Study On Executive Functions In Undergraduates With Different Level Of Creative Thinking

Executive functions is an umbrella term for all of the complex set of cognitive processes that underlie flexible goal-directed responses to novel or difficult situations. At present, the predominant view is to regard the term as a multidimensional behavioural concept covering a range of assumed higher order cortical funcitons. Working memory, inhibition and cognitive flexibility are main functions of executive functioning.Former studies indicated that there was defference between groups with different creative thinking level. The main goal of the present study was to examine the relationship between creative thinking and three often postulated executive functions, which were labelled working memory, inhibition, cognitive flexibility.217 undergraduates undertook Test of Divergent Thinking to select subjects with high and low levels of creative thinking. Sixty subjects were divided into two groups,30 each to perform four tasks measuring executive functions:reading working memory capacity task, digit working memory capacity task, the Stroop task and the Wisconsin Card Sorting Test(WCST). The results indicated that:(1) The performance of higher creative group was significantly better than that of lower creativity in reading working memory capacity task; there was significant correlations between reading working memory capacity and four dimensions of creativity:openness, flexibility, elaboration, naming; there was no significant correlation between reading working memory and originality dimension of creativity.(2) The performance of higher creative group was significantly better than that of lower creativity in digit working memory capacity task; there was significant correlations between digit working memory capacity and openness, elaboration dimensions of creativity; there was no significant relationship between three dimensions of creativity, which were flexibility, originality and naming.(3) The performance of higher creative group was better in respect to latency on Stroop task; there was no significant difference between two groups on accuracy and interference on Stroop task, suggesting that inhibition of group with higher creative thinking level was better than that of lower group.(4) The performance of higher creative group was better on the Wisconsin Card Sorting Test (WCST) in respect to the total number, error rate, categories, there was no significant difference on perseverative errors rate, the number of trials to complete the first category, suggesting that recognitive flexibility of group with higher creative thinking level was better than that of lower group.