Divergent creative thinking in young and older adults: Extending the effects of an episodic specificity induction

Abstract

Recent research has suggested that an episodic specificity induction- brief training in recollecting the details of a past experience- enhances divergent creative thinking on the Alternate Uses Task (AUT) in young adults without affecting performance on tasks thought to involve little divergent thinking, but the generalizability of these results to other populations and tasks is unknown. The present experiments examined whether effects of an episodic specificity induction extend to older adults and a different index of divergent thinking, the Consequences Task. In Experiment 1, the specificity induction significantly enhanced divergent thinking on the AUT in both young and older adults compared with a control induction not requiring specific episodic retrieval; performance on a task involving little divergent thinking did not vary as a function of induction (generating associates for common objects). No overall age-related differences were observed on either task. In Experiment 2, the specificity induction significantly enhanced divergent thinking (generating consequences of novel scenarios) in young adults compared with another control induction not requiring episodic retrieval. To examine the types of creative ideas affected by the induction, participants in both experiments also labeled each of their divergent thinking responses as an old idea from memory or new idea from imagination. New and to some extent old ideas were significantly boosted following the specificity induction compared with the control. These experiments provide novel evidence that an episodic specificity induction can boost divergent thinking in young and older adults, and indicate that episodic memory is involved in multiple divergent thinking tasks.

Episodic and semantic content of memory and imagination: A multilevel analysis

“…The episodic specificity induction did not alter the overall relationship between internal and external details, meaning that if the generation of external details is entirely a secondary by-product of amount of internal details (or vice versa), a reciprocal effect between the two should be observed. However, it has previously been shown that in most experiments the episodic specificity induction increases internal details, but does not decrease external details (Madore et al, 2014; Madore, Jing, et al, 2016; Madore & Schacter, 2014, 2016; Madore, Szpunar, Addis, & Schacter, 2016; but see Jing, Madore, & Schacter, 2016; Madore, Addis, & Schacter, 2015). Furthermore, different types of future imaginations can alter the amount of internal details generated, with no concurrent effects on external details (de Vito, Neroni, Gamboz, Della Sala, & Brandimonte, 2015; see also Neroni, Gamboz, De Vito, & Brandimonte, 2016), and age-related decreases in internal details have been reported even when the number of external details does not differ with age (Madore & Schacter, 2014; Zavagnin et al, 2016).…”

“…Madore et al (2014) also examined generation of details in a non-episodic picture description task, as well as the influence of an episodic specificity induction – brief training in recollecting specific details of past experiences – on internal and external detail production. They found that for both younger and older adults, the specificity induction selectively enhanced internal details during descriptions of remembered and imagined events, while having no influence on external output or performance on the picture description task (see also Madore, Jing, & Schacter, 2016; Madore & Schacter, 2014; Schacter & Madore, 2016). …”

An fMRI investigation of the relationship between future imagination and cognitive flexibility

“…Motivated by previous behavioral work highlighting the relationship between episodic future simulation and divergent thinking (Addis et al, 2016; Madore, Addis, & Schacter, 2015; Madore, Jing, & Schacter, 2016), we explored whether our behavioral and BOLD variables were associated with this form of cognitive flexibility (as measured by the AUT flexibility scores). Our results revealed that AUT flexibility scores were negatively correlated with Congruent-Incongruent difference scores for both plausibility and difficulty ratings.…”

False memories with age: Neural and cognitive underpinnings

“…Recent studies of older adults have begun to examine adaptive uses of episodic memory in imagination (e.g., Addis et al, 2008), problem solving (Madore and Schacter, 2014; Sheldon et al, 2011), and creativity (Madore et al, 2016), but direct links between these adaptive processes and false memory in aging need to be explored.…”