1. Decreases in divergent thinking across age groups from 2005 to 2018 amongst school children in Sudan
- Author
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Salaheldin Fararh Attallah Bakhiet, Edward Dutton, Hatim Abdelrahman Warrag Ali, Guy Madison, Homoud Abdullah Saad Almoghyrah, Sultan Howedey Sultan Al-Mutairy, Yossry Ahmed Sayed Essa, Abdulelah Abdullah Saleh alruwaitea, and Abdulrahman Saad Rashd Aljbr
- Subjects
Creativity ,Flynn effect ,Negative Flynn effect ,Torrance ,Sudan ,Psychology ,BF1-990 - Abstract
Performances on tests of creativity have been found to be in decline in the USA. Here, we explore scores on divergent thinking tests in private schools in Khartoum State in Sudan by comparing a 2005 and a 2018 administration of the Torrance Standardized Circles test to 8- to 12-year-olds of both sexes. We find a decline across the period in all three dimensions of the test (Fluency, Flexibility and Originality), as well as in the overall index of divergent thinking. In line with much previous research, females consistently outperform males. Examining previous studies that report Negative Flynn Effects on IQ in Arab countries, we conclude that our results most likely reflect highly localized and exclusively environmental causes, and caution against assuming that the same processes that underlie Negative Flynn Effects in the West, whether on IQ or any trait correlated with it, also underlie it in the Arab World.
- Published
- 2022
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