Does Creativity Influence Visual Perception? - An Event-Related Potential Study With Younger and Older Adults

Classification of age groups and task conditions provides additional evidence for differences in electrophysiological correlates of inhibitory control across the lifespan

The aim of this study was to extend previous findings on selective attention over a lifetime using machine learning procedures. By decoding group membership and stimulus type, we aimed to study differences in the neural representation of inhibitory control across age groups at a single-trial level. We re-analyzed data from 211 subjects from six age groups between 8 and 83 years of age. Based on single-trial EEG recordings during a flanker task, we used support vector machines to predict the age group as well as to determine the presented stimulus type (i.e., congruent, or incongruent stimulus). The classification of group membership was highly above chance level (accuracy: 55%, chance level: 17%). Early EEG responses were found to play an important role, and a grouped pattern of classification performance emerged corresponding to age structure. There was a clear cluster of individuals after retirement, i.e., misclassifications mostly occurred within this cluster. The stimulus type could be classified above chance level in ~ 95% of subjects. We identified time windows relevant for classification performance that are discussed in the context of early visual attention and conflict processing. In children and older adults, a high variability and latency of these time windows were found. We were able to demonstrate differences in neuronal dynamics at the level of individual trials. Our analysis was sensitive to mapping gross changes, e.g., at retirement age, and to differentiating components of visual attention across age groups, adding value for the diagnosis of cognitive status across the lifespan. Overall, the results highlight the use of machine learning in the study of brain activity over a lifetime.

The effect of ambiguous and unambiguous stimuli on target processing in less creative and more creative groups

In the present study our aim was to examine how the processing of task-irrelevant stimuli changes with creativity and aging, and how this processing influences task-relevant responding. We hypothesized that the degree in which irrelevant stimuli attract attention and occupy cognitive capacity, thereby interfering with the motor task, depends not only on the stimuli's saliency, but also on the participants' creativity and age. We investigated event-related potentials (ERP) and behavioural data in four groups - more creative and less creative younger (18-30 years) and older (60-75 years) adults - by presenting unambiguous and ambiguous portrait paintings and photos of faces in equal proportions before and after the target stimuli. Our results showed that aging affected behavioural and ERP responses, but there were no interactions between age groups, creativity and the three types of stimuli. Older adults were not more exposed to the interference caused by distractor stimuli as they compensated with bilateral activity to reach a similar performance to the younger group. The reaction time was faster for targets when they followed the faces rather than the portrait paintings, so, faces may have been less salient to the participants than paintings. The three types of stimuli were differentiated in all the processing stages. Creativity had a measured effect in the earliest (P1) stage with more creative groups being able to distinguish between unambiguous and ambiguous stimuli; and also, in the last processing stage (CNV), in which task-irrelevant stimuli, particularly photos of faces, were less distracting for more creative participants in task preparation. The results show that creativity in general has an influence even at the earliest stage of visual perception.

The Mediating and Buffering Effect of Creativity on the Relationship Between Sense of Place and Academic Achievement in Geography

Purpose

This study explored the relationship between sense of place and academic achievement in geography and used a mediation model to verify the mediating role of creativity in this relationship.

Methods

A total of 1,037 upper secondary school students were surveyed using the Sense of Place Scale, the Innovative Behavior Scale, and their geography test scores. SPSS (version 26.0) was used for descriptive statistical analysis and correlation analysis. The PROCESS plug-in (version 4.0) was used to test the mediating effect of creativity.

Results

(1) The correlation analysis showed that sense of place has a positive effect on academic achievement in geography and is related to creativity. Moreover, creativity exerts a positive effect on academic achievement in geography (2). The results of mediation analysis indicated that creativity plays mediating and buffering roles in the relationship between sense of place and academic achievement in geography after controlling for gender and residential address. The direct and indirect effects accounted for 65.708 and 34.292% of the total effect, respectively.

Conclusions

The results indicated that sense of place affected not only academic achievement in geography directly but also creativity indirectly. This conclusion provides certain ideas for the development of geography curriculums. Since academic achievement in geography is related to both sense of place and creativity, it is necessary to pay more attention to integrating sense of place in geography education and to foster creativity in curriculum development and teaching of geography.