“Complete the Drawing!”: The Relationship between Imagination and Executive Functions in Children

Nikolay Veraksa,Margarita Gavrilova,Aleksander Veraksa

doi:10.3390/educsci12020103

Abstract

An indirect connection between executive functioning and imagination was revealed earlier in the study of pretend play. This study aimed to explore the relationship between imagination and executive functions in children. Two-hundred-six typically developing children aged 6–7 years were assessed with main executive functions (working memory, inhibition, and cognitive flexibility) and nonverbal imagination (imagination flexibility, image detailedness, image creation strategy, and originality coefficient). Three General Linear Models were built to examine the relationship between executive functions and imagination among children, controlling for age and gender. The obtained results indicate a positive correlation between such characteristics of imagination as originality and flexibility with visual-spatial working memory and cognitive flexibility. However, the data also show that the children who creatively approach the production of new images often experience difficulties with inhibition tasks. The results are interpreted in the context of the educational system and cultural specificities.

Highlights

Imagination is traditionally understood as a universal creative ability that allows the production of new images, combinations, and conjunctions [1,2]
We analyzed gender differences in the development of imagination and executive functions to include them in our further analysis
No differences were revealed in the score for executive functions of boys and girls (p > 0.05)

Summary

Introduction

Imagination is traditionally understood as a universal creative ability that allows the production of new images, combinations, and conjunctions [1,2]. In the earliest stages of his work on the theory of cognitive development, Piaget understood imagination to represent our reality, associated with subjectivism and distortion of the image of the objective world [12]. Later, this approach switched to the function of imagination as using an idea for anticipating and forecasting the situation dynamics or the behavior of objects [13]. Last but not least is the anticipating function: imagination contains the idea and the representation of the goal of one’s actions In his works on the psychology of art, Vygotsky concluded that our imagination works the most productively under the condition of “unity of affect and intelligence.” [18]. This means that including all personal experiences is required (intellectual, emotional, and behavioral) [19]

Objectives

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Results