Academic achievement and creative thinking capacity in South African medical students--an empirical study.
OBJECTIVE
To assess whether the capacity for creative thinking among medical students is related to academic advancement.


METHODS
A timed word-association test standardised and scored to assess the tendency for creative thinking was administered to 22 development programme students at the University of Cape Town. Results were compared with grades at the end of the academic year.


CONCLUSIONS
There was a significant association (P < 0.05) between ranking in the upper half of the group and creative thinking scores, indicating that creative thinking may be an asset in medical education for educationally disadvantaged students.
Rothenberg
Albert
A
Department of Psychiatry, Harvard University, USA.
D000124:Achievement; D003405:Creativity; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D013019:South Africa; D013337:Students, Medical / Q000523:psychology*; D014936:Word Association Tests