Development and validity of a Dutch version of the Remote Associates Task: An item-response theory approach

The Remote Associates Test (RAT) developed by Mednick and Mednick (1967) is known as a valid measure of creative convergent thinking. We developed a 30-item version of the RAT in Dutch with high internal consistency (Cronbach's alpha = 0.85) and applied both Classical Test Theory and Item Response Theory (IRT) to provide measures of item difficulty and discriminability, construct validity, and reliability. IRT was further used to construct a shorter version of the RAT, which comprises of 22 items but still shows good reliability and validity-as revealed by its relation to Raven's Advanced Progressive Matrices test, another insight-problem test, and Guilford's Alternative Uses Test. (C) 2012 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.