Forward flow-an alternative interpretation: Comment on Gray et al. (2019)

Gray et al. (2019) proposed a new construct to predict creativity, which they called forward flow, measured as the originality of chained word associations. Chained word associations, however, do not meet the requirements of a test of originality. The items ask for only 1 response when multiple responses are needed to assess originality, and the sequential responding means that the items are not independent as required for a test. Also, the originality of the associations is questionably calculated from the starting word instead of in relation to the preceding cue word. Probably because of these problems, scores on the new construct measured in this way show only weak correlations with scores on standard measures of creativity.