Imagination Quotient tests could lead to smartphone app that boosts your creativity

Psychologists are working on ways to improve people's ability to imagine

Psychologists are working on ways to improve people's ability to imagine through an app (AFP/Getty Images)

Imagine being able to measure your mind’s creative ability in the same way that you can assess your IQ.

That might not be a thing of fantasy for much longer, as researchers are developing new psychometric tests to evaluate a person’s Imagination Quotient – or ImQ. They plan to use the tests to develop an app that could help improve the creativity of struggling artists and writers.

A team of psychologists at Goldsmiths, University of London have been focusing on cognitive functions – the ability to think about things that may not be in front of you.

And now, thanks to new grant funding, they are also working on ways to develop and improve peoples’ ability to imagine, in a two-year project aimed at finding out how to stimulate creativity.

Dr Sophie von Stumm and her colleagues are planning to produce a smartphone “imagination app” that will allow people to strengthen their imaginations through daily exercises. To do so, Goldsmiths psychologists have been structuring a new test.

“We will develop new psychometric tests to assess imagination, and then validate them in several studies,” Dr von Stumm said.

“Imagination is really important for people, and everyone is very different. We’ll be able to better understand the relationship between imagination and intelligence. It’s not something to pit against IQ. It’s another piece of the puzzle to add on top – a core determinant of learning and achievement, and a big measurement of cognitive ability.”

Dr von Stumm explained that the test would look at how quickly people responded to stimuli such as being asked whether “they have their head in the clouds”, and will probe their “flight of ideas”.

Four hundred people – a mix of 200 students from Goldsmiths, UCL and King’s College, and 200 working in the retail business sector – will be quizzed.

“We will find ways to improve imagination that everybody can use,” Dr von Stumm added, saying the app “will be the greatest contribution of our project to society, because imagination is at the core of our everyday thinking and behaviour”.

Imagination is defined as the creation of mental representations, such as images, sensations and concepts, which are not perceived at the same time by the senses.

Despite being such a key part of psychological development, it remains largely uncharted territory. There are few ways to analyse it, and little is known about what impact it actually has.

To help change this, 16 institutions including Goldsmiths are being funded to develop the ImQ by a $3m research grant from the Imagination Institute, which is based at the University of Pennsylvania and supported by the John Templeton Foundation.

Christopher Stawski, vice-president of strategic programme initiatives at the foundation, said earlier this month: “Many might think imagination can’t be measured. But by supporting this ambitious scientific research programme, we hope to better understand how to encourage and cultivate the imaginative capacities of individuals and society to increase human potential and flourishing.”