Motor Creativity and Creative Thinking in Children: The Diverging Role of Inhibition

This study investigated the commonalities and differences between motor creativity and creative thinking in children and how executive functions differently influence them. Thirty-one children, aged 7 to 8 years, were administered Bertsch Test of Motor Creativity, Torrance Test of Creative Thinking, the Random Number Generation (RNG) task tapping executive functions, and the Movement Assessment Battery for Children (M-ABC). Scores for three dimensions of motor creativity and creative thinking (fluency, flexibility, and originality), selected indexes of executive function (inhibition and working memory updating) and motor competence scores were submitted to correlational and regression analyses. Results showed that there is no association between motor creativity and motor competence, but a significant association between creative moving and thinking for all their dimensions except for originality. Moreover, originality in thinking was predicted by low inhibitory ability, although originality in moving by high inhibitory ability. Results suggested that there are commonalities in the processes responsible for the fluent and flexible production of creative thoughts and movements, whereas there was a domain-specificity as concerns the role played by inhibitory functions in the production of original solutions during creative moving.