title: The development of creative cognition across adolescence: distinct trajectories for insight and divergent thinking.
abstract: We examined developmental trajectories of creative cognition across adolescence. Participants (N = 98), divided into four age groups (12/13 yrs, 15/16 yrs, 18/19 yrs, and 25-30 yrs), were subjected to a battery of tasks gauging creative insight (visual; verbal) and divergent thinking (verbal; visuo-spatial). The two older age groups outperformed the two younger age groups on insight tasks. The 25-30-year-olds outperformed the two youngest age groups on the originality measure of verbal divergent thinking. No age-group differences were observed for verbal divergent thinking fluency and flexibility. On divergent thinking in the visuo-spatial domain, however, only 15/16-year-olds outperformed 12/13-year-olds; a model with peak performance for 15/16-years-old showed the best fit. The results for the different creativity processes are discussed in relation to cognitive and related neurobiological models. We conclude that mid-adolescence is a period of not only immaturities but also of creative potentials in the visuo-spatial domain, possibly related to developing control functions and explorative behavior.
authors.affiliation: Institute for Psychological Research, Leiden University, The Netherlands. kleibeukersw@fsw.leidenuniv.nl
authors.forename: Sietske W
authors.initials: SW
authors.lastname: Kleibeuker
authors.forename: Carsten K W
authors.initials: CK
authors.lastname: De Dreu
authors.forename: Eveline A
authors.initials: EA
authors.lastname: Crone
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D041923:Adolescent Development / Q000502:physiology*; D000328:Adult; D003071:Cognition / Q000502:physiology*; D003405:Creativity; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008959:Models, Neurological; D009483:Neuropsychological Tests; D011340:Problem Solving / Q000502:physiology*; D013850:Thinking / Q000502:physiology*