The relationship between fluid intelligence, divergent and convergent thinking in older adults: The moderating effects of demographic and contextual variables

Abstract

The nature of the relationship between creativity and intelligence is a matter of ongoing debate. It has been investigated in various ways using a range of methods, participants, and measures, leading to conflicting empirical findings and theoretical models. Research suggests that fluid intelligence, convergent and divergent thinking are fundamental to both creativity and intelligence. To contribute towards the creativity-intelligence debate, we investigated the relationships between these constructs in an under-researched sample of older adults (aged 64 years +). Furthermore, associations between these constructs may be influenced by demographic qualities, such as age, sex, and number of languages spoken, as well as contextual factors, such as socioeconomic status (SES) and level of education. Thus, we explored whether fluid intelligence is separately related to convergent and divergent thinking and whether the abovementioned demographic and contextual qualities moderate these relationships. Our findings suggest that both years of education and SES are important in fluid intelligence, divergent and convergent thinking, and, therefore, are likely to be influential in creative thinking. Number of languages spoken had some (negative) association with fluid intelligence but was not significantly related to either convergent or divergent thinking. Further, neither age nor sex were significantly associated with fluid intelligence, divergent thinking, or convergent thinking.