Age-Related Differences in Creative Cognition: The Mediating Role of Executive Functions and Associative Processes

Abstract

Divergent and convergent creativity may rely on associative and executive control processes. We examined whether age-related differences in both types of creativity are mediated by executive functions and associative processes. A total of 427 primary, secondary-school, and university students completed a battery of tasks measuring executive functioning (updating, inhibition and shifting), verbal fluency, and divergent (fluency, flexibility, and originality) and convergent creativity (remote-associative problems). The results confirmed that executive and associative processes accounted for age-related differences in divergent and convergent creativity, albeit to different degrees. Specifically, verbal fluency contributed to explaining age differences in both types of creativity, whereas updating and inhibition mediated age-related differences only in convergent creativity. These findings provide evidence for the differential contribution of executive and associative processes to age-differences in both types of creativity, and provide additional support for a dual-process view of creativity.