Divergent Creativity Research Articles

Rounded or angular? How the physical work environment in makerspaces influences makers’ creativity

Makerspaces have become some of the most important environments for nurturing creativity in the 21st century. This study proposed that a rounded versus an angular physical work environment (RA-PWE) in makerspaces has different effects on makers’ divergent and convergent creativity. The results of a survey with makers in 15 makerspaces and two experiments indicated that a rounded physical work environment (Rounded-PWE) was more likely to enhance divergent creativity than an angular physical work environment (Angular-PWE), while an Angular-PWE was more likely to enhance convergent creativity than a Rounded-PWE. The underlying process identified showed that a Rounded-PWE was more likely to activate approach motivation, while an Angular-PWE was more likely to activate avoidance motivation, in turn enhancing divergent or convergent creativity. This study makes theoretical contributions to research on PWE, creativity, and motivation and provides practical implications for managers and designers of makerspaces and other spaces.

Analysis of statistical dependencies between intellectual characteristics and gaming ability, measured with the aid of a computer game

The aim of this paper is testing a computer game as an alternative tool for the assessment of intelligence and creativity of school children. The relevance of the research task is determined by the growing interest in practical psychology in the use of computer games as a special diagnostic tool in educational process. There are two original factor models that have been developed and the structural equation modeling of measured parameters has been carried out. The relationships between game dynamic and final individual results in the computer game, on the one hand, and psychometric intelligence and divergent creativity, on the other, are presented. Weak correlation between the above-mentioned and individually measured intellectual and creativity characteristics of the participants with the computer game results was discovered. Consideration of these characteristics in the form of a common latent factor makes it possible to identify the corresponding dependencies only in some cases when there is a dividing the sample into groups according to their ability level. Particularly, the dynamics of game scoring allows to refer participants to the target group with a certain level of abilities (high intelligence and creativity versus low intelligence and creativity), and it is the high level of psychological traits that determines effectiveness in the game behavior, but not vice versa. The qualitative ratios of the two groups of subsets of participants were revealed: weak, medium and strong players and players with three different levels of psychological abilities. The prospects for the further use of computer games for assessment of cognitive abilities in the measurement of combination of psychological abilities are discussed.

Flexible reconfiguration of functional brain networks as a potential neural mechanism of creativity

Creativity relies on the reorganizing of multimodal information and flexible switching between different modes of thinking, suggesting an association between creativity and the reconfiguration of functional brain networks. Here, we investigated global and regional brain dynamics in high-creative (HCG, N= 22) and a low-creative (LCG, N= 20) groups during a divergent creative thinking task. We found that during the creative thinking task, the HCG demonstrated higher global network flexibility, as compared to the LCG. In addition, creative thinking in the HCG was associated with significantly higher regional flexibility in the medial superior temporal gyrus, superior parietal lobule, precuneus, nucleus accumbens, and the ventral inferior frontal gyrus. Interestingly, the LCG demonstrated decreased regional flexibility in the medial superior temporal gyrus, superior parietal lobule, and the ventral inferior frontal gyrus. We also found that the changes in global and regional flexibility in the creative compared with the control tasks were good features allowing for distinguishing between the HCG and the LCG. Taken together, these findings provide evidence that divergent creative thinking is associated with flexible reconfiguration of brain networks involved in verbal, working memory, and reward processing.

Fluid movements enhance creative fluency: A replication of Slepian and Ambady (2012).

Bodily movements representing abstract concepts (e.g., fluidity) can affect divergent creative thinking. A recent study showed that participants who performed fluid arm movements by tracing curved line-drawings (the fluid condition) subsequently generated a larger number of more original alternative uses for newspapers than did those who traced angular line-drawings (the non-fluid condition). This suggests that fluid movements enhance fluency and originality in divergent creative thinking. To replicate these findings, we employed the same task with a larger Japanese sample. Participants in the fluid condition generated more uses for newspapers than in the non-fluid condition, regardless of confounding variables: mood, subjective difficulty of the tracing, and daily use of newspapers. In contrast to previous findings, there were no effects on originality. Our results suggest that fluidity enacted by arm movements robustly enhances creative fluency, although other factors (e.g., culture) could interfere with its effect on originality.

The Effect Of Treadmill Desk Walking On Creative Thinking

PURPOSE: Most research on treadmill desks in the workplace report no significant change in productivity. However, most of these studies focused on cognitive performance measured by tests in attention, memory or reasoning. While aerobic exercise has been linked to producing a positive effect on creative potential, few studies have tested workplace creativity thinking. The purpose of this study was to examine the effect of treadmill desk walking on convergent and divergent creative thinking. METHODS: Twelve (n=12) male and female college-age students were recruited and completed three tests of creative function: the verbal Guilford’s Alternate Uses Task (VGAT) of divergent thinking, written Guilford’s Alternative Uses Task (WGAT), and the Remote Associations Task (RAT) of convergent thinking. Participants completed all tests while seated at a traditional desk and while walking on a treadmill desk at 1.5 mph. Step length, stride length, and gait cycle were assessed by the OptoGait gait analysis system. A paired sample t-test was used to compare creative test scores and gait variables. RESULTS: There were no significant differences between any test scores while seated and walking (p>0.05). There was no significant difference between baseline gait and divergent thinking (VGAT, WGAT) task gait in any variable (p>0.05). There was a significant increase in step length (p=0.049), stride length (p=0.046), and gait cycle (p=0.039) between the walking only condition and the treadmill desk walking during the RAT. CONCLUSIONS: Results of this study suggest neither convergent nor divergent creative thinking are improved when walking on a treadmill desk. While gait patterns are not changed during divergent thinking, this study suggests gait during convergent thinking may be altered.

Effects of transcranial direct current stimulation of left and right inferior frontal gyrus on creative divergent thinking are moderated by changes in inhibition control

Divergent thinking (DT) as one component of creativity is the ability to search for multiple solutions to a single problem and is reliably tested with the Alternative Uses Task (AUT). DT depends on activity in the inferior frontal gyrus (IFG), a prefrontal region that has also been associated with inhibitory control (IC). Experimentally manipulating IC through transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS) led to alterations in DT. Here, we aimed at further examining such potential mediating effects of IC on DT (measured as flexibility, fluency, and originality in the AUT) by modulating IC tDCS. Participants received either cathodal tDCS (c-tDCS) of the left IFG coupled with anodal tDCS (a-tDCS) of the right IFG (L−R + ; N = 19), or the opposite treatment (L + R−; N = 21). We hypothesized that L + R− stimulation would enhance IC assessed with the Go NoGo task (GNGT), and that facilitated IC would result in lower creativity scores. The reversed stimulation arrangement (i.e., L− R +) should result in higher creativity scores. We found that tDCS only affected the originality component of the AUT but not flexibility or fluency. We also found no effects on IC, and thus, the mediation effect of IC could not be confirmed. However, we observed a moderation effect: inhibition of left and facilitation of right IFG (L−R +) resulted in enhanced flexibility and originality scores, only when IC performance was also improved. We conclude that inducing a right-to-left gradient in IFG activity by tDCS is efficient in enhancing DT, but only under conditions where tDCS is sufficient to alter IC performance as well.

Modulation of hippocampal brain networks produces changes in episodic simulation and divergent thinking

Prior functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) studies indicate that a core network of brain regions, including the hippocampus, is jointly recruited during episodic memory, episodic simulation, and divergent creative thinking. Because fMRI data are correlational, it is unknown whether activity increases in the hippocampus, and the core network more broadly, play a causal role in episodic simulation and divergent thinking. Here we employed fMRI-guided transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS) to assess whether temporary disruption of hippocampal brain networks impairs both episodic simulation and divergent thinking. For each of two TMS sessions, continuous θ-burst stimulation (cTBS) was applied to either a control site (vertex) or to a left angular gyrus target region. The target region was identified on the basis of a participant-specific resting-state functional connectivity analysis with a hippocampal seed region previously associated with memory, simulation, and divergent thinking. Following cTBS, participants underwent fMRI and performed a simulation, divergent thinking, and nonepisodic control task. cTBS to the target region reduced the number of episodic details produced for the simulation task and reduced idea production on divergent thinking. Performance in the control task did not statistically differ as a function of cTBS site. fMRI analyses revealed a selective and simultaneous reduction in hippocampal activity during episodic simulation and divergent thinking following cTBS to the angular gyrus versus vertex but not during the nonepisodic control task. Our findings provide evidence that hippocampal-targeted TMS can specifically modulate episodic simulation and divergent thinking, and suggest that the hippocampus is critical for these cognitive functions.

Traumatic brain injury and creative divergent thinking

ABSTRACT Primary Objective The current study examined how creative divergent thinking (i.e., the ability to produce varied and original solutions to a problem) is impacted by moderate-to-severe traumatic brain injury (TBI). Research Design Descriptive, observational. Methods and Procedures We administered two tasks of divergent thinking, the Abbreviated Torrance Test for Adults (ATTA) and the Alternative Uses Test (AUT), as well as a battery of neuropsychological tests and psychosocial variables (assessing memory and learning, processing speed, set shifting and psychological distress), to 29 individuals with TBI and 20 demographically-matched healthy comparison participants. Main Outcomes and Results Individuals with TBI performed similarly to healthy individuals on both tests of creative thinking, although they were impaired on the neuropsychological tasks. Moreover, there was no significant correlation between performance on the ATTA and performance on neuropsychological tests, but within the TBI group AUT performance and memory were significantly and positively associated. Conclusions Our findings reveal that divergent thinking, as measured by the ATTA and AUT, might be spared following moderate-to-severe TBI. These findings further our understanding of the higher-level cognitive sequelae of TBI and suggest that divergent thinking might be leveraged during treatment planning.

Studying the effects of visual movement on creativity

Many studies have shown that physical activity, especially walking, tends to stimulate certain cognitive functions, including divergent creativity. The objective of this study was to understand whether some of this gain comes from the perception of movement, and not merely physical activity itself. 32 participants carried out divergent and convergent creativity tasks in a virtual reality environment consisting of a train inside a tunnel, while wearing a Head-Mounted-Display (HMD). For half of the participants, the virtual train was running, and they could therefore see tunnel lamps passing by through the windows. For the other half, the train was stationary. The results of this study indicate that participants perform better at tasks that require divergent creativity when the virtual environment is moving than when it is at a standstill. These results lead to recommendations for the design of tools and environments for meetings and creativity workshops.

Default network contributions to episodic and semantic processing during divergent creative thinking: A representational similarity analysis

Cognitive and neuroimaging evidence suggests that episodic and semantic memory—memory for autobiographical events and conceptual knowledge, respectively—support different aspects of creative thinking, with a growing number of studies reporting activation of brain regions within the default network during performance on creative thinking tasks. The present research sought to dissociate neural contributions of these memory processes by inducing episodic or semantic retrieval orientations prior to performance on a divergent thinking task during fMRI. We conducted a representational similarity analysis (RSA) to identify multivoxel patterns of neural activity that were similar across induction (episodic and semantic) and idea generation. At the behavioral level, we found that semantic induction was associated with increased idea originality, assessed via computational estimates of semantic distance between concepts. RSA revealed that multivoxel patterns during semantic induction and subsequent idea generation were more similar (compared to episodic induction) within the left angular gyrus (AG), posterior cingulate cortex (PCC), and left anterior inferior parietal lobe (IPL). Conversely, activity patterns during episodic induction and subsequent generation were more similar within left parahippocampal gyrus and right anterior IPL. Together, the findings point to dissociable contributions of episodic and semantic memory processes to creative cognition and suggest that distinct regions within the default network support specific memory-related processes during divergent thinking.

Convergent Thinking Moderates the Relationship between Divergent Thinking and Scientific Creativity

Creativity plays an important role in human society as well as in individual development, and creativity in the domain of science is a specific form. A body of research had demonstrated the role of divergent thinking in creativity. The role of convergent thinking had also been recognized, but more empirical evidence was needed. To investigate the interaction between convergent and divergent thinking on adolescent scientific creativity, the current study tested 588 high school students. The results showed that convergent thinking interacted with fluency/flexibility of divergent thinking on scientific creativity. In particular, divergent thinking predicted creativity in those high in convergent thinking. Findings suggested a threshold-setting effect of convergent thinking, which meant only when convergent thinking capacity reached a certain level, divergent thinking could play a role in scientific creativity. Implications for future research and educational practice were discussed.

Effects of a Daytime Nap on Primed and Repeated Remote Associates Tests and Relations with Divergent Creativity

The effect of napping versus wakefulness was studied on primed and repeated Remote Associate Tests (RATs) and on divergent creativity tests. The participants were 42 students from the USA, studying international courses at a Swedish university. The hypotheses for the RATs were (1), when the correct answers were primed before the nap, the RAT should be solved better for those who entered REM sleep, compared to those with no REM sleep or a resting condition; and (2), when retested the RAT should be solved better after a nap than after rest. For the creativity tests, hypothesis (3) was that creativity should be higher after the nap than after rest. Hypothesis 1 and hypothesis 3 were not supported. Hypothesis 2 was supported in an ANOVA. The REM group improved more than the rest group on the repeated RAT. Also, the No-REM and rest groups differed, strengthening the importance of both REM and No-REM sleep for creative problem-solving.

Creativity and involvement in art in different types of synaesthesia.

The aim of the present study was to test the relationship between different types of synaesthesia and their involvement in art, creative, and visual abilities. We tested 20 grapheme‐colour, 18 sound‐colour, 19 grapheme‐colour‐and‐sound‐colour, 20 sequence‐space synaesthetes, and the same number of controls matched by age, gender, and education. We assessed the number of artistic professions, involvement in art, and the performance in psychometric tests of divergent and convergent creativity, as well as visual and visuo‐spatial abilities. Results show a higher prevalence of artists among synaesthetes, especially sound‐colour synaesthetes. Sound‐colour synaesthetes also showed a higher involvement in artistic activities overall while sequence‐space synaesthetes showed higher involvement in visual art. Only grapheme‐colour‐and‐sound‐colour synaesthetes showed significantly higher divergent creativity compared to matched controls. Additionally, overall, synaesthetes scored higher in visuo‐spatial abilities (i.e., mental rotation). For synaesthetes and controls, visuo‐spatial abilities correlated with divergent creativity. We discuss that synaesthetes’ higher involvement in art is not necessarily reflected in their basic creative abilities.

Возможности компьютерной игры «Plines» как инструмента диагностики комплексов когнитивных способностей школьников

The article presents the results of an empirical study of the interrelation between dynamic and total individual performance indicators of gaming behavior in the "PLines" game with test measurements of general intelligence and divergent creativity (N = 151). It is demonstrated that the dynamics of point accumulation in the game can be used, with a great likelihood, for relating subjects to determined groups with a certain level of ability (high intelligence and creativity vs low intelligence and creativity). The data that it is the high-test indicators of cognitive abilities that determine the effectiveness of the gaming behavior of the subjects, and not vice versa is another fundamental result of the study. The subjects of discussion are the prospects for further use of this computer game in the diagnosis of ability sets in real life, the need to expand the pool of investigated psychological indicators that contribute to decision making in a situation of uncertainty, and the benefits of referring to the procedural characteristics of solving problems in psychological diagnostics.

The Experimental Effects of Acute Walking on Cognitive Creativity Performance

To examine the experimental effects of acute moderate-intensity walking exercise on cognitive creativity. Twenty young adults (Mage = 21.3 yrs) completed a within-subject experimental protocol involving three trials on a single laboratory visit. Trials 1 and 2 were control trials involving creativity task performance. Following Trial 2, participants completed a 15-minute acute bout of treadmill walking exercise. After this, participants completed the Trial 3 creativity assessment. For all trials, both convergent (Remote Associates Task) and divergent (Alternative Uses Task) creativity was assessed. There was no statistically significant experimental effect of acute exercise on convergent creativity performance (F=0.48; P=.62; η2=.05). Results were similar for divergent creativity. Our findings do not provide evidence that acute walking enhances cognitive creativity.

Prefrontal Activity Measured by Functional Near Infrared Spectroscopy During Divergent and Convergent Thinking in Bipolar Disorder.

Biographical research as well as some controlled studies point out to a relationship between bipolar disorder (BD) and creativity. Neurobiological underpinnings of this relationship are unclear. Although there is no consensus on the definition of creativity, Alternative uses Test (AuT) and Remote Association Test (RAT) are frequently used to measure convergent and divergent creativity. We aimed to examine prefrontal cortex (PFC) activity with functional near-infrared spectroscopy (fNIRS) during the RAT and AuT tests in subjects with BD. We measured PFC activity in subjects with remitted BD (N=31) and healthy control subjects (N=27) with fNIRS during divergent and convergent thinking tasks (AuT and RAT respectively). We were particularly interested in the antero-posterior dissociation of the activity within the PFC according to the two task domains. We found that the index subjects displayed lower performance than healthy controls during the AuT and the RAT. AuT and RAT were associated with different activities in the two groups. Anterior PFC (aPFC) activity was higher than posterior PFC (pPFC) activity during the RAT in the index group, and during the AuT in the control group. aPFC activity was negatively correlated with the RAT performance in the index group. Higher activity in the aPFC may be the functional neuro-anatomical correlate of low convergent creativity performance in BD.

Drinking tea improves the performance of divergent creativity

Previous research has found that tea improves performance on convergent creativity tasks, such as the Remote Associates Test, by inducing a positive mood. However, there is no empirical evidence regarding the effect of tea drinking on performance in divergent creativity tasks. Using two experiments, the current research investigates the relationship between tea consumption and divergent creativity. In both experiments, participants were randomly assigned to two groups and implicitly manipulated to drink tea or water. In experiment 1 (N = 50), we used a block-building task as a measure of divergent creativity in spatial cognition. The results showed that the participants who drank tea performed better in the spatial creativity task assigned in the 10 min immediately following tea consumption than did those who drank water. In experiment 2 (N = 40), we adopted the restaurant naming task as a measure of divergent creativity in semantic cognition. The results showed that the participants who drank tea received higher scores in the semantic creativity task compared to those who drank water. The current research demonstrates that drinking tea can improve creative performance with divergent thinking. This work contributes to understanding the function of tea on creativity and offers a new way to investigate the relationship between food and beverage consumption and the improvement of human cognition.

Neural Mechanisms of Episodic Retrieval Support Divergent Creative Thinking.

Prior research has indicated that brain regions and networks that support semantic memory, top-down and bottom-up attention, and cognitive control are all involved in divergent creative thinking. Kernels of evidence suggest that neural processes supporting episodic memory-the retrieval of particular elements of prior experiences-may also be involved in divergent thinking, but such processes have typically been characterized as not very relevant for, or even a hindrance to, creative output. In the present study, we combine functional magnetic resonance imaging with an experimental manipulation to test formally, for the first time, episodic memory's involvement in divergent thinking. Following a manipulation that facilitates detailed episodic retrieval, we observed greater neural activity in the hippocampus and stronger connectivity between a core brain network linked to episodic processing and a frontoparietal brain network linked to cognitive control during divergent thinking relative to an object association control task that requires little divergent thinking. Stronger coupling following the retrieval manipulation extended to a subsequent resting-state scan. Neural effects of the episodic manipulation were consistent with behavioral effects of enhanced idea production on divergent thinking but not object association. The results indicate that conceptual frameworks should accommodate the idea that episodic retrieval can function as a component process of creative idea generation, and highlight how the brain flexibly utilizes the retrieval of episodic details for tasks beyond simple remembering.

Happy creativity: Listening to happy music facilitates divergent thinking.

Creativity can be considered one of the key competencies for the twenty-first century. It provides us with the capacity to deal with the opportunities and challenges that are part of our complex and fast-changing world. The question as to what facilitates creative cognition—the ability to come up with creative ideas, problem solutions and products—is as old as the human sciences, and various means to enhance creative cognition have been studied. Despite earlier scientific studies demonstrating a beneficial effect of music on cognition, the effect of music listening on creative cognition has remained largely unexplored. The current study experimentally tests whether listening to specific types of music (four classical music excerpts systematically varying on valance and arousal), as compared to a silence control condition, facilitates divergent and convergent creativity. Creativity was higher for participants who listened to ‘happy music’ (i.e., classical music high on arousal and positive mood) while performing the divergent creativity task, than for participants who performed the task in silence. No effect of music was found for convergent creativity. In addition to the scientific contribution, the current findings may have important practical implications. Music listening can be easily integrated into daily life and may provide an innovative means to facilitate creative cognition in an efficient way in various scientific, educational and organizational settings when creative thinking is needed.

Working Memory Capacity, Mind Wandering, and Creative Cognition: An Individual-Differences Investigation into the Benefits of Controlled Versus Spontaneous Thought.

Should executive control, as indicated by working memory capacity (WMC) and mind-wandering propensity, help or hinder creativity? Sustained and focused attention should help guide a selective search of solution-relevant information in memory and help inhibit uncreative, yet accessible, ideas. However, unfocused attention and daydreaming should allow mental access to more loosely relevant concepts, remotely linked to commonplace solutions. Three individual-differences studies inserted incubation periods into one or two divergent thinking tasks and tested whether WMC (assessed by complex span tasks) and incubation-period mind wandering (assessed as probed reports of task-unrelated thought [TUT]) predicted post-incubation performance. Retrospective self-reports of Openness (Experiment 2) and mind-wandering and daydreaming propensity (Experiment 3) complemented our thought-probe assessments of TUT. WMC did not correlate with creativity in divergent thinking, whereas only the questionnaire measure of daydreaming, but not probed thought reports, weakly predicted creativity; the fact that in-the-moment TUTs did not correlate divergent creativity is especially problematic for claims that mind-wandering processes contribute to creative cognition. Moreover, the fact that WMC tends to strongly predict analytical problem solving and reasoning, but may not correlate with divergent thinking, provides a useful boundary condition for defining WMC's nomological net. On balance, our data provide no support for either benefits or costs of executive control for at least one component of creativity.