Investigating the involvement of cognitive control processes in innovative and adaptive creativity and their age-related changes

Frontiers in Human Neuroscience

Human Neuroscience

Nóra Fáy¹  Zsófia Anna Gaál²  István Czigler²  Petra Csizmadia³  Boglárka Nagy³  Domonkos File⁴ 

[1] Independent Researcher, Budapest, Hungary;Institute of Cognitive Neuroscience and Psychology, Research Centre for Natural Sciences, Budapest, Hungary;Institute of Cognitive Neuroscience and Psychology, Research Centre for Natural Sciences, Budapest, Hungary;Department of Cognitive Science, Faculty of Natural Sciences, Budapest University of Technology and Economics, Budapest, Hungary;Institute of Psychology, Eötvös Loránd University, Budapest, Hungary;

关键词: creativity;    innovative/adaptive;    aging;    cognitive control;    task-switching;    Figural TTCT;    ERP;   

DOI  :  10.3389/fnhum.2023.1033508

 received in 2022-08-31, accepted in 2023-01-09,  发布年份 2023

来源: Frontiers

【 摘 要 】

IntroductionBased on the two-factor model of creativity, two distinct types of creative problem solving can be differentiated: innovative (“do things differently”) and adaptive (“do things better”). Flexible cognitive control is a crucial concept in connection with both general and specific styles of creativity: innovative problem-solving benefits from broader attention and flexible mental set shifting; while adaptive creativity relies on focused attention and persistent goal-oriented processes. We applied an informatively cued task-switching paradigm which is suitable for measuring different cognitive control processes and mechanisms like proactive and reactive control. We hypothesized that adaptive creativity is connected to effective proactive control processes, while innovative creativity is based on reactive task-execution. As we have found no previous evidence how age-related changes in cognitive control affects creative cognition; we also examined the effect of healthy aging on different problem-solving styles in an explorative way.MethodsOur participants, 37 younger (18–30 years) and 37 older (60–75 years) adults, were divided into innovative and adaptive creative groups according to the Torrance Test of Creative Thinking’s Figural Subtest (Hungarian version).ResultsOur results showed that among younger adults the adaptively creative group had larger cue-locked CNV component (effective preparatory activity connected to proactive control), while the innovatively creative group had a larger target-locked P3b component (effective target evaluation and categorization in line with reactive control) which supports a functional difference in the two creative styles. By contrast, in older adults innovative problem-solving showed larger mixing costs (less effective maintenance and selection of task sets), and the lack of trial type effect on target-locked N2b (target-induced goal reactivation and less effective conflict resolution); while adaptive problem-solving caused them to make fewer errors (accuracy-oriented behavior).DiscussionAll in all, innovative and adaptive creativity is based on distinct cognitive control mechanisms in both age-groups, but their processing level is affected by age-related changes.

【 授权许可】

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Copyright © 2023 Nagy, Czigler, Csizmadia, File, Fáy and Gaál.