The correlation between intelligence, creativity and the parameters of sensorimotor integration in children of different ages

Introduction. Analysis of the literature suggests that the particular nature of the interplay between a person's creativity and intelligence is determined not only by the conditions in which a person develops and their personality traits, but also their age. Objective. The purpose of this study was to compare the interaction between the levels of creativity and intelligence of 7 to 8 year-old children and 12 to 13 year-old teenagers, by studying how 7-8 year-old children and young teenagers (12-13 years old) with different levels of intelligence and creativity assimilate stochastic signals. Design. A total of 160 children took part in the study, 80 first-and second-graders who were 7-8 years old (37 boys and 43 girls), and 80 fifth-graders, aged 12-13 (40 boys and 40 girls). We used the following procedures: Raven's Progressive Matrices; a battery of creative thinking tests, amounting to a modification of the Guilford and Torrance's tests in a Russian adaptation created by E. Tunik; and the computer reflexometric method. Results. Our findings showed that the relationship between the level of intelligence and the level of creativity is different in the two age groups. With 7-8 year-olds, the two parameters are independent of each other, whereas with 12-13 year-olds, there is a weak but significant link between them. With the 7-8 year-old children, the level of creativity predetermines the child's ability to detect the structure of a sensory stream that is organized in a complex way. At the ages of 12-13, neither the level of creativity nor the level of intelligence is correlated with the parameters of sensorimotor integration, but the two parameters are interconnected.