THE SYMBOL TEST OF ORIGINALITY (STO) WAS STUDIED AND MODIFIED TO SUBSTANTIATE ITS USEFULNESS AND TO MEET SEVERAL CRITERIA FOR TEST CONSTRUCTION--FREEDOM FROM INTELLECTUAL BIAS, SIMPLICITY, OBJECTIVITY, AND DIRECT RELATIONSHIP TO A GENERAL CREATIVITY FACTOR. FROM AN ORIGINAL GROUP OF 4,500 PERSONS RANGING IN AGE FROM 10 TO 25 YEARS, FROM FIFTH GRADE THROUGH COLLEGE, A RANDOM SAMPLING OF 600 WAS DRAWN, BASED ON GRADE LEVEL PERCENTAGES WITHIN THE GENERAL POPULATION. THE FINAL POPULATION NUMBERED 478 WITH 12 SUBGROUPS. THREE MODIFIED VERSIONS OF THE STO AND THE ORIGINAL VERSION WERE SELECTED ALONG WITH ITEMS FROM KISELBACH'S TEST OF AESTHETIC DISCRIMINATION, THURSTON'S HIDDEN FIGURES AND MUTILATED WORDS TESTS, GUILFORD'S BRICK USES TEST, AND MODIFIED FORMS OF TAYLOR'S RELATIONSHIP TEST AND OF A SELF CONCEPT RATING SCALE. BIOGRAPHICAL DATA WERE ALSO GATHERED. THE BATTERY WAS GIVEN TO THE 4,500 SAMPLE, AND ITS ANALYSIS YIELDED VARIABLES OF GENERAL CREATIVITY, VISUAL PERCEPTION, MATURATION, PROCESS STRATEGY, SELF CONCEPT, AND BIOGRAPHICAL INFORMATION. FOLLOWING DATA ANALYSIS WHICH INVOLVED COEFFICIENTS OF CORRELATION, PRINCIPAL COMPONENT FACTOR ANALYSIS, AND VARIMAX ROTATION OF FACTORS, FOUR SIGNIFICANT FACTORS WERE OBSERVED--GENERAL CREATIVITY, INTELLIGENCE, PROCESS STRATEGY, AND MATURATION. CONCLUSIONS MADE WERE (1) THAT GENERAL CREATIVITY COULD BE ISOLATED, ALTHOUGH IT IS A COMPOSITE OF VARYING PROPORTIONS OF SEVERAL PRIMARY CREATIVITY ABILITIES, AND (2) THAT THE CRITERIA SET FOR THE MEASURE WERE APPROPRIATELY MET. A 13-ITEM REFERENCE LIST AND 92-ITEM BIBLIOGRAPHY ARE INCLUDED. AN APPENDIX CONTAINS THE STO, VARIABLE DESCRIPTION, VARIABLE ANALYSIS 15-41, SYMMETRIC CORRELATION MATRIX, ROTATED MATRIX OF FACTOR LOADINGS, AND PROJECT TEST BATTERY. (AA/JP)