Search Results (10)

Cognitive reserve (CR) is widely recognized as a protective factor that supports cognitive functioning across the lifespan. Recent research suggests a reciprocal relationship between CR and creative thinking—particularly divergent thinking (DT)—with DT potentially contributing to and benefiting from CR and remaining relatively preserved in older adulthood. This cross-sectional study, conducted in Italy between April and July 2025 using convenience sampling, examined whether CR predicts verbal and conceptual creativity in healthy older adults. One hundred participants (aged 65–92 years; M = 68.45, SD = 8.12) completed the Cognitive Reserve Index questionnaire (CRIq), the Test di Intelligenza Breve (TIB; Short Intelligence Test), and two creativity tasks. Data were analyzed using IBM SPSS Statistics (version 25.0; IBM Corp., Armonk, NY, USA). Multiple regression analyses showed that overall CR significantly predicted all creativity outcomes, including verbal fluency (β = 0.316, p = 0.011) and flexibility (β = 0.336, p = 0.007), as well as conceptual fluency (β = 0.371, p = 0.003), flexibility (β = 0.381, p = 0.002), and originality (β = 0.338, p = 0.006). Education and leisure activities more strongly predicted verbal creativity, whereas occupational experience and leisure activities predominantly predicted conceptual creativity. These findings indicate that CR supports creative thinking in later life and highlight the importance of cognitively and socially enriched experiences across the lifespan. Full article

This theoretical paper introduces the Verbal–Cognitive Scaffold (VCS) Model, a cognitively inclusive framework which proposes the cognitive architectures underlying computational thinking (CT). Moving beyond monolithic theories of cognition (e.g., executive-function and metacognitive control models), the VCS Model posits inner speech (InSp) as the predominant cognitive pathway supporting CT operations in neurotypical populations. Synthesizing interdisciplinary scholarship across cognitive science, computational theory, neurodiversity research, and others, this framework articulates distinct mechanisms through which InSp supports CT. The model specifies four primary pathways linking InSp to CT components: verbal working memory supporting decomposition, symbolic representation facilitating pattern recognition and abstraction, sequential processing enabling algorithmic thinking, and dialogic self-questioning enhancing debugging processes. Crucially, the model posits these verbally mediated pathways as modal rather than universal. Although non-verbal architectures are acknowledged as possible alternative routes, their precise mechanisms remain underspecified in the existing literature and, therefore, are not the focus of the current theoretical exploration. Given this context, this manuscript focuses on the well-documented verbal support provided by InSp. The VCS Model’s theoretical contributions include the following: (1) specification of nuanced cognitive support systems where distinct InSp functions selectively enable particular CT operations; (2) generation of empirically testable predictions regarding aptitude–pathway interactions in computational training and performance; and (3) compatibility with future empirical efforts to inquire into neurodivergent strategies that may diverge from verbal architectures, while acknowledging that these alternatives remain underexplored. Individual variations in InSp phenomenology are theorized to predict distinctive patterns of CT engagement. This comprehensive framework, thus, elaborates and extends existing verbal mediation theories by specifying how InSp supports and enables CT, while laying the groundwork for possible future inquiry into alternative, non-verbal cognitive pathways. Full article

The World Health Organization identifies creative thinking as a key life skill essential for health promotion, personal development, and well-being. In line with recent perspectives on motor learning within the ecological dynamics approach, this study highlights the importance of self-organization, free initiative, and divergent thinking as processes that are deeply connected to individual emotional, experiential, and bodily engagement within dynamic environments. With this quasi-experimental study, conducted in Italy, we aimed to examine the impact of a physical education program, designed according to the principles of ecological dynamics, on the development of creative thinking in children. The sample included 107 primary school students (58 girls, 49 boys; mean age = 7.51 ± 0.50 years) who were randomly assigned to either an experimental group (n = 57) or a control group (n = 50). Creative thinking was assessed before and after the intervention using the WCR test. The WCR (Widening, Connecting, and Reorganizing) test assesses three core components of creative thinking through age-appropriate visual and verbal tasks. The results showed that there was a significant improvement (p < 0.05) in cognitive widening for the experimental group compared with the control group. The findings of this study suggest that physical education grounded in the ecological dynamics framework promotes the generation of ideas, cognitive flexibility, and motor adaptability, allowing children to explore original and self-determined movement solutions. Such programs may play a crucial role in supporting creativity and holistic development in educational contexts. Full article

The current methodologies for assessing divergent thinking in children are predominantly based on verbal response, which limits their applicability for evaluating the creative potential of preschoolers and toddlers. This study introduces the Box Interaction Game (BIG), which is an adaptation of the Unusual Box Test (UBT) to make it more suitable for Chinese children. By simplifying, reorganizing, and expanding the actions in the UBT, the BIG employs action-based assessments that are relevant to the Chinese context and evaluate validity and test-retest reliability in preschoolers. The results revealed statistically significant but modest correlations between the verbal Unusual Uses Task (UUT) and the BIG test. Specifically, total scores (τ = 0.24, p = 0.02), fluency scores (τ = 0.23, p = 0.029), and originality scores (τ = 0.21, p = 0.04) showed low-to-moderate associations, indicating preliminary support for convergent validity, although further refinement is needed to strengthen these relationships. Additionally, the BIG demonstrates strong internal consistency (Cronbach’s alpha = 0.83 for both fluency and originality) and moderate test-retest reliability (ICC for fluency = 0.67, for originality = 0.74). These findings suggest that BIG is a promising and developmentally appropriate tool for assessing divergent thinking in Chinese preschoolers, offering a foundation for future work on early creative thinking in China. Full article

Background/Objectives: Divergent thinking (DT), the ability to generate alternative responses to open-ended problems, has become an increasingly relevant topic in aging research due to its inverse relationship with cognitive decline. Methods: In this narrative review, we explore the latest evidence supporting DT training as a potential strategy for dementia prevention. Results: We identify two pathways through which DT may protect against cognitive decline: (1) by fostering creative cognition and (2) by stimulating DT-related domains. Our findings suggest that verbal DT remains relatively well preserved in older adults, although there is limited empirical evidence to support the idea that DT training enhances creative cognition or DT-related domains in this population. Conclusions: Therefore, while tools designed to enhance DT in older individuals seem promising, it is crucial to rigorously test their effects on the target population to maximize their impact on both the cognitive and psychological domains. Full article

Promoting active and successful aging has become crucial to improve quality of life in later adulthood and reduce the impact of cognitive decline. Increasing evidence suggested that the ability to think creatively (e.g., via divergent thinking), similar to cognitive reserve, could represent a beneficial factor against the negative effects of aging. However, there is still little evidence investigating the relationships between divergent thinking, cognitive functions, and cognitive reserve in late adulthood. The present study explored these relationships in a sample of 98 individuals ranging from 61 to 88 years old (mean age: 72.44 ± 6.35). Results showed that visual, but not verbal, divergent thinking was affected by aging. Interestingly, visual divergent thinking performance was predicted by both the cognitive component of crystallized intelligence and cognitive reserve. Only the crystallized component of intelligence was found to mediate the aging effect on visual divergent thinking performance. These results suggest that in later adulthood a potential shift strategy to prior knowledge and semantic components over executive and control components of cognition could underlie a preserved ability to think divergently and, plausibly, creatively. Limitations of the study and implications for successful aging are discussed. Full article

Both creativity and responsibility are important higher-order skills to develop to meet the challenges of the Anthropocene, and both are related to attentional states of consciousness and to ethics. Meditation is a set of practices that trains attentional and emotional regulation. A few studies have shown that different kinds of meditation can foster different kinds of creative thinking, and others have begun to investigate the effect of the combination of meditation and ethics on ethical characteristics (but not yet on creativity or precisely on responsibility, so far). Here, we present a nonrandomized trial with an active control group among second-year science university students (n = 84) to test the effect of the secular Meditation-Based Ethics of Responsibility (MBER) program on creative potential, self-reported awareness, and sense of one’s own responsibility. The results show a large effect of the program on sense of one’s own responsibility and convergent and divergent creative writing tasks, both in conceptual–semantic and engineering-like verbal ideation. They also suggest that convergent conceptual–semantic thinking might moderate the effect of the MBER program on the awareness and sense of one’s own responsibility. This work opens up new research and educational perspectives linked to necessary behavioral changes in the Anthropocene. Full article

Background: The relationship between sleep and creativity is a topic of much controversy. General benefits of napping have been described not only in sleep-deprived individuals and in shift workers, but also in people with sufficient night sleep. However, only few studies have investigated the relationship between nap and creativity. Methods: Forty-two native German speakers (29 females, mean age = 24 years, SD = 3.3 years) took part in two experimental sessions (i.e., baseline and intervention). In both sessions, divergent and convergent verbal and figural creativity tasks were administered at the same time of the day. While the baseline session was identical for all the participants, in the second session participants were randomized into either a sixty-minute nap or a sixty-minute rest group. Results: No significant group differences were found for neither divergent nor convergent creativity thinking tasks, suggesting that the interventions had similar effects in both groups. Interestingly, the analysis of the pooled data (i.e., pooled nap and rest groups) indicated differential effects of figural versus verbal creativity tasks, such that significant post-intervention improvements were found for the figural, but not for the verbal divergent and convergent thinking tasks. Conclusions: While further studies are needed to confirm these findings, to the best of our knowledge, such a dissociation between performance of verbal and figural creativity tasks after nap/rest interventions has not been described to date. Full article

Functional connectivity studies have demonstrated that creative thinking builds upon an interplay of multiple neural networks involving the cognitive control system. Theoretically, cognitive control has generally been discussed as the common basis underlying the positive relationship between creative thinking and intelligence. However, the literature still lacks a detailed investigation of the association patterns between cognitive control, the factors of creative thinking as measured by divergent thinking (DT) tasks, i.e., fluency and originality, and intelligence, both fluid and crystallized. In the present study, we explored these relationships at the behavioral and the neural level, based on N = 77 young adults. We focused on brain-signal complexity (BSC), parameterized by multi-scale entropy (MSE), as measured during a verbal DT and a cognitive control task. We demonstrated that MSE is a sensitive neural indicator of originality as well as inhibition. Then, we explore the relationships between MSE and factor scores indicating DT and intelligence. In a series of across-scalp analyses, we show that the overall MSE measured during a DT task, as well as MSE measured in cognitive control states, are associated with fluency and originality at specific scalp locations, but not with fluid and crystallized intelligence. The present explorative study broadens our understanding of the relationship between creative thinking, intelligence, and cognitive control from the perspective of BSC and has the potential to inspire future BSC-related theories of creative thinking. Full article

This study examined the unfolding in real time of original ideas during divergent thinking (DT) in five- to six-year-olds and related individual differences in DT to executive functions (EFs). The Alternative Uses Task was administered with verbal prompts that encouraged children to report on their thinking processes while generating uses for daily objects. In addition to coding the originality of each use, the domain-specific DT processes memory retrieval and mental operations were coded from children’s explanations. Six EF tasks were administered and combined into composites to measure working memory, shifting, inhibition, and selective attention. The results replicated findings of a previous study with the same children but at age four years: (1) there was a serial order effect of the originality of uses; and (2) the process mental operations predicted the originality of uses. Next, the results revealed that both domain-general EFs and domain-specific executive processes played a role in the real-time unfolding of original ideas during DT. Particularly, the DT process mental operations was positively related to the early generation of original ideas, while selective attention was negatively related to the later generation of original ideas. These findings deepen our understanding of how controlled executive processes operate during DT. Full article