Article

Aerobic Exercise and Creative Potential: Immediate and Residual Effects

Taylor & Francis
Creativity Research Journal
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Abstract

The potential effects of aerobic exercise on creative potential were explored both immediately following moderate aerobic exercise and after a 2-hr lag. Sixty college students participated in an experiment consisting of 3 regimens varying the time when a Torrance Test of Creative Thinking was taken in relation to exercise completion. The results supported the hypotheses that creative potential will be greater on completion of moderate aerobic exercise than when not preceded by exercise (immediate effects), that creative potential will be greater following a 2-hr lag time following exercise than when not preceded by exercise (residual effects), and that creative potential will not be significantly different immediately following exercise than after a 2-hr lag time following exercise (enduring residual effects). Limitations and implications for future research were discussed.

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... Measures of physical activity and aerobic fitness have been associated with childhood neurocognition, but their contributions to cognitive health through development are still poorly understood (Chaddock, Pontifex, Hillman, & Kramer, 2011). Further research is necessary to gain insight into the relationship between physical activity and cognition, particularly for creativity, about which there has been little research (Blanchette, Ramocki, O'del, & Casey, 2005;Campion & Levita, 2014;Hinkle, Tuckman, & Sampson, 1993;Latorre Román, García Pinillos, Pantoja Vallejo, & Berrios Aguayo, 2017;Ramocki, 2002;Steinberg et al., 1997). Blanchette et al. (2005) showed an association between aerobic exercise and creative potential. ...
... Further research is necessary to gain insight into the relationship between physical activity and cognition, particularly for creativity, about which there has been little research (Blanchette, Ramocki, O'del, & Casey, 2005;Campion & Levita, 2014;Hinkle, Tuckman, & Sampson, 1993;Latorre Román, García Pinillos, Pantoja Vallejo, & Berrios Aguayo, 2017;Ramocki, 2002;Steinberg et al., 1997). Blanchette et al. (2005) showed an association between aerobic exercise and creative potential. Likewise, Steinberg et al. (1997) demonstrated an increase in flexibility after 25 min of aerobic exercise relative to a television watching activity for a similar period with the same participants. ...
... These results are in line with those of previous studies (Blanchette et al., 2005;Colzato et al., 2013;Steinberg et al., 1997). In addition, Blanchette et al. (2005) showed that the creative potential will not be significantly different immediately following exercise to that after a 2 hr lag time following exercise (enduring residual effects). ...
Article
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The purpose of this study was to evaluate the effectiveness of an aerobics games class on creativity in children during the school day. Participants were 96 students (age = 9.84 ± 1.12 years), 48 girls and 48 boys. The students were randomly assigned to the experimental group (EG, n = 48) or the control group (CG, n = 48). The Prueba de Imaginación Creativa-Niños (PIC-N) test was employed to assess narrative and graphic creativity. The EG took part in an aerobic games session lasting 45 min; the CG did not take part in a physical education class on that school day. As for group × time interaction, the EG experienced significant improvements in all creativity variables except in graphic originality, graphic titles, and graphic details. The CG did not improve any creativity variables. The findings suggest that acute aerobic exercise can enhance students’ creativity, which could be important for academic achievement.
... Among the 13 studies, eight evaluated moderate intensity and eight evaluated vigorous intensity exercise (two studies evaluated both moderate and vigorous intensity exercise). Regarding the eight studies focused on moderate intensity exercise, three demonstrated a significant effect of exercise on divergent thinking, specifically immediate and delayed improvements in figural creativity (Blanchette et al., 2005), increased fluency and novelty (defined as original and contextually appropriate) during and following exercise compared to rest, increases in high-quality analogies during exercise, an increase in novelty when walking out- (Oppezzo & Schwartz, 2014), as well as when roaming (free ambulation), or walking unconstrained. Notably, constrained walking was also shown to increase novelty compared to rest, but novel responses while walking along a predetermined path were statistically significantly lower than roaming unconstrained. ...
... Researchers often assess creativity before and after a single exercise bout (Curnow & Turner, 1992;Gondola, 1987;Ramocki, 2002) or multi-visit training program (Gondola, 1986;Gondola & Tuckman, 1985;Herman-Tofler & Tuckman, 1998;Hinkle et al., 1993). Although, some authors report testing creativity following the exercise bout, with no baseline assessment (Blanchette et al., 2005;Steinberg et al., 1997), while others administer a concurrent task protocol (Oppezzo & Schwartz, 2014;Zhou et al., 2017), to identify the relationship between creative cognitions activated during the transient stimulation of exercise. Research has also investigated timing differences between creativity assessed before and after, or during and immediately following acute exercise of moderate versus highintensity (Colzato, Szapora, Pannekoek, & Hommel, 2013). ...
Article
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The objective of this study was to evaluate the association between physical exercise and creative thinking. A systematic review approach was employed by searching PubMed, Google Scholar and PsychInfo databases. Among the evaluated 13 studies, 92% indicated a beneficial relationship. However, 77% were vulnerable to moderate-high risk for methodological bias, suggesting adherence to standardized and controlled research initiatives should be promoted. There appears to be weak to modest support for acute, moderate-intensity exercise to benefit creativity. Exercise timing relative to creativity assessment protocols should be addressed and further detailed. Creativity scoring procedures must be refined, and an increased focus on the motivational components of exercise may help guide researchers in measuring creative thoughts and behavior. Broader concluding claims that creativity, in general, is improved or impaired by exercise, is as problematic as sweeping statements that exercise improves or impairs a measure as dynamic as intelligence. Scientific inquiries must specify precisely which outcome characteristics are changing in line with research interventions. This review identifies several fallible linkages between physical activity and creativity. Too few studies were conducted on strong methodological foundations, perpetuating the risk for undermining or inaccurately inflating the potential association between exercise and creative thinking behavior.
... Indeed, the philosopher Henry David Thoreau stated: " the moment my legs begin to move my thoughts begin to flow – as if I had given vent to the stream at the lower end and consequently new fountains flowed into it at the upper " (Thoreau, 1851). Several studies have indeed shown that physical exercise in healthy adults may sometimes enhance creative thinking – even though the size of this effect can vary substantially (Gondola and Tuckman, 1985; Gondola, 1986 Gondola, , 1987 Steinberg et al., 1997; Blanchette et al., 2005). Gondola and Tuckman (1985) investigated the effects of long-term physical exercise on creativity performance, showing small but significant improvements in Alternate Uses (spontaneous flexibility) and Remote Consequences (originality) tasks, but not for an Obvious Consequences (different ideas) task. ...
... und improvements for both conditions and all three creativity measures. Gondola (1987) tested another form of acute aerobic activity (dance) and reported comparable enhancing effects. Steinberg et al. (1997) found only small improvements in a group of fit participants, and only in one of the three measures of the Torrance test of creative thinking. Blanchette et al. (2005) used the same test and found enhancing effects of exercise over a 2 h period. It is possible that in some or all of these previous studies physical exercise provided the opportunity for mind-wandering or incubation in trained (and, thus, less challenged) people. Indeed, Baird et al. (2012) have reported that engaging in simple external ...
Article
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Anecdotal literature suggests that creative people sometimes use bodily movement to help overcome mental blocks and lack of inspiration. Several studies have shown that physical exercise may sometimes enhance creative thinking, but the evidence is still inconclusive. In this study we investigated whether creativity in convergent- and divergent-thinking tasks is affected by acute moderate and intense physical exercise in athletes (n = 48) and non-athletes (n = 48). Exercise interfered with divergent thinking in both groups. The impact on convergent thinking, the task that presumably required more cognitive control, depended on the training level: while in non-athletes performance was significantly impaired by exercise, athletes showed a benefit that approached significance. The findings suggest that acute exercise may affect both, divergent and convergent thinking. In particular, it seems to affect control-hungry tasks through exercise-induced “ego-depletion,” which however is less pronounced in individuals with higher levels of physical fitness, presumably because of the automatization of movement control, fitness-related neuroenergetic benefits, or both.
... A kreativitás fejlesztése pszichomotoros tevékenységekkel is megvalósítható (Szett ele, 2020), több tanulmány is beszámol a fiazikai aktivitás kreativitásra gyakorolt pozitív hatásairól (Blanchett e et al., 2005;Ruiz-Ariza, 2017). A szakemberek az iskolai testnevelést évtizedek óta a kreativitás fejlesztésének fontos pedagógiai környezetének tekintik (Phillip, 1969;Stinson, 1975idézi Neville & Makopoulou, 2020. ...
Article
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A kreativitás fejlesztése autonómiát, együttműködést, és gondolkodást támogató oktatási módszereket igényel. A mindennapos testnevelésóra elhagyhatatlan eleme, a gimnasztika lehetőséget biztosíthat a kreatív tervezéséhez, kivitelezéséhez és gyakorlásához. A tánc, mint a gimnasztika kevésbé felhasznált alternatívája, bizonyítottan jótékony hatással bír a kreativitásra, így alkalmazása javallott a testnevelőtanárok számára. Tanulmányunk olyan gyakorlati példákat kínál, amely a kreativitás fejlesztését segíti gimnasztikai elemekkel.
... Distributed embodied creativity is present in sport and the performing arts. Study findings demonstrate that physical exercise, such as aerobic exercise, has a direct positive effect on the creative process and creative output (Blanchette et al. 2005). Settings where motor activities include opportunities to freely explore movement ideas also promote creative expression and creative productivity (Bowers et al. 2014;Richard and Lebeau 2018). ...
Chapter
Cognitive/creative embodiment is a memory system that encodes information about physical competencies, contextual perceptions, and motor responses to internal and external situations. Elite athletes and performers cultivate highly refined embodied awareness that directly influences creative expression. Embodied creativity draws upon sensorimotor, relational, emotional, and aesthetic perceptions and actions. Technology is a powerful tool that is integrated into the training and promotion of these populations. Embodied creativity and embodied cognition are dependent on real-time physical engagement; however, physical engagement continues to rapidly change in response to technological advancements. During the recent COVID 19 pandemic, the interface of technology and elite performance has revealed unique possibilities as well as profound limitations. Embodiment, creativity and their interaction with technology are complex and dynamic processes. In order to navigate the changes that result from these interacting components (embodiment, learning, creativity, technology) strong adaptive skills are necessary; these challenges will equally require a strong embodied and creative self that can traverse a complex world.KeywordsCreativityEmbodimentPandemicPerforming artsSportTechnology
... 作为人类维持身体机能最基本的活动之一, 能促进个 体创造性思维的提升 [17,19] . Gondola和Tuckman [20] 发现, 长期运动对发散思维和聚合思维提升都有积极作用. ...
Article
As a kind of advanced cognitive ability, creativity refers to the ability of an individual to produce novel, unique and valuable ideas or products. Creativity has an enormous impact on promoting social development and scientific progress. Dopamine, an indispensable catecholamine neurotransmitter in the nerve centre of mammals, is also the precursor of norepinephrine and acts through the corresponding receptors in the brain. Dopamine plays an important role in regulating human cognitive activities. The process of creativity is usually sporadic, which describes the epiphany process that occurs after representational change. Positive emotions are induced during the creative process, which involves the participation of dopamine and the dopamine system. Many factors can affect creativity, such as working memory, motivation, and reward. However, the existing studies cannot clearly explain the complex factors and mechanisms behind creativity. Although the current discussion about the relationship between creativity and dopamine is heating up, most of the existing research focuses on a single level instead of exploring the cognitive mechanisms linking creativity and dopamine. Therefore, we performed a comprehensive systematic review of creativity research from the perspective of dopamine, focusing on the following four areas: (1) From the perspective of behaviour research, exercise and positive emotions can promote the secretion of dopamine in the brain, thereby enhancing creative performance. (2) From the perspective of physiological studies, dopamine shows a relationship with creativity in the clinical treatment of psychiatric diseases. Dopamine agonists used to treat Parkinson's disease can enhance the artistic creativity of patients, while dopamine antagonists used to treat schizophrenia can inhibit creativity. (3) With the rapid development of nuclear magnetic imaging technologies, such as electroencephalography and structural and functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI), the structures and connections of the brain have been explored. From the perspective of neuroscience research, the brain regions related to creativity include three important dopaminergic reward circuits: the nigrostriatal pathway, the mesolimbic pathway, and the mesocortical pathway. (4) From the perspective of genetic research, the gene encoding catecholamine methyltransferase (COMT), which is an important regulator of dopamine level, is related to creative ability. In summary, our review systematically examines the cognitive neural mechanisms of creativity from the perspective of dopamine through behavioural, physiological, neuroscientific and genetic research. Next, our review summarizes and integrates the analysis of various studies. Finally, our review discusses the current research limitations and future trends in this field. This work extends the scope of previous studies and provides a more precise description of the effects of dopamine on creativity and the brain.
... This study hence adds evidence to relevant literature, in which exercise related performance gains involving attentional performance (e.g., Budde et al., 2008), or academic achievements in school-aged children were found (e.g., Donnelly et al., 2016;Hillman et al., 2008;Morales, González, Guerra, Virgili, & Unnithan, 2011;Sardinha et al., 2014). This study also showed that a motor-coordinative intervention is associated with beneficial effects on some facets of creative potential, supporting the positive association between activity and creativity (Blanchette et al., 2005;Colzato et al., 2013;Latorre Román et al., 2017;Latorre Román, Pantoja Vallejo, & Berrios Aguayo, 2018;Steinberg et al., 1997). At the same time, however, the overall picture of findings clearly indicates that intervention effects were only restricted to comparatively basic types of cognitive functions or basic performance indicators, respectively. ...
Article
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Physical activity has not only been associated with increased physical and mental health, but also with beneficial effects on various cognitive and brain functions. This study investigated the effects of a motor and coordination oriented exercise intervention on academic achievements, attention/concentration ability, and on different facets of creative potential in a sample of school‐aged children between 11 and 14 years. The intervention was conducted during the morning school‐break over a time period of 4 weeks (5 units per week). The intervention was associated with beneficial effects on attention/concentration ability, basic arithmetic competence, and the fluency facet of creative potential. The finding that regular physical exercise during the morning break improves some basic academic and cognitive functions may motivate efforts to implement physical activity programs as promising and effective tools in the everyday school‐routine of the children to stimulate basic neurocognitive functions.
... Gondola and Tuckman (1985) first demonstrated the benefit of longterm physical exercise on creative performance on Alternative Uses Test (AUT) and Remote Consequences that measured originality. Creativity can be improved by long-term and acute physical exercise (Gondola, 1986); aerobic exercise enhances creativity (Gondola, 1987;Steinberg et al., 1997) and the effect could last for 2 h (Blanchette et al., 2005). The third method is to enhance divergent thinking through mild bodily movement (Leung et al., 2012;Slepian and Ambady, 2012;Oppezzo and Schwartz, 2014). ...
Article
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Prior research has shown that free walking can enhance creative thinking. Nevertheless, it remains unclear whether bidirectional body-mind links are essential for the positive effect of free walking on creative thinking. Moreover, it is unknown whether the positive effect can be generalized to older adults. In Experiment 1, we replicated previous findings with two additional groups of young participants. Participants in the rectangular-walking condition walked along a rectangular path while generating unusual uses for chopsticks. Participants in the free-walking group walked freely as they wished, and participants in the free-generation condition generated unconstrained free paths while the participants in the random-experienced condition walked those paths. Only the free-walking group showed better performance in fluency, flexibility, and originality. In Experiment 2, two groups of older adults were randomly assigned to the free-walking and rectangular-walking conditions. The free-walking group showed better performance than the rectangular-walking group. Moreover, older adults in the free-walking group outperformed young adults in the rectangular-walking group in originality and performed comparably in fluency and flexibility. Bidirectional links between proprioceptive-motor kinematics and metaphorical abstract concepts can enhance divergent thinking for both young and older adults.
... Стамбулов, T. Bruce, F. Cleland, K. Fischer, D.L. Gallahue, С. Meggit, R.E. McBride, L.D. Zaichkowsky, L.B. Zaichkowsky) [9]. Основу разработанной нами программы составляет личностно-ориентированный подход , предполагающий высокую степень обращенности на личность студента, степень осознанности , его внутренний потенциал, духовные ценности, рефлексивность мышления будущих менеджеров физкультурно-спортивной сферы. ...
... It is worth noting that the choice of venue influenced the orchestration of the workshop activities just as much as the planned workshop activities influenced the venue selection. For instance, the use of multiple rooms in the hotel afforded lots of short movements, which have been shown to promote creative thinking (Beatty & Ball, 2011; Blanchette, Ramocki, O'del & Casey, 2005) but could be construed as problematic in terms of required levels of organising and planning. The rooms and buildings provided the backdrop for what was a complex set of negotiations and configurations around movement and anticipated disruption. ...
Conference Paper
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conference proceedings is the property of the author(s). Permission is granted to reproduce copies of these works for purposes relevant to the above conference, provided that the author(s), source and copyright notice are included on each copy. For other uses, including extended quotation, please contact the author(s). The meaning of a space to its users is influenced by the users' perception of that space and its potential to support – or otherwise – desired behaviours. This paper considers the case study of a three-­‐day residential knowledge exchange event, exploring the meaning of the event's physical environment for impact on participants' creativity and design thinking. The event's mixed group of academics, design professionals, and entrepreneurs were encouraged to think and respond creatively together on a thematic call (to which they responded in the application process) and were observed within the space. We examine how an unconventional workplace environment (a set of elaborately decorated Victorian hotel meeting rooms) influences a group who do not know each other beforehand, observing how participants appropriate the space, and make changes suitable to their needs. The authors (from polarised but privileged insider viewpoints of author-­‐organiser and author-­‐participant) present this through considering Pragmatics, Plasticity, and Permission and their dynamic interrelationships. These concepts develop into a new three-­‐staged model comprising space-­‐as-­‐is, space-­‐as-­‐anticipated and space-­‐as-­‐used, which describes how the interaction over time of space, its affordances and its users have the potential to expand creativity.
... In order to examine cognitive change as a result of body-based training, most researchers have used tasks that test lower cognitive functions, such as reaction time (for reviews see [23] and [24]); while only a few examined creativity [25], [26]. Although reaction time (RT) is one of the most widely used measures of cognitive performance, it is not sufficiently sensitive to evaluate changes in other cognitive functions, such as creativity [24] that may occur as a result of mental and motor training. ...
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Physical activity may improve stress resilience and well‐being. However, specific links to individuals’ coping abilities with stressful events are sparse. This study tested whether individuals reporting more physical activity in daily life showed a higher capacity for cognitive reappraisal in dealing with potential stressors. Ninety‐eight participants reported their regular physical activity in the Freiburger Questionnaire on Physical Activity and completed a maximum performance test of their inventiveness in generating reappraisals for situations depicting real life stressors. The latter provides scores for overall cognitive reappraisal capacity (quantity of ideas) and preference for specific cognitive reappraisal strategies (quality of ideas; positive re‐interpretation; problem‐oriented, de‐emphasizing reappraisals). Additionally, participants’ anxious and depressive dispositions and general creative abilities were assessed. Results showed no association between time spent on physical activities per week and total quantity of generated reappraisal ideas. However, a higher degree of physical activity was specifically linked to a greater relative preference for the reappraisal strategy of positive re‐interpretation. Opposite associations emerged for the strategy of de‐emphasizing reappraisals. The findings support the notion of more adaptive cognitive reappraisal use in more physically active individuals, and may advance research on interrelationships between physical activity and cognitive and affective functions implicated in stress management. This article is protected by copyright. All rights reserved.
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The primary objective of this study was to contribute to the growing research discipline investigating the effects of physical exercise on divergent thinking creativity performance. Thirty‐two students participated in this two‐visit, within‐subject intervention. Individuals consented to participate in two randomized, and counterbalanced, experimental conditions, consisting of 15 min of active treadmill walking and an inert, seated control incubation period. Creativity was assessed at baseline and post‐exercise (and control) via the Instances Creativity Task (ICT). Creativity scores for changes in fluency (F(1, 31) = 2.90, p = .10) were not statistically significant across the experimental conditions. Originality scores were higher at baseline and follow‐up when compared to the exercise condition (F(1, 31) = 6.82, p = .01). However, there was no statistically significant condition × time interaction effect (F(1, 31) = 1.78, p = .19). Further analyses demonstrated that there was no statistically significant difference between the experimental conditions on recall score (F(1, 31) = 1.04, p = .32). All models indicated statistically significant main effects for time: fluency (F(1, 31) = 131.17, p < .001); originality (F(1, 31) = 36.54, p < .001); and recall (F(1, 31) = 51.75, p < .001). These findings suggest that both active and inert creative incubation periods may similarly enhance subsequent divergent thinking performance.
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Coping with mental challenges is vital to everyday functioning. In accordance with prominent theories, the adaptive and flexible adjustment of the organism to daily demands is well expressed in task-related changes of cardiac vagal control. While many mental challenges are associated with increased effort and associated decreased task-related heart rate variability (HRV), some cognitive challenges go along with HRV increases. Especially creativity represents a cognitive process, which not only results from mental effort but also from spontaneous modes of thinking. Critically, creativity and HRV are associated with regular exercising and fitness. Furthermore, the cross-stressor adaptation theory suggests that changes in cardiac reactions to physical challenges may generalize to mental challenges. In line with this idea the amount of regular exercising was hypothesized to moderate the association between HRV changes and creativity. A sample of 97 participants was investigated. They reported the amount of regular exercise and their ECG was measured at baseline and during a creativity task. An association between task-related HRV changes and originality as a function of participants’ amount of regular exercise was found. Participants reporting more regular exercising produced more original ideas when they had higher HRV increases during the task, while more sedentary participants showed the opposite association. Results suggest that individuals with a higher amount of regular exercise achieve higher originality probably via the engagement in more spontaneous modes of thinking, while more sedentary people may primarily benefit from increased mental effort. This supports the conclusion that higher creativity can be achieved by different strategies.
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This study examines the spatial association between science- and technology-related entrepreneurship and neighbourhood walkability in eastern Nebraska, often referred to as the northern ‘Silicon Prairie’. Tech start-up firms are expected to gravitate toward more walkable or pedestrian-oriented urban locations to benefit from heightened social interaction, knowledge spillovers and a more vibrant, creative atmosphere. Data on start-up firms collected from the online database Crunchbase.com and a walkability index provided by the popular online service Walk Score® were used to evaluate the walkability–tech entrepreneurship nexus. The spatial relationship between walkability and firm location may have important implications for metropolitan areas seeking to incubate new firms and industries in situ, and potentially become leaders in new, innovative industries.
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While prior studies have examined the positive influence of physical activity (PA) programs on children's creative potential, they have not explored the mediating roles of psychological and physiological variables. In this study, we investigated the impact of a single dance session as a form of PA on two indicators of creative potential—divergent and convergent thinking, each of which adopts a different cognitive pathway. We also investigated the influence of a physiological condition, low body mass index (BMI), on the relation between PA and creative potential. This was a randomized controlled experiment involving 34 school children randomly assigned to either the dance intervention or a sedentary group based on their BMI profile. We measured the children's divergent and convergent thinking at pre- and post-intervention time points. Following this single PA session, we found a significant difference between divergent and convergent thinking abilities in treatment group participants with normal BMI levels and participants in the control group, but there was no difference between low BMI level treatment group participants and those in the control group. This study supported hypothesized boundary conditions for executive function improvements from PA and suggests a need for a holistic approach (involving both proper nourishment and PA) in order to facilitate improved creativity in children.
Article
A growing body of experimental work highlights the potential value of unstructured, interactive, or spontaneous motions, including gestures, dance, shifting body postures, physical object‐manipulation, drawing, etc. to favorably impact creative performance. However, despite these favorable findings, to our knowledge, no systematic review has been conducted to explore the totality of evidence for embodied activities in this arena. Thus, the objective of this paper was to systematically evaluate the potential effects of embodied experimental manipulations on traditionally assessed creativity outcomes. A systematic review was conducted utilizing PubMed, PsychInfo, Sports Discus, and Google Scholar databases. The 20 studies evaluated employed a variety of methodological approaches regarding study design, embodied manipulation, and selection of specific creativity outcomes. Despite these variations, embodied movement robustly enhanced creativity across nearly all studies (90%), with no studies showing a detrimental effect. Based on the evaluation of the studies reviewed, several common themes emerged. These included the relevance of symbolic metaphors and distributed embodied cognitions, selection of embodied modality, specific measurement considerations, as well as the importance for implementing true, inactive control conditions in embodied creativity research. This review expands on these findings and places them in the context of improving future embodied creativity research.
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Location-based games have been around already since 2000 but only recently when PokemonGo came to markets it became clear that they can reach wide popularity. In this article, we perform a literature-based analytical study of what kind of issues location-based game design faces, and how they can be solved. We study how to use and verify the location, the role of the games as exergames, use in education, and study technical and safety issues. As a case study, we present O-Mopsi game that combines physical activity with problem solving. It includes three challenges: (1) navigating to the next target, (2) deciding the order of targets, (3) physical movement. All of them are unavoidable and relevant. For guiding the players, we use three types of multimedia: images (targets and maps), sound (user guidance), and GPS (for positioning). We discuss motivational aspects, analysis of the playing, and content creation. The quality of experiences is reported based on playing in SciFest Science festivals during 2011--2016.
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The purpose of this study is to examine the effect of educational game activities on the levels of creativity of the students attending to elementary schools in Turkey. The research group consists of a total of 251 students, among which 132 are males and 119 are females, attending to 6th, 7th and 8th grades in Tatarli Cumhuriyet Elementary School and in Tatarli Elementary school, both located in Tatarli county of the city of Afyon (X̄ age=13.0319 ± 1.17). To begin with, the available information pertaining to the purpose of the study has been systematically provided through literature review. By this way a theoretical frame on the subject has been established. Secondly, students were asked to play 2 educational games at the beginning and end of their gym classes for a period of 8 weeks. The games were selected by taking their attention, skill, reaction and agility developing features as basis. A creativity scale was applied both at the beginning and the end of the period of 8 weeks. For data analysis and interpretation, pre-test and final test results have been evaluated by utilizing KolmogorovSmirnov and Paired Sample t test, and significance has been taken as p < 0.05. In order to evaluate the data and obtain the calculated values, SPSS packet program has been utilized and (Cronbach Alpha) has been found out to be 0.72. In conclusion, it has been determined that educational games influence the creativity levels of the students attending to elementary schools.
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Based on the data collected from 5 prestigious creativity journals, research methodologies and methods of 612 empirical studies on creativity, published between 2003 and 2012, were reviewed and compared to those in gifted education. Major findings included: (a) Creativity research was predominantly quantitative and psychometrics and experiment were the most frequently utilized quantitative methodologies, (b) judges were employed frequently to assess creativity and correlational techniques were utilized most widely to analyze quantitative data, (c) case study was the most frequently used qualitative methodology, (d) most mixed-methods studies were rooted in quantitative methodology, and (e) both creativity and gifted education research were dominated by quantitative methodologies, but there were less qualitative studies and slightly more mixed-methods studies on creativity. Implications of these findings were further discussed and future research directions were suggested.
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This paper explores the potential of a pervasive user experience to inspire, provoke and support creative thinking amongst participants in an intensive ideation workshop. The pervasive experience used a iPad-based virtual narrator to guide groups of participants around a physical and digital environment. It took place towards the start of a three-day workshop and the playful, self-directed nature of the experience was designed to align with subsequent workshop activities. This paper describes the user experience, presenting observations and findings through the lens of space (facilitation, augmentation and story), considering how the experience related to and supported the overall workshop aims of ideation and creative thinking. We conclude by examining some of the tensions that emerged, namely; 1) the disconnect between researcher and participant expectations, 2) the potential trade off between 'authentic' outputs and participant engagement, and 3) bridging the knowledge within the workshop with the world outside the workshop.
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Children have unlimited creative potential: they are curious, playful, imaginative, and open to new experiences. They express their creativity through play, paintings, problem solving, and the mismatched outfits they wear to school. Parents and teachers do not need to teach children to be creative. All children have creative potential if you know where to look (Runco, 1996). Creativity is not a fixed quantity, but rather a renewable resource that can be improved and nurtured by optimizing the environment that allows an individual’s creative potential to blossom. Children need time to immerse themselves in creative activities, a place that feels safe to express ideas that are unconventional, and encouragement to explore the unknown so they can discover what they enjoy and unlock a universe of possibilities.
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This study compares the effect of dance on affect and cognition to music or exercise, in a young, non-clinical population. Participants were asked to complete tests of mood and creativity before and after spending 5 min either listening to music, dancing, cycling or sitting quietly. Both dancing and passively listening to music enhanced positive affect, decreased negative affect and reduced feelings of fatigue. Cycling and sitting quietly had no effect on positive mood or feelings of fatigue. Moreover, dancing and passively listening to music had dissociable effects on different aspects of creativity, with greater change in positive affect being associated with greater enhancement in measures of verbal and non-verbal creativity, respectively. We suggest that these findings support the use of either short duration dancing or passively listening to music as potentially powerful tools in enhancing emotional well-being and different aspects of divergent thinking in non-clinical settings.
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Morningness-eveningness personality and creative thinking were investigated in a sample of young people who play recreational sports. Results showed that male participants were more eveningness-oriented than females; evening types had lower scores in creative thinking, although these were not statistically significant; the elaboration factor of the Torrance Test of Creative Thinking (Torrance, 1989) was positively correlated with taking part in sport activities in the whole sample; and the elaboration and fluidity factors were negatively correlated with intermediate and morningness dispositions. The relationship between the number of hours per week of sport activity, morningness-eveningness personality, and creative thinking was also explored.
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To understand when and why mood states influence creativity, the authors developed and tested a dual pathway to creativity model; creative fluency (number of ideas or insights) and originality (novelty) are functions of cognitive flexibility, persistence, or some combination thereof. Invoking work on arousal, psychophysiological processes, and working memory capacity, the authors argue that activating moods (e.g., angry, fearful, happy, elated) lead to more creative fluency and originality than do deactivating moods (e.g., sad, depressed, relaxed, serene). Furthermore, activating moods influence creative fluency and originality because of enhanced cognitive flexibility when tone is positive and because of enhanced persistence when tone is negative. Four studies with different mood manipulations and operationalizations of creativity (e.g., brainstorming, category inclusion tasks, gestalt completion tests) support the model.
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Pages: 567 Item #: 4318581 ISBN: 978-1-55798-906-2 Copyright: 1997 Format: Softcover Creativity is a powerful and elusive force. It brings about scientific, technological, and artistic accomplishment, and it allows us to adapt to changes in our lives, to solve problems, and to resolve conflicts. Little wonder, then, that cognitive psychologists have long been fascinated by the mysteries of creative thought: Where do people get new ideas? How are they inspired to make new discoveries? How is old knowledge mapped onto novel situations, and how are old, mistaken ways of thinking replaced by innovative perspectives? Creative Thought examines these questions in light of the most important new research on the nature of creativity, with an emphasis on its generative aspects—that is, on how old concepts are used to generate new ideas. This is a unique focus, since most works on creativity have emphasized its receptive aspects. The chapters cover four major areas of study: conceptual combination, conceptual expansion, metaphor, and analogy. List of Contributors
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This article examines physical and social predictors of perceived support for creativity in the workplace and their effects on important personal and organizational outcomes. Recent conceptualizations of creativity suggest that the physical environment plays a key role in facilitating the development of creative processes and products, yet prior studies have given little attention to demonstrating empirical links between physical and social features of the workplace and employees' subjective experiences of creativity. This study examined employees' perceptions of support for creativity at work as a possible mediator of the relationships between objective measures of distracting stimuli and subjective appraisals of social climate, on the one hand, and self-reported levels of job satisfaction and personal stress, on the other. Results indicated that both recorded levels of environmental distraction and self-reports of social climate are significantly linked to employees' perceptions of support for creativity at work. Moreover, employees' appraisals of support for creativity at work mediate the relationships between their perceptions of social climate and self-reported job satisfaction, social climate and stress, and between environmental distraction and job satisfaction.
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Comments on R. Eisenberger and J. Cameron's (see record 1996-06440-007) discussion on the impact of reward on creativity. The authors argue that Eisenberger and Cameron overlooked or failed to adequately explain several demonstrations of lower creativity on rewarded activities as compared with nonrewarded activities. Moreover, the evidence they provided of increased creativity under reward is more informative about relatively simple human behaviors than about actual creative performance. The authors believe that it is erroneous and misleading to conclude, as do Eisenberger and Cameron, that the detrimental effects of reward occur under limited conditions that are easily avoided. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2012 APA, all rights reserved)
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The research literature is reviewed on the influence of TV on daydreaming and creative imagination. The hypotheses proposed to explain why TV might influence children's and adults' daydreaming and creative imagination positively (stimulation hypothesis) or negatively (reduction hypothesis) are discussed. The hypotheses that propose that existing daydreaming patterns result in changes in viewing behavior are also discussed. The weight of the available evidence favors the hypotheses that TV viewing stimulates daydreaming and reduces creative imagination, although decisive evidence of a causal relationship is lacking. The assumptions that underlie the hypotheses about TV's relationship to daydreaming and creative imagination are analyzed and whether these assumptions have been supported by research is established.
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The increase in heart rate that accompanies exercise is due in part to a reduction in vagal tone. Recovery of the heart rate immediately after exercise is a function of vagal reactivation. Because a generalized decrease in vagal activity is known to be a risk factor for death, we hypothesized that a delayed fall in the heart rate after exercise might be an important prognostic marker. For six years we followed 2428 consecutive adults (mean [+/-SD] age, 57+/-12 years; 63 percent men) without a history of heart failure or coronary revascularization and without pacemakers. The patients were undergoing symptom-limited exercise testing and single-photon-emission computed tomography with thallium scintigraphy for diagnostic purposes. The value for the recovery of heart rate was defined as the decrease in the heart rate from peak exercise to one minute after the cessation of exercise. An abnormal value for the recovery of heart rate was defined as a reduction of 12 beats per minute or less from the heart rate at peak exercise. There were 213 deaths from all causes. A total of 639 patients (26 percent) had abnormal values for heart-rate recovery. In univariate analyses, a low value for the recovery of heart rate was strongly predictive of death (relative risk, 4.0; 95 percent confidence interval, 3.0 to 5.2; P<0.001). After adjustments were made for age, sex, the use or nonuse of medications, the presence or absence of myocardial perfusion defects on thallium scintigraphy, standard cardiac risk factors, the resting heart rate, the change in heart rate during exercise, and workload achieved, a low value for heart-rate recovery remained predictive of death (adjusted relative risk, 2.0; 95 percent confidence interval, 1.5 to 2.7; P<0.001). A delayed decrease in the heart rate during the first minute after graded exercise, which may be a reflection of decreased vagal activity, is a powerful predictor of overall mortality, independent of workload, the presence or absence of myocardial perfusion defects, and changes in heart rate during exercise.
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The aim of the present study was to examine the effects of prolonged exercise at the ventilatory threshold and carbohydrate ingestion on single (SRT) and choice (CRT) reaction time. Eight well-trained triathletes completed three testing sessions within a 3-week period. Maximal oxygen uptake was determined in the first test, whereas the second and the third sessions were composed of a 100-min run (treadmill 15 min, overground 70 min, treadmill 15 min) performed at the velocity associated with the ventilatory threshold. During these submaximal tests, the subjects ingested (in random order) 8 ml x kg(-1) body weight of either a placebo (Pl) or 5.5% carbohydrate (CHO) solution prior to the first submaximal run and 2 ml x kg(-1) body weight every 15 min after that. The cognitive tasks were performed before and after exercise for CRT, and before, during each submaximal run and after exercise for SRT. Furthermore, at the end of each submaximal test subjects were asked to report their rating of perceived exertion (RPE). Results showed a significant positive effect of CHO ingestion on RPE and CRT performance at the end of exercise, while no effect of exercise duration was found in the Pl condition. After a 100-min run, during the CHO condition, CRT mean (SD) group values decreased from 688.5 (51) ms to 654 (63) ms, while during the Pl condition, RPE mean group values increased from 11 (2) to 16 (1.02) and CRT mean values remained stable [688 (104) ms vs 676 (73.4) ms, P > 0.05]. No similar effect was observed for SRT. These results suggest that CHO-electrolyte ingestion during a 100-min run results in an improvement in the complex cognitive performance measured at the end of that run.
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Comments on the article by C. Martindale (see record 2001-00625-007 ) which discussed the intellect of Thomas Young. The current author discusses creativity as it relates to curiosity.
Article
Nearly 200 studies have examined the impact that either acute or long-term exercise has upon cognition. Subsets of these studies have been reviewed using the traditional narrative method, and the common conclusion has been that the results are mixed. Therefore, a more comprehensive review is needed that includes all available studies and that provides a more objective and reproducible review process. Thus, a meta-analytic review was conducted that included all relevant studies with sufficient information for the calculation of effect size (W = 134). The overall effect size was 0.25, suggesting that exercise has a small positive effect on cognition. Examination of the moderator variables indicated that characteristics related to the exercise paradigm, the participants, the cognitive tests, and the quality of the study influence effect size. However, the most important finding was that as experimental rigor decreased, effect size increased. Therefore, more studies need to be conducted that emphasize experimental rigor.
Article
Comments on the article by C. Martindale (see record 2001-00625-007) which discussed the intellect of Thomas Young. The current author discusses creativity as it relates to curiosity. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2012 APA, all rights reserved)
Article
Replicated the pilot work of J. C. Gondola and B. W. Tuckman (see record 1986-09144-001) to determine whether an increase in physical fitness is accompanied by an increase in tested creativity. Ss were 42 coeds from 3 different health and physical education courses at an urban college. Ss in 2 courses that included both lecture and activity were assigned to 2 experimental groups; Ss in the 3rd course, which was conducted on a lecture-only basis, served as controls. The Match Problems II, Alternate Uses, and Consequences tests of the Kit of Reference Tests for Cognitive Factors were administered to assess creativity. Fitness was measured by a 1.5-mile run before the creativity tests were administered. Data were analyzed by analysis of covariance (ANCOVA). Findings show that both short- and long-term bouts of running increased creativity. (8 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2012 APA, all rights reserved)
Article
46 undergraduates (aged 18–24 yrs) were assigned to 1 of 4 treatment conditions: (1) exercise with music, (2) exercise without music, (3) no exercise with music, and (4) no exercise, no music (control). Ss completed the Torrance Tests of Creative Thinking (TTCT) before and after treatment. While music, exercise, and exercise with music effected fluency responses on the TTCT, there were no effects on originality and elaboration. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2012 APA, all rights reserved)
Article
Theories of creativity have not traditionally considered whether novel ideas or inventive behaviors can result from regularities in the cognitive processes responsible for such activities. Most of these traditional theories are based on the evaluation of products as meeting (or not) some abstract metric of creative output. However, cognitive theories of creativity can be proposed in which creative activity is a function of more traditional cognitive processes that are not unique to inventive behaviors. The purpose of this article is to review the cognitive regularities of creative activity and organize the research on this topic into a framework that might be useful in understanding and extending investigations directed at studying creativity. To these ends, cognitive processes underlying generation, synthesis, and selection of information in creative activities are delineated. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2012 APA, all rights reserved)
Article
Assessed the effect of an aerobic running program on the psychological and physical fitness and creative abilities of 85 8th graders. Ss were randomly assigned to a treatment group, which participated in a 5-day/wk structured aerobic running program, or a control group, which participated in nonaerobic physical education. A multivariate analysis of variance (MANOVA) revealed a significant increase for the treatment group in creativity, as measured by the Figural and Verbal booklets of the Torrance Tests of Creative Thinking, and physical fitness. Differences on psychological measures between the 2 groups were not significant. The potential benefits of collaboration between school counselors and physical education departments regarding the use of aerobic running programs are discussed. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2012 APA, all rights reserved)
Article
Studied 37 female students enrolled in 3 dance classes in a large urban college. Creative thinking tests (measuring flexibility of thinking, expressions of different ideas, and original ideas) were administered to 21 experimental Ss and 16 controls before their 1st dance session. Tests were re-administered after a 20-min dance session for the experimental group and before the dance session for the controls. An analysis of covariance (ANCOVA) was applied to each of the 3 posttest scores (based on number of correct responses), using the pretest score as the covariate to compare the experimental and control groups. Significant differences were found on all 3 measures. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2012 APA, all rights reserved)
Article
23 co-ed students ran for 20 min. for 16 sessions. During the first and last class sessions, before running, they and a control group, were tested on 3 measures of creative thinking (verbal adaptability, diversity and originality). After the exercise sessions there were small but significant gains in measures of Remote Consequences and Alternate Uses.
Article
The article examines whether participation in an aerobic exercise program (AE), as compared with a traditional physical education class (PE), significantly increased children's perceived athletic competence, physical appearance, social acceptance, behavioral conduct, and global self-worth; increased their figural creativity; and improved aerobic power as measured by an 800-meter run around a track. Further research on the effects of different types of AE is discussed, as well as the need for aerobic conditioning in the elementary school.
Article
114 participants in four groups practiced 25 minutes of progressive muscle relaxation, yoga stretching, imagery, or a control task. Before and after training, participants took state versions of the Smith Quick Stress Test (which measures Somatic Stress, Negative Affect, and Worry) and the Smith R-State Inventory (which measures relaxation-related states Disengagement, Physical Relaxation, Mental Relaxation, Strength and Awareness, Joy, Love and Thankfulness, and Prayerfulness). After training, all took both the Verbal and Figural forms of the Torrance Tests of Creative Thinking. At posttest, groups' scores did not differ on Creativity; however, when compared with yoga stretching, imagery trainees had lower posttest scores on Negative Affect. Both yoga stretching and imagery trainees displayed higher scores on self-reported Physical Relaxation than did controls. Progressive muscle relaxation trainees had lower scores on Somatic Stress than controls. Paradoxically, for all relaxation trainees, Disengagement (feeling "distant, far away, indifferent") correlated positively with both Negative Affect and Physical Relaxation, suggesting that disengagement in relaxation may not lead to relaxation-induced anxiety but may help one cope with such anxiety.
Article
For at least the past decade, the holy grail for companies has been innovation. Managers have gone after it with all the zeal their training has instilled in them, using a full complement of tried and true management techniques. The problem is that none of these practices, well suited for cashing in on old, proven products and business models, works very well when it comes to innovation. Instead, managers should take most of what they know about management and stand it on its head. In this article, Robert Sutton outlines several ideas for managing creativity that are clearly odd but clearly effective: Place bets on ideas without much heed to their projected returns. Ignore what has worked before. Goad perfectly happy people into fights among themselves. Good creativity management means hiring the candidate you have a gut feeling against. And as for the people who stick their fingers in their ears and chant, "I'm not listening, I'm not listening," when customers make suggestions? Praise and promote them. Using vivid examples from more than a decade of academic research to illustrate his points, the author discusses new approaches to hiring, managing creative people, and dealing with risk and randomness in innovation. His conclusions? The practices in this article succeed because they increase the range of a company's knowledge, allow people to see old problems in new ways, and help companies break from the past.
Article
The authors examined 2 ways reward might increase creativity. First, reward contingent on creativity might increase extrinsic motivation. Studies 1 and 2 found that repeatedly giving preadolescent students reward for creative performance in 1 task increased their creativity in subsequent tasks. Study 3 reported that reward promised for creativity increased college students' creative task performance. Second, expected reward for high performance might increase creativity by enhancing perceived self-determination and, therefore, intrinsic task interest. Study 4 found that employees' intrinsic job interest mediated a positive relationship between expected reward for high performance and creative suggestions offered at work. Study 5 found that employees' perceived self-determination mediated a positive relationship between expected reward for high performance and the creativity of anonymous suggestions for helping the organization.
Article
Using a mood-as-input model, the authors identified conditions under which negative moods are positively related, and positive moods are negatively related, to creative performance. Among a sample of workers in an organizational unit charged with developing creative designs and manufacturing techniques, the authors hypothesized and found that negative moods were positively related to creative performance when perceived recognition and rewards for creative performance and clarity of feelings (a metamood process) were high. The authors also hypothesized and found that positive moods were negatively related to creative performance when perceived recognition and rewards for creativity and clarity of feelings were high.
Article
If you're like most managers, you've worked with people who swear they do their most creative work under tight deadlines. You may use pressure as a management technique, believing it will spur people on to great leaps of insight. You may even manage yourself this way. If so, are you right? Not necessarily, these researchers say. There are instances where ingenuity flourishes under extreme time pressure--for instance, a NASA team within hours comes up with a primitive but effective fix for the failing air filtration system aboard Apollo 13. But when creativity is under the gun, it usually ends up getting killed, the authors say. They recently took a close look at how people experience time pressure, collecting and analyzing more than 9,000 daily diary entries from individuals who were working on projects that required high levels of creativity and measuring their ability to innovate under varying levels of time pressure. The authors describe common characteristics of time pressure and outline four working environments under which creativity may or may not flourish. High-pressure days that still yield creativity are full of focus and meaningful urgency--people feel like they are on a mission. High-pressure days that yield no creativity lack such focus--people feel like they are on a treadmill, forced to switch gears often. On low-pressure days that yield creativity, people feel like they are on an expedition--exploring ideas rather than just identifying problems. And on low-pressure days that yield no creative thinking, people work on autopilot--doing their jobs without engaging too deeply. Managers should avoid extreme time pressure when possible; after all, complex cognitive processing takes time. For when they can't, the authors suggest ways to mollify its effects.