How does emotion influence different creative performances? The mediating role of cognitive flexibility

Area of Science:

• Psychology
• Cognitive Science
• Neuroscience

Background:

• Cognitive flexibility is theorized to mediate the positive impact of emotions on creativity.
• Empirical evidence for this mediating role, especially across different creative tasks, remains limited.

Purpose of the Study:

• To investigate the mediating role of cognitive flexibility in the relationship between positive emotions and two distinct types of creative performance: divergent thinking and insight problem-solving.
• To examine how emotional states influence cognitive flexibility and creative outcomes.

Main Methods:

• 120 participants were assigned to positive, neutral, or negative emotional states.
• Cognitive flexibility was assessed using a switch task.
• Creative performance was measured via an open-ended divergent thinking test and a closed-ended insight problem-solving task.

Main Results:

• Positive emotional states reduced switch costs and improved both divergent thinking and insight problem-solving.
• Cognitive flexibility fully mediated the effect of positive emotion on insight problem-solving, but not on divergent thinking.
• Divergent thinking was more strongly associated with arousal levels than cognitive flexibility.

Conclusions:

• Positive emotions enhance creativity through distinct mechanisms depending on the creative task.
• Cognitive flexibility is a key mediator for insight problem-solving under positive affect.
• Arousal may play a more significant role in driving divergent thinking than cognitive flexibility.