Wu Y, Koutstaal W. Charting the contributions of cognitive flexibility to creativity: Self-guided transitions as a process-based index of creativity-related adaptivity.
PLoS One 2020;
15:e0234473. [PMID:
32525947 PMCID:
PMC7292033 DOI:
10.1371/journal.pone.0234473]
[Citation(s) in RCA: 7] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.8] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 11/28/2019] [Accepted: 05/26/2020] [Indexed: 11/25/2022] Open
Abstract
Creativity is pivotal to solving complex problems of many kinds, yet how
cognitive flexibility dynamically supports creative processes is largely
unexplored. Despite being a crucial multi-faceted contributor in creative
thinking, cognitive flexibility, as typically assessed, does not fully capture
how people adaptively shift between varying or persisting in their current
problem-solving efforts. To fill this theoretical and methodological gap, we
introduce a new operationalization of cognitive flexibility: the process-based
Self-Guided Transition (SGT) measures, which assess when participants
autonomously choose to continue working on one of two concurrently presented
items (dwell length) and how often they choose to switch between the two items
(shift count). We examine how these measures correlate with three diverse
creativity tasks, and with creative performance on a more complex "garden
design" task. Analyses of the relations between these new cognitive flexibility
measures in 66 young adults revealed that SGT dwell length positively correlated
with creative performance across several tasks. The SGT shift count positively
correlated with within-task performance for a two-item choice task tapping
divergent thinking (Alternative Uses Task) but not for a two-item choice task
calling on convergent thinking (Anagram task). Multiple regression analyses
revealed that, taken together, both the shift count and dwell
length measures from the Alternative Uses Task explained a significant
proportion of variance in measures of fluency, and originality, on a composite
measure of the three independently-assessed creative tasks. Relations of SGTs to
the Garden Design task were weaker, though shift count on the Alternative Uses
Task was predictive of a composite measure of overall Garden Design quality.
Taken together, these results highlight the promise of our new process-based
measures to better chart the dynamically flexible processes supporting creative
thinking and action.
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