In present day society, creative thinking (being able to think out of the box) has become more and more important. Creative outcomes are characterized by their uncommonness and potential usefulness. This article focuses on the development of creative skills and competence. Starting point is the creative cognition approach, in which creative thinking is identified as inherent to normal human functioning and depends on cognitive functions.

It has been said that adolescence is a crucial time for cognitive abilities development. Recently, creative outputs have been described as a result of cognitive flexibility (being able to switch between a broad array of cognitive categories) and cognitive persistence (a focused and more systematic effort between a few cognitive categories). This framework is also known as the Dual Pathway to Creativity Model.

A persons creative potential is represented by two types of cognitive functions. The first function is divergent thinking. Divergent thinking is associated with the ability to generate multiple solutions to a problem and being able to reflect on these solutions. Studies have shown that divergent thinking has a strong predictive value for creative success. Divergent thinking can be measured by the Alternate Use Task (a verbal task for divergent thinking) and the Creative Ability Task (involves the visuospatial domain). The second function is insight. With insight tasks, there is an established correct solution. It usually involves the ability to establish associations between unrelated information. Succeeding on an insight task creates an ‘aha’ experience and someone is usually not able to explain how they gained their insight. Insight can be measured by the Gestalt Completion Task, the Snowy Picture Task and the Remote Associates Task. This latter task is a verbal one, the first two tasks focus on the visual domain

The study

Participants aged 10-30 participated in this study. Their performance on divergent thinking tasks were expressed in fluency, flexibility and originality. Fluency leads back to the number of possible solutions. Flexibility involves generating different conceptual categories and originality focuses on the uniqueness of the ideas.

Results

This study showed that the ability to generate multiple ideas from different conceptual categories is already developed in adolescent. The quality of the solutions however still develops after adolescence. This might be explained by gaining more knowledge over the years or developing the ability to reflect on cognitive processes. When it comes to insight, it was found that both visual and verbal creative insight continued to develop into late adolescence. Taken together, this study shows that creativity performances improve with age, but that in different stages in adolescence these improvements become less present.

Creativity in the brain

There is a general consensus that the prefrontal cortex plays a role in creative success, and that it is involved in both divergent thinking and insight tasks. The prefrontal cortex is one of the few brain regions that still develops substantially during adolescence. When adolescents and adults are compared, it was found that adolescents outperformed adults on seeking alternative solutions. This indicated that adolescence are better at shifting between different representations as a solution for a problem. The findings support the idea that adolescence isn’t just a phase of immaturity, but also a period in which the prefrontal cortex shows heightened activation that can be used for adaptive purposes.

Training creativity in adolescence

Previous studies have shown that training can improve creativity in adults and children. Little research has been done with training in adolescence. This study therefore also compared adolescents and adults to examine whether or not creativity could be improved through training. During two weeks, participants followed one of three training types. The first training focused on the generation of alternative uses. The second training involved the naming of object characteristics and the third training in global rule switching. Before the training, it was found that adolescents and adults performed similar on fluency and flexibility, but that adults performed better on originality. After the training it was found that all participant, despite age or training type, had progressed on fluency and originality. Follow-up measures revealed that adolescents had still improved on originality, suggesting that adolescent have a greater practice susceptibility.