surged in a specific region of the right prefrontal cortex. Howard-Jones suggests these regions likely play a vital role in monitoring conflict, helping filter out extraneous combinations of words and allowing us to home in on the most meaningful connections. This reveals another facet of creativity, he notes. The story-making task—particularly when we are stretched—generates numerous options that require evaluation. Thus, part of creativity is a conscious process of evaluating and analyzing ideas. The tests also demonstrate that the harder we try and the more our limits are tested, the more creative our minds can become.

Furthermore, creativity does not always have to be a solitary, agonizing endeavor, according to Teresa Amabile of Harvard Business School. While there is a slight correlation between solitary writing or painting and negative moods or emotional turmoil, scientific and workplace creativity are far more likely to flourish when individuals feel positive and upbeat. In a decade-long study of real-world businesses, Amabile found that positive moods correlate directly with workplace creativity in a simple linear relationship. Her team also discovered that creative thinking improves people’s moods, making the process circular. On the other hand, time constraints, financial pressures, and aggressively pursued bonus schemes do not foster workplace creativity: intrinsic motivation, rather than coercion, produces the finest work.

Another frequently overlooked dimension of creativity is social. Vera John-Steiner of the University of New Mexico points out that true creativity requires robust social networks and trusting relationships, not merely active neural networks. One essential characteristic of a highly creative individual, she notes, is having at least one person in their life who doesn’t think they are entirely out of their mind.

Summary of Academic Vocabulary in the Passage

• Elusive (adj): Difficult to find, catch, or achieve; hard to grasp.

• Aesthetic qualities (phrase): Qualities relating to art, beauty, and appreciation of beauty.

• Obsessive (adj): Characterized by or reflecting an obsession; hyper-focused.

• Divergent thinking (phrase): A thought process used to generate creative ideas by exploring many possible solutions.

• Latent inhibition (phrase): A neurological capacity to screen out familiar or background stimuli from previous experience.

• Cortical arousal (phrase): The physiological activation of the cerebral cortex.

• Corralling (v/n): Gathering

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