Communicability and complexity as predictors of creativity: validity of the Barron-Welsh Art Scale

The construct validity of the Barron-Welsh Art Scale as a measure of creativity was questioned. It was hypothesized that figure preferences of creative subjects are more strongly determined by stimulus communicability than stimulus complexity. In a first study a significant negative relationship between operational measures of communicability and complexity of Barron-Welsh drawing was found. A second study of 24 undergraduate subjects showed communicability to be significantly related to peer ratings of creativity whereas complexity was not. A third study of 60 high school subjects showed that a derived score, reflecting the relative preference for drawings of low communicability and low complexity over those of high communicability and high complexity, was significantly related to staff's ratings of creativity. These results were in direct opposition to an interpretation involving complexity in previous research on the Barron-Welsh Art Scale. An alternative interpretation was discussed.