Uncovering Behavioral Patterns in Creative Thinking: Utilizing and Interpreting PISA 2022 Process Data

Examining cognitive dynamics in the creative process is crucial for advancing creative theories and creativity education but has been historically understudied due to the technical challenges in collecting fine-grained data underlying cognitive processes. The PISA 2022 Creative Thinking assessment has the potential to address this limitation by offering rich, technology-based process data that capture cognitive and affective dynamics. To explore this potential, we outlined key topics and theoretical foundations in creativity research related to process data, followed by an illustrative example demonstrating how process data can illuminate creative thinking processes simply using descriptive statistics of released items. Furthermore, we delineated model-based approaches, including data mining techniques and extended item response theory models, to uncover various behavioral patterns in creative thinking through integrating process data and item responses together. While PISA 2022 process data provide valuable insights into creative thinking, strong theoretical support is recommended to compute new variables from original process data metrics and choose appropriate statistical methodologies for nuanced and valid interpretations. We further discussed challenges and recommendations for utilizing the PISA 2022 CT process data.