The mean response time to 99 stimulus words of the Kent-Rosanoff Word Association Test was used to differentiate creative subjects from two homogeneous groups of psychiatric inpatients, one with depressive disorders and another with schizophrenic disorders. The creative group had significantly faster mean response times than the depressive group. While the schizophrenic group did not differ significantly from the creative or depressive groups, speed of responding in the schizophrenic group ranked both slower than the creative group and a good deal faster than the. depressives. These results do not support previous claims of a connection between depressive illness and creativity. The role of level of creative achievement and social success in relation to depressive symptomatology is briefly discussed.
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