title: Individual differences in children's innovative problem-solving are not predicted by divergent thinking or executive functions.
abstract: Recent studies of children's tool innovation have revealed that there is variation in children's success in middle-childhood. In two individual differences studies, we sought to identify personal characteristics that might predict success on an innovation task. In Study 1, we found that although measures of divergent thinking were related to each other they did not predict innovation success. In Study 2, we measured executive functioning including: inhibition, working memory, attentional flexibility and ill-structured problem-solving. None of these measures predicted innovation, but, innovation was predicted by children's performance on a receptive vocabulary scale that may function as a proxy for general intelligence. We did not find evidence that children's innovation was predicted by specific personal characteristics.
authors.affiliation: School of Psychology, University of Birmingham, Birmingham, West Midlands, B15 2TT, UK s.r.beck@bham.ac.uk.
authors.forename: Sarah R
authors.identifier: http://orcid.org/0000-0001-6426-1603
authors.initials: SR
authors.lastname: Beck
authors.affiliation: School of Psychology, University of Birmingham, Birmingham, West Midlands, B15 2TT, UK.
authors.forename: Clare
authors.identifier: http://orcid.org/0000-0002-6054-0194
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Williams
authors.affiliation: School of Psychology, University of Birmingham, Birmingham, West Midlands, B15 2TT, UK.
authors.forename: Nicola
authors.identifier: http://orcid.org/0000-0002-3155-9566
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Cutting
authors.affiliation: School of Psychology, University of Birmingham, Birmingham, West Midlands, B15 2TT, UK.
authors.forename: Ian A
authors.identifier: http://orcid.org/0000-0001-9485-563X
authors.initials: IA
authors.lastname: Apperly
authors.affiliation: School of Biosciences, University of Birmingham, Birmingham, West Midlands, B15 2TT, UK.
authors.forename: Jackie
authors.identifier: http://orcid.org/0000-0001-7338-9449
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Chappell
mesh_terms: D002648:Child; D002652:Child Behavior / Q000523:psychology*; D002675:Child, Preschool; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D011340:Problem Solving
keywords: cognitive development; individual differences; innovation