Abstract
The creativity research community is in search of a viable cognitive measure providing support for behavioral observations that higher ideational output is often associated with higher creativity (known as the equal-odds rule). One such measure has included divergent thinking: the production of many examples or uses for a common or single object or image. We sought to test the equal-odds rule using a measure of divergent thinking, and applied the consensual assessment technique to determine creative responses as opposed to merely original responses. We also sought to determine structural brain correlates of both ideational fluency and ideational creativity. Two-hundred forty-six subjects were subjected to a broad battery of behavioral measures, including a core measure of divergent thinking (Foresight), and measures of intelligence, creative achievement, and personality (i.e., Openness to Experience). Cortical thickness and subcortical volumes (e.g., thalamus) were measured using automated techniques (FreeSurfer). We found that higher number of responses on the divergent thinking task was significantly associated with higher creativity (r = 0.73) as independently assessed by three judges. Moreover, we found that creativity was predicted by cortical thickness in regions including the left frontal pole and left parahippocampal gyrus. These results support the equal-odds rule, and provide neuronal evidence implicating brain regions involved with “thinking about the future” and “extracting future prospects.”
Highlights
There is a long history, within the creativity literature, noting an association between idea fluency and the associated quality, originality, and/or creativity of the ideas that are produced on divergent thinking tasks (Wallach and Kogan, 1965)
Behavioral Measures All subjects were administered a broad battery of tests; here we focus on the relationship between measures of divergent thinking (Foresight) and other measures of intelligence (Wechsler Abbreviated Scale of Intelligence II, WASI-II), creativity (Creative Achievement Questionnaire, CAQ), and personality (Big Five Aspect Scale, BFAS) relevant to our hypotheses (Wechsler, 1999; Acton and Schroeder, 2001; Carson et al, 2005; DeYoung et al, 2007)
The significant relationship observed between measures of both “fluency” and “creativity” with other proxy measures of creativity, including the CAQ, and Openness, demonstrates convergent validity of this divergent thinking measure
Summary
There is a long history, within the creativity literature, noting an association between idea fluency (the number of ideas generated) and the associated quality, originality, and/or creativity of the ideas that are produced on divergent thinking tasks (Wallach and Kogan, 1965). This notion has since been conceptualized as the “equal-odds rule” by Simonton (1997), which states that “the relationship between the number of hits (i.e., creative successes) and the total number of works produced in a given time period is positive, linear, stochastic, and stable.” This principle has great appeal in that it conforms broadly to evolutionary principles (i.e., there is a variation/selection process; Campbell, 1960), it is parsimonious (Simonton, 1984b), and it conforms to excitatory and inhibitory neuronal processes familiar to the neurosciences (Logothetis, 2008). Kozbelt and Ostrofsky (2013) further hypothesize an interaction of “domain specific knowledge, which is acquired through intensive training” with such variation/selection processes
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