Quantity yields quality when it comes to creativity: a brain and behavioral test of the equal-odds rule

Abstract

The creativity research community is in search of a viable cognitive measure providing support for behavioral observations that higher ideational output is often associated with higher creativity (known as the equal-odds rule). One such measure has included divergent thinking: the production of many examples or uses for a common or single object or image. We sought to test the equal-odds rule using a measure of divergent thinking, and applied the consensual assessment technique to determine creative responses as opposed to merely original responses. We also sought to determine structural brain correlates of both ideational fluency and ideational creativity. Two-hundred forty-six subjects were subjected to a broad battery of behavioral measures, including a core measure of divergent thinking (Foresight), and measures of intelligence, creative achievement, and personality (i.e., Openness to Experience). Cortical thickness and subcortical volumes (e.g., thalamus) were measured using automated techniques (FreeSurfer). We found that higher number of responses on the divergent thinking task was significantly associated with higher creativity (r = 0.73) as independently assessed by three judges. Moreover, we found that creativity was predicted by cortical thickness in regions including the left frontal pole and left parahippocampal gyrus. These results support the equal-odds rule, and provide neuronal evidence implicating brain regions involved with “thinking about the future” and “extracting future prospects.”

Comparing the Efficacy of Four Brief Inductions in Boosting Short-Term Creativity

“…Also noteworthy in this context are the highly significant and positive correlations between fluency and overall originality (Spearman's rho = 0.461, p < 0.001) as well as fluency and peak originality (Spearman's rho = 0.746, p < 0.001), which is consistent with previous findings that higher ideational output (fluency) is associated with greater originality in creative thought (Jung et al 2015) (Fig. 3).…”

The contribution of the lesion approach to the neuroscience of creative cognition

“…Although the cerebral substrates of associative processing are not elucidated, recent evidence supports the role of the default mode network (DMN) in unconstrained associative thinking [40 ] and more broadly in spontaneous cognition [41] including mind wandering [42,43] and contextual associations [44]. Several studies have shown that the morphometry and functional connectivity of DMN regions correlate with creative performance [45][46][47][48][49][50][51]. Consistent with the role of semantic associations in creativity, semantic memory regions are also important for creative abilities [11,27,28] and have both overlaps and functional interactions with the DMN that remain to be clarified [20,52,53].…”

Cognitive specialization for verbal vs. spatial ability in men and women: Neural and behavioral correlates

“…Participants were also administered a variety of tests tapping creativity that will not discussed here (see Ryman et al, 2014;Jung et al, 2015). No prior studies with this data set have explored either spatial or verbal ability.…”