Verbal and visual divergent thinking in aging

Abstract

According to the peak and decline model divergent thinking declines at a specific age (in or after middle age). However, if divergent thinking declines steadily in aging still has to be clarified. In order to explore the age-related changes in verbal and visual divergent thinking, in the present study a sample of 159 participants was divided in five age groups: young adults (18-35 years), middle-aged adults (36-55), young old (56-74), old (75-85) and the oldest-old (86-98). Two divergent thinking tasks were administered: the alternative uses for cardboard boxes, aimed at assessing verbal ideational fluency, flexibility and originality; the completion drawing task, aimed at assessing visual ideational fluency, flexibility and originality. Results showed that after peaking in the young adult group (20-35 years) all components of verbal and visual divergent thinking stabilized in the middle-aged adult group (36-55 years) and then started declining in the young old group (56-75). Interestingly, all components were found to be preserved after declining. Yet, verbal and visual divergent thinking were found at the same extent across age groups, with the exception of visual ideational fluency, that was higher in the young old group, the old group and the oldest-old group than verbal ideational fluency. These results support the idea that divergent thinking does not decline steadily in the elderly. Given that older people can preserve to some extent verbal and visual divergent thinking, these findings have important implications for active aging, that is, divergent thinking might be fostered in aging in order to prevent the cognitive decline.

Emotional Creativity Across Adulthood: Age is Negatively Associated with Emotional Creativity

“…Previous research has shown that older adults have decreased cognitive creativity (Palmiero, Nori, & Piccardi, 2017) as well as other decreased cognitive abilities, like working memory, processing speed, reasoning and higher-level executive functions (Salthouse et al, 2003;Salthouse, 2010). The present study contributes to this field and shows that age was negatively associated with the ECI total score and two components of the ECI, emotional novelty and emotional preparedness.…”

Enhancing Innovation and Underlying Neural Mechanisms Via Cognitive Training in Healthy Older Adults

“…In sum, the current findings suggest that short-term and cost effective interventions, such as CT, may be beneficial in enhancing cognitive capacities and supporting neural mechanisms in healthy older adults. The new finding related to improved innovative cognition in healthy older adults is heartening; given innovative thinking is one of the most valued assets and fruitful outputs of the human mind across the lifespan (Kaufman and Sternberg, 2006 ; Palmiero et al, 2016 ). The potential to strengthen innovative cognition may tap into a positive and valuable resource of the aging mind that could support an individual’s ability to reinforce and retain an active mental lifestyle, engage in complex decision-making, intellect and psychological well-being with advancing age (Baltes et al, 1999 ; Kaufman and Sternberg, 2006 ).…”

“…Innovative cognition is widely recognized as a vital capacity, undergirding adaptive and flexible thinking. This cognitive domain is of interest in older adults due to its centrality to human cognition, intellect, decision-making, life achievement, resilience and psychological well-being (McFadden and Basting, 2010 ; Li et al, 2015 ; Beaty et al, 2016 ; Heilman, 2016 ; Palmiero et al, 2016 ; Saggar et al, 2016 ). Innovative thinking may be a pivotal cognitive capacity and brain function allowing one to respond effectively to challenging and constantly changing life demands (Saggar et al, 2016 ).…”

Understanding the Positive Associations of Sleep, Physical Activity, Fruit and Vegetable Intake as Predictors of Quality of Life and Subjective Health Across Age Groups: A Theory Based, Cross-Sectional Web-Based Study

“…The age of the participants is categorized into three age groups—young adults (1 = aged 20–35 years), middle-aged adults (2 = aged 36–55 years), and older adults (3 = aged 56 years and older). This categorization of age groups was adopted from the previous studies which investigated various relevant topics including health behavior change and aging aspects ( Petry, 2002 ; Palmiero et al, 2017 ; Wang et al, 2017 ).…”

“…Age groups should be analyzed in regard to whether young adults (i.e., 20–35 years) differ from middle-aged adults (i.e., 36–55 years) and the aging older adults that included both young-old- and oldest-old adults (i.e., older than 56 years). This grouping approach was chosen by previous study related to health behavior change ( Petry, 2002 ; Ziegelmann et al, 2006 ), and some studies which are related to the aspects of aging ( Palmiero et al, 2017 ; Wang et al, 2017 ).…”