Poster #28 - An Evaluation of Age-Associated Trends in Divergent Thinking

• In Event: 1-061 - Poster Session 02
  In Poster Session: PS 02 Section - Cognitive Processes

Integrative Statement

The ability to generate multiple diverse ideas from a single stimulus, or divergent thinking (DT), tends to peak in early elementary school with a potential slump in middle childhood and gradual decline into adulthood (Kim, 2011). However, methodological issues in scoring DT may obscure our understanding of creativity across development (Hocevar, 1979; Plucker et al., 2014; Silvia et al., 2009). In the present study, we focused on whether three scoring methods of creativity—fluency, originality, and originality/fluency ratios— varied across assessment at three developmental timepoints (1st grade, 4th grade, and adults). The primary aim was to determine whether methodological assessments of fluency and originality followed temporally-dependent trajectories that vary by age.

Forty-five first-graders (M=7.13 years, SD=.78; 23 girls), 41 fourth-graders (M=9.95 years, SD=.80; 18 girls) and 100 adults (M=19.05 years, SD=.89; 68 women) completed two DT Alternative Uses Tasks (AUT; Wallach & Kogan, 1965). Each participant generated as many unique ideas as possible for AUT items (brick and box; counterbalanced) across a 2-minute testing period separated into pre-assessment (i.e., the first minute) and post-assessment (i.e., the second minute, completed after participants paused and estimated performance if given more time). Responses were scored for fluency (total number of ideas verbalized) and originality (total number of unique responses generated by less than 20% of the sample; Plucker et al., 2011). An originality/fluency ratio was calculated by dividing the number of original responses of each individual by fluency.

Box prompt: Originality and fluency scores were lower in the post-assessment, Fs(1,183)=12.40, p<.001, with age effects suggesting 4th graders had the highest originality, F(2, 183)=6.32, p<.01 and 1st graders exhibited the lowest fluency, F(2, 183)=7.55, p<.01. Further, a significant interaction between age and assessment-period demonstrated that adults experienced the steepest decline in fluency across the testing period compared to children, F(2,183)=7.547, p=.001, see Table 1. Unlike originality and fluency, the originality/fluency ratio did not significantly change from pre- to post-assessment nor were there any effects of age or age by assessment period interactions, see Figure 1a.
Brick prompt: Only fluency (not originality) scores were lower at post-assessment, F(1,183)=114.553, p<.001. Age effects again indicated that 4th graders demonstrated the highest originality, F(2,183)=5.477, p=.005 and 1st graders had the lowest fluency, F(2,183)=7.737, p=.001. Interaction effects between age and assessment-period demonstrated that adults experienced the steepest decline in fluency F(2,183)=14.734, p<.001 and originality compared to children, F(2,183)=7.002, p=.011, see Table 1. Unlike originality and fluency, the originality/fluency ratio actually increased from pre- to post-assessment, F(1,183)=17.636, p<.001, and this increase did not vary across age groups, see Figure 1b.

Individual-level changes in the originality/fluency ratio provides unique data aligning with work suggesting that once a threshold of initial idea production is reached, originality increases, Dippo, 2013). There were distinct patterns in creativity development, as children appear immune to the steep declines adults exhibit in fluency and originality across testing periods. Further, consideration of individual stimuli (rather than averaging across AUT stimuli) may be important, as stimuli show distinct effects and stimulus familiarity may influence performance across development.

Authors

• Emily Frith, University of Mississippi
  Presenting Author

• Brittany N. Avila, University of Reno, Nevada
  Non-Presenting Author

• Stephanie E. Miller, University of Mississippi
  Non-Presenting Author