Training creative cognition: adolescence as a flexible period for improving creativity
Claire E Stevenson1, Sietske W Kleibeuker2, Carsten K W de Dreu3
1Brain and Development Lab, Developmental and Educational Psychology Department, Institute of Psychology, Leiden University Leiden, Netherlands ; Methodology and Statistics Department, Institute of Psychology, Leiden University Leiden, Netherlands.
Frontiers in Human Neuroscience
|November 18, 2014
Summary
Creative ideation training significantly improves creative thinking skills in both adolescents and adults. Adolescents showed greater gains in originality, suggesting enhanced learning sensitivity during this developmental stage.
Area of Science:
- Cognitive Psychology
- Developmental Psychology
- Neuroscience
Background:
- Creativity, defined as novel and feasible idea generation, develops across the lifespan.
- Previous research suggests adults outperform adolescents on the alternative uses task (AUT), a measure of creative ideation.
Purpose of the Study:
- To investigate if practicing alternative uses generation can enhance creative ideation performance.
- To compare the effectiveness of creative ideation training in adolescents and adults.
Main Methods:
- Seventy-one adolescents (13-16 years) and 61 adults (23-30 years) underwent one of three training conditions over two weeks.
- Training included: (1) alternative uses generation (creative ideation), (2) object characteristic generation (general ideation), or (3) rule-switching (control).
- Creative ideation (fluency, flexibility, originality) and cognitive flexibility were assessed before and after training.
Main Results:
- Participants improved in creative ideation and cognitive flexibility, irrespective of training type.
- All training groups showed enhanced fluency and originality on the AUT.
- Adolescents demonstrated greater improvements in originality compared to adults, particularly in response to training.
Conclusions:
- Creative ideation and cognitive flexibility can be improved through targeted practice.
- Adolescence appears to be a sensitive period for learning and cognitive enhancement due to increased brain plasticity.
- Findings support the hypothesis that adolescence is a developmental stage characterized by heightened flexibility for learning and exploration.
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