International Encyclopedia of Communication Online

Extract

Creative facility concerns individual differences in the capacity for fluent production of unique, appropriate verbalizations. That is, there are people who seem particularly adept at coming up with novel spoken responses – people who are said to be “quick witted” or “glib;” who have a “snappy comeback,” or can “think on their feet.” This individual-difference variable is thought to be at least somewhat temporally stable and cross-situational (although certainly there are various factors that impact its manifestation in particular circumstances; →  Individual Differences and Information Processing ; Information Processing ). There is a longstanding tradition of study of individual differences in the capacity for original, flexible ideation, and a considerable amount is known about the phenomenon ( Runco 2004 ). On the other hand, systematic examination of the more specific ability to formulate and produce effective, appropriate messages is a relatively recent development. It is paradoxical that a generally recognized phenomenon like the capacity for fluent novelty has been rather neglected by researchers. There are examples of analyses of such rapid speech production (→  Speech Fluency and Speech Errors ), as in Kuiper's (1996 ) study of auctioneers and sportscasters, but these are relatively few. To a considerable extent, this seeming neglect may be the result of a fundamental ... log in or subscribe to read full text