Unraveling Effects of Novelty on Creativity

Novelty is inherent to creative processes. A positive effect of novelty on creative task performance was therefore predicted. However, creativity can benefit from divergent, as well as convergent thinking. Subsequently, novelty may benefit creative performance when divergent thinking is required, but it could inhibit creative performance when convergent thinking is required. In Study 1, participants were primed with novelty or familiarity, and performed a creativity task that required divergent thinking. Results showed a beneficial effect of novelty priming on originality of the answers. In Study 2, a creativity task that required convergent thinking was framed as novel, familiar, or neutral. Results showed an inhibitory effect of novelty on creativity. Results are related to information processing styles, and implications for creativity and novelty research are discussed.     

Characteristics of ADHD Related to Executive Function: Differential Predictions for Creativity-Related Traits

Although the relationship between creativity and ADHD is uncertain, recent studies examining how dimensionally assessed characteristics of ADHD relate to creativity and divergent thinking in adults suggest an occasional positive, linear relationship between the constructs. However, the executive functions proposed to underlie characteristics of ADHD have not been examined in relation to creativity. This study was conducted to determine how different characteristics of ADHD related to executive functioning (as assessed by the Brown ADD Scales) predict different components of figural divergent thinking, intellectual risk-taking, and creative self-efficacy. Undergraduate engineering students (N = 60) completed the Brown ADD Scales, a figural divergent thinking task, and self-report measures of intellectual risk-taking and creative self-efficacy. A series of multivariate regression models demonstrated that several components of divergent thinking (i.e., fluency, originality, and resistance to closure) were predicted by different characteristics of ADHD. Although fluency was predicted by affect only and originality was predicted by activation only, resistance to closure was predicted by activation, effort, and attention. Additionally, intellectual risk-taking was predicted by memory, effort, and activation, whereas creative self-efficacy was predicted by effort. The implications of these results relating to the relationship between ADHD and creativity, as well as for engineering undergraduate education are discussed.     

Creative Potential and Multicultural Experiences: The Mediating Role of Creative Self-Efficacy

In two studies, one in Mexico and another one in Germany, we examined the indirect influence of self-reported multicultural experience on creative potential, through its influence on creative self-efficacy, and its direct influence on creative personal identity. In both studies, business students from Mexico and Germany completed a battery of questionnaires assessing creative self-efficacy (with two different operationalizations), creative personal identity, multicultural experiences, and a divergent thinking task designed to generate ideas to solve two different business problems. Structural equation modeling was used to test our hypotheses. Results from both studies found a positive relationship between self-reported multicultural experiences and creative personal identity. Similarly, multicultural experiences had an indirect, positive relationship with originality scores from a divergent thinking task, through its influence on creative self-efficacy. Hence, the positive influence of multicultural experience on creative potential, through creative self-efficacy, was established in two countries and with different operationalizations, trait like versus state like, of creative self-efficacy. The implications of the results were discussed.     

Does the Eye of the Beholder Construct Beauty? Contributions of Self-Efficacy Factors to Divergent Thinking Traits

The study initiated a project exploring a contribution of creative perception to creative behavior. This study investigated the factors in creative self-perception contributing to creative potential. Creative potential was operationalized as divergent thinking and measured by the Abbreviated Torrance Test for Adults. Creative self-perception was operationalized as creative self-efficacy and assessed by Khatena-Torrance Creative Perception Inventory. Undergraduate college students’ creative self-efficacy was found to make a reliable and measurable contribution to their divergent thinking performance. Specifically, fluency was predicted by initiative and intellectuality, originality—by initiative, and flexibility—by environmental sensitivity and self-strength. These findings suggested that in addition to process, product, person, place, persuasion, and potential perspectives, creativity construct could be evaluated from a standpoint of creative perception.     

创造性倾向对科学问题解决中原型位置效应的影响*

以科学发明创造题目为实验材料,采用“一对一”的实验范式,对创造性问题解决中的创造性倾向与原型位置效应的关系进行了探讨,实验考察了不同创造性倾向个体在创造性问题解决中的原型位置效应,创造性倾向包括想象力、冒险性、好奇性、挑战性四个因素,结果发现:创造性倾向总分、好奇性、挑战性对原型位置效应有影响,而且原型位置效应随着创造性倾向、好奇性、挑战性的降低而显著;想象力、冒险性对原型位置效应的影响不显著。     

Creative Metacognitive Feelings as a Source of Information for Creative Self-efficacy,Creativity Potential,Intrapersonal Idea Selection,and Task Enjoyment

Creativity scholars try to untangle the commonalities and differences between creative self-beliefs: creative self-efficacy, creative self-concept, creative metacognition, and creative role identity. While these efforts are already contributing significantly, we would like to suggest that for creative metacognition, we need to go beyond the assessment of confidence beliefs and regulation and include creative metacognitive feelings and intrapersonal idea selection as two additional components. To test the validity of our proposition, this study examined the influence of creative metacognitive feelings on creative self-efficacy, creative potential, accurate intrapersonal idea selection (agreement between individuals’ selection of their most creative idea and two independent judges’ selection of the participants’ best idea), and task enjoyment. To elicit metacognitive feelings, participants were randomly assigned to remember and write down two or six instances in their lives in which they generated novel and useful ideas that helped solve a problem. Participants then completed a questionnaire assessing creative self-efficacy, ease of recall as a proxy of metacognitive feelings, performance on a divergent thinking task, and task enjoyment. Results showed an indirect influence of recalling fewer examples on creative self-efficacy through its influence on metacognitive feelings. Metacognitive feelings then had an indirect influence, through creative self-efficacy, on creative potential and task enjoyment.     

Enhanced divergent thinking and creativity in musicians: a behavioral and near-infrared spectroscopy study

Empirical studies of creativity have focused on the importance of divergent thinking, which supports generating novel solutions to loosely defined problems. The present study examined creativity and frontal cortical activity in an externally-validated group of creative individuals (trained musicians) and demographically matched control participants, using behavioral tasks and near-infrared spectroscopy (NIRS). Experiment 1 examined convergent and divergent thinking with respect to intelligence and personality. Experiment 2 investigated frontal oxygenated and deoxygenated hemoglobin concentration changes during divergent thinking with NIRS. Results of Experiment 1 indicated enhanced creativity in musicians who also showed increased verbal ability and schizotypal personality but their enhanced divergent thinking remained robust after co-varying out these two factors. In Experiment 2, NIRS showed greater bilateral frontal activity in musicians during divergent thinking compared with nonmusicians. Overall, these results suggest that creative individuals are characterized by enhanced divergent thinking, which is supported by increased frontal cortical activity.     

The cognitive underpinnings of creative thought: A latent variable analysis exploring the roles of intelligence and working memory in three creative thinking processes

The field of creativity has largely focused on individual differences in divergent thinking abilities. Recently, contemporary creativity researchers have shown that intelligence and executive functions play an important role in divergent thought, opening new lines of research to examine how higher-order cognitive mechanisms may uniquely contribute to creative thinking. The present study extends previous research on the intelligence and divergent thinking link by systematically examining the relationships among intelligence, working memory, and three fundamental creative processes: associative fluency, divergent thinking, and convergent thinking. Two hundred and sixty five participants were recruited to complete a battery of tasks that assessed a range of elementary to higher-order cognitive processes related to intelligence and creativity. Results provide evidence for an associative basis in two distinct creative processes: divergent thinking and convergent thinking. Findings also supported recent work suggesting that intelligence significantly influences creative thinking. Finally, working memory played a significant role in creative thinking processes. Recasting creativity as a construct consisting of distinct higher-order cognitive processes has important implications for future approaches to studying creativity within an individual differences framework.     

The Role of Bilingualism in Creative Performance on Divergent Thinking and Invented Alien Creatures Tests

This study continues the effort to investigate the possible influence of bilingualism on an individual's creative potential. The performances of Farsi‐English bilinguals living in the UAE and Farsi monolinguals living in Iran were compared on the Culture Fair Intelligence Test battery and two creativity tests: divergent thinking test (the Abbreviated Torrance Test for Adults) and structured imagination test (Invented Alien Creatures task). The findings of the divergent thinking test revealed that bilingualism facilitates the innovative capacity, the ability to extract novel and unique ideas, but not the generative capacity, the ability to generate and process a large number of unrelated ideas. The findings of the test of structured imagination demonstrated that bilingualism strengthens an ability to violate a standard set of category properties. In addition, the study hints at the construct validity of these two tests of creative functioning. However, the study acknowledges its rather exploratory character as the bilingual and monolingual groups might differ in a number of uncontrolled sociocultural factors that could potentially mediate the effect of bilingualism.     

教师创造性教学行为与小学生创造性思维的关系：有调节的中介模型

以471名小学生为被试,采用儿童报告法考察教师创造性教学行为与小学生创造性思维的关系,同时探析小学生创意自我效能感的中介作用以及开放性人格的调节作用。结果发现:(1)在控制儿童性别、年龄和父母受教育程度后,感知到的教师创造性教学行为显著正向预测小学生创造性思维的流畅性、变通性和独特性;(2)感知到的教师创造性教学行为可以通过创意自我效能感影响小学生创造性思维的流畅性、变通性和独特性;(3)开放性人格能够调节感知到的教师创造性教学行为对小学生创意自我效能感的作用,个体开放性人格水平越高,小学生感知到的教师创造性教学行为对创意自我效能感的预测作用越强。研究表明,创意自我效能感和人格开放性可能是教师创造性教学行为与学生创造性思维关联的重要机制,改善教师的创造性教学行为,提高创意自我效能感和人格开放性水平,有助于促进小学生的创造性思维发展。     

Understanding the Role of Cultural Intelligence in Individual Creativity

Employing creative cognition theory, this study investigates the relationship between cultural intelligence (CQ) and creativity. Using data from 394 full-time employees, metacognitive, cognitive, and motivational forms of CQ were found to have positive relationships with individual creativity. In addition, the positive effect of cognitive CQ on creativity was more pronounced when curiosity was high. However, the influence of metacognitive CQ on creativity was enhanced when curiosity was low. Several contributions to the multicultural creativity literature are offered.     

师生关系对小学生创造性的作用:一个有调节的中介模型

以658名儿童为被试,采用测验法和问卷法考察师生关系与小学生创造性思维的关系,同时探析创新自我效能感的中介作用,以及该作用是否受到开放性人格的调节。结果发现:(1)师生关系对小学生创造性思维、创新效能感均有显著的正向预测作用;(2)创新效能感在师生关系与小学生创造性思维总分、流畅性和独特性得分之间起完全中介作用;(3)开放性可以调节创新效能感对小学生创造性思维的作用,开放性高时效能感的中介效应显著,而开放性低时该效应不显著。这些结果对于综合解释教育过程中环境与个体因素对创造性的作用路径与机制具有重要意义。     

The Impact of Affective States and Affective Shifts on Creative Ideation and Evaluation

This study aims to examine the impact of affective states and affective shifts on ideation and evaluation of creativity. Affects were induced by a two‐stage imagination procedure of recalling autobiographical experiences. Three periods of divergent thinking were measured to represent the participants’ creative ideation at different times. Creative evaluation was measured by estimating the originality of each response provided by the participants. The results indicate that (a) during the initial period of ideation, groups with positive affect obtain better creative ideation than the groups with neutral or negative affect. (b) The ideation in positive affect groups gradually decreases over time, while the ideation in negative affect groups gradually increases over time. (c) During the evaluation of originality, groups with negative affect have a higher proportion of over‐estimates and a lower proportion of under‐estimates than groups with positive affect. The viewpoints of cognitive tuning theory, which posit that the affective state influences creativity, are supported.     

学思维网络活动对小学生创造性的影响:认知风格的调节作用

以89名小学生为被试,采用实验组对照组前后测实验设计,考察学思维网络活动对培养小学生创造性思维和创造性倾向的影响,以及认知风格的调节作用。结果发现：（1）学思维网络活动能有效促进小学生创造性思维以及创造性倾向的想象力和好奇心的发展;（2）学思维课堂活动和学思维网络活动对于培养小学生的创造性思维和创造性倾向具有一致的效果;（3）认知风格在学思维网络活动和学思维课堂活动对小学生创造性思维的影响中起调节作用：对于场依存学生,学思维网络活动能更大程度地提高其流畅性和独创性的表现。     

模糊容忍性与发散性思维的关系：不同认识兴趣的作用

有理论认为,模糊容忍性有助于个体发散性思维的发展,但部分实证研究却呈现出不一致的结论。本文考察了不同认识兴趣在模糊容忍性与发散性思维关系之间的中介和调节作用。结果发现：（1）I型认识兴趣在模糊容忍性和独创性、灵活性、流畅性间起完全中介作用;（2）模糊容忍性与独创性、灵活性的关系受到D型认识兴趣的调节,模糊容忍性与流畅性的关系不受D型认识兴趣的调节。     

How Creativity Was Affected by Environmental Factors and Individual Characteristics: A Cross-cultural Comparison Perspective

The purpose of this study was to explore how environmental factors (family environment and school education) and individual characteristics (personality, creative attitudes, and divergent thinking) collectively affect creative achievement of American and Chinese college students. Data were collected from 378 college students in the United States (N = 193) and China (N = 185). Results showed that the US sample had significantly higher means in home resources, high-school education, Conscientiousness, creative achievement, and all four dimensions of the Abbreviated Torrance Test for Adults (ATTA) than the China sample. In contrast, the China sample scored significantly higher in understanding the importance of creativity. Results indicated creative attitudes and divergent thinking sequentially mediated the effects of parental values on creative achievement for the US sample, whereas Openness mediated the effect of high-school education on creative achievement for the China sample. For both samples, creative attitudes mediated the effect of Openness on divergent thinking. The results suggested cultural differences in the effects of environmental factors on creativity, yet more similar findings in the effects of individual characteristics on creativity between the two samples. The results and implications are discussed.     

An Exploration of Some Antecedents and Consequences of Creative Self‐Efficacy among College Students

Two studies examined the role of task‐, self‐, and other‐approach achievement goals, trait curiosity, and enjoyment as antecedents of creative self‐efficacy and the influence of creative self‐efficacy on grade point average and perceived performance/effort exerted among college business students from Mexico. To test our research hypotheses, we used Structural Equation Modeling treating the variables as latent. Results from study 1 showed that task/self‐approach goal was a significant antecedent of creative self‐efficacy and enjoyment a marginally significant antecedent. Results from study 2 showed a positive, significant influence of trait curiosity on creative self‐efficacy. Similarly, creative self‐efficacy had a positive, direct influence on perceived performance/effort exerted and an indirect influence on students' grade point average. The implications of our results were discussed.     

Dissociative Experiences and Creativity in Fine Arts Students

Studies on creative personality have revealed that the relationship between personality and creativity remains unclear, and various types of creative thinking have been have been associated with various personality traits. To assess the influence of dissociative experiences on creativity in the context of fine arts education, in which the creative process plays a key role, a sample of fine arts students received a test of creative potential and the dissociative experiences test. The results revealed significant differences in creativity (creative imagination and creative experiences) between students scoring high or low in the number of dissociative experiences. High dissociative experiences scores were associated to high scores in creative imagination and creative experiences, and low scores in dissociative experiences were inversely related to creative imagination and creative experiences. Further studies are required to corroborate these findings.     

Creativity Under Concurrent and Sequential Task Conditions

Two experiments were conducted to investigate creativity for realistic divergent thinking problems, under concurrent and sequential task conditions (CTC and STC, respectively). Creativity was judged on divergence, novelty, appropriateness, and fluency of solutions. Results of Experiment I revealed that creativity was significantly higher under CTC than under STC. Embedded Figures Test was employed to rule out a possible alternative explanation that better performance under CTC is due to difference in creative potential between individuals participating under the two task conditions. Experiment II employed a control group to investigate whether difference in creative performance under the two conditions is due to a facilitation effect or a distraction effect, as compared to the control condition. Results showed a significant distraction effect under STC, and indicated, though not significant, a facilitation effect under CTC. Findings are understood in light of the associative theories of creativity, which highlight the role of attentional mechanisms in the creative process. Some indexes for measuring creative performance on realistic divergent thinking tasks are validated against conventional measures.     

Critical Thinking Disposition and Scientific Creativity: The Mediating Role of Creative Self-Efficacy

This study explores the relationship between critical thinking disposition and scientific creativity and examines the hypothesized mediating role played by creative self-concept (trait-like creative self-efficacy). A large sample (N = 1,153) of Chinese high school students filled the Critical Thinking Disposition Inventory and revised trait-like creative self-efficacy scale, and then solved Scientific Creativity Test for Adolescent. Structural equation modeling has demonstrated that students’ critical thinking disposition was positively related to their creative self-concept and scientific creativity, and creative self-concept fully mediated the link between critical thinking disposition and scientific creativity. We discuss these findings in terms of the hypothetical role played by creative self-concept for creative functioning.