Age and Creativity: Exploring the Ability to Break Creative Impasse and How Age Affects this Ability

Abstract: Based on the associative theory of creativity, creative thinking is defined as a process of combining associative elements in memory into something that is new and useful idea. Creative block is a well-known problem described as an impasse, or lack of ideas in the mind during the thinking process. Can such impasse be broken by diverting one’s associative search, away from the impasse? In this research we focus on the Associative Creativity Sparker (ACS) – a recently developed cognitive network science-based online tool that helps overcome the creative block by suggesting a word recommendation when one runs out of ideas in a creative idea generation task. These recommendations vary by being towards or away from participant's previous ideas, or close or far from the target object. We take this tool a step forward, by examining how it its impact is influenced by two additional aspects, namely metacohniyion and aging. In two studies, we investigated how the ACS influences both creativity and metacognition across different age groups. Study 1 examined younger (18–30) and older (60–80) adults, while Study 2 included young (18–25), mid-aged (35–50), and older (65–80) adults, and added metacognitive measures. Our results indicate that the ACS consistently helps to overcome creative impasse, enhanced originality, and effects metacognitive outcomes- originality judgements, calibration and novelty judgements, with word recommendation versions significantly shaping all these outcomes. Across both studies, age group did not significantly affect creativity or metacognition, suggesting that the ACS is equally effective across the lifespan.