Torrance Thinking Creatively in Action and Movement

Thinking Creatively in Action and Movement (TCAM) was developed by E. Paul Torrance in 1981. Scholastic Testing Service, Inc. holds the copyright. The TCAM is designed to measure fluency, originality, and imagination in children age 3 to 8 through various movement and manipulation exercises.

The test consists of four activities:

• Activity I, “How Many Ways?” is used to observe the child's ability to move in alternate ways across the floor.
• Activity II, “Can You Move Like?” asks the child to move like animals or a tree.
• Activity III, “What Other Ways?” has the child place a paper cup in a wastebasket in alternate ways.
• Activity IV, “What Might It Be?” involves the child coming up with a variety of uses for a paper cup.

The activities use paper cups, a wastebasket, pencils, and strips of red and yellow tape. The TCAM is administered individually, and it takes about 15 minutes. There is no time limit, but the administrator should keep a record of the time used. It is recommended that time be limited to a period that will not overly fatigue the child (generally 10–30 minutes). Only one child should be in the activity room, with enough space for movement. Warm-up and motivational procedures are suggested before administration so that children can relax and have fun with the activities.

The examiner records the variety of verbal and kinetic responses. A clear and easy-to-follow scoring guide is provided, with directions for scoring and administration procedures. Activities I, III, and IV are scored for fluency and originality. Activity II is scored for imagination. Fluency scores are the number of relevant responses; originality scores range from 0 to 3 points for each response and are based on an originality list derived from the statistical frequency of responses; and imagination scores are based on a 5-point Likert scale ranging from “no movement” to “excellent; like the thing.”

Norms for the TCAM are based on 1,896 children, age 3 to 8 years old, from 11 states and Guam, with equal representation among Whites and Blacks. Tables for converting raw scores to standard scores (M = 100; SD = 20) are reported only for 3- to 6-year-olds.

Interscorer reliability coefficients were reported as .90 to .99. Test-retest reliability coefficients were .84 for a sample of twenty 3- to 5-year-olds for a 2-week interval, and .71 to .89 for a sample of thirty 7- to 8-year-old boys with learning disabilities for 1- to 14-day intervals. In this study, the alpha coefficient for the test internal consistency was .79.

Validity studies showed significant positive correlations between TCAM and other characteristics of creativity, such as a modified Piaget measure of divergent thinking, a divergent problem-solving-based mathematics test, the production of humor, and the Multidimensional Stimulus Fluency Measure.

There are many advantages of using the TCAM. Studies found no evidence of bias for sex, socioeconomic status, or race. Another advantage is that the TCAM can be used with children with impairments, such as those who are emotionally disturbed or deaf and those who have behavior disorders or physical disabilities. Furthermore, the use of movement is an appropriate means of reaching young children's creativity because it makes sense to children and can be administered in a playful, gamelike environment, rather than a sterile, testlike situation. Last, the TCAM is useful for teaching creative movement and brain-storming techniques, which can foster creativity in young children. One concern, however, is that the TCAM has not been renormed nor have the originality lists been updated since 1981. Because of this, the credibility of the norms and originality scores can be questioned, because responses may have changed between 1981 and the present.

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