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Increasing evidence suggests that specific memory systems (e.g., semantic vs. episodic) may support specific creative thought processes. However, there are a number of inconsistencies in the literature regarding the strength, direction, and influence of different memory (semantic, episodic, working, and short-term) and creativity (divergent and convergent thinking) types, as well as the influence of external factors (age, stimuli modality) on this purported relationship. In this meta-analysis, we examined 525 correlations from 79 published studies and unpublished datasets, representing data from 12,846 individual participants. We found a small but significant (r = .19) correlation between memory and creative cognition. Among semantic, episodic, working, and short-term memory, all correlations were significant, but semantic memory – particularly verbal fluency, the ability to strategically retrieve information from long-term memory – was found to drive this relationship. Further, working memory capacity was found to be more strongly related to convergent than divergent creative thinking. We also found that within visual creativity, the relationship with visual memory was greater than that of verbal memory, but within verbal creativity, the relationship with verbal memory was greater than that of visual memory. Finally, the memory-creativity correlation was larger for children compared to young adults despite no impact of age on the overall effect size. These results yield three key conclusions: (1) semantic memory supports both verbal and nonverbal creative thinking, (2) working memory supports convergent creative thinking, and (3) the cognitive control of memory is central to performance on creative thinking tasks.
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This content will become publicly available on May 4, 2026
Enhancing creative divergent thinking in older adults with a semantic retrieval strategy
Creative divergent thinking involves the generation of unique ideas by pulling from semantic memory stores and exercising cognitive flexibility to shape these memories into something new. Although cognitive abilities such as episodic memory decline with age, semantic memory tends to remain intact. The current study aims to take advantage of older adults’ strength in semantic memory to investigate the effectiveness of a brief cognitive training to improve creative divergent thinking. Specifically, older adults were trained using a semantic retrieval strategy known as the disassembly strategy in order to improve creativity in the Alternate Uses Task (AUT), which involves generating original uses for objects. We also investigated whether this strategy would transfer to other creativity tasks, specifically, the Divergent Association Task (DAT). Participants were tested on the AUT and DAT across three time points in a single session: before the disassembly strategy was introduced (T0 and T1) and afterwards (T2). Results showed that the disassembly strategy enhances idea novelty in the AUT, though this enhancement did not transfer to DAT performance. Additionally, participants that initially scored lowest on the AUT at T0 showed the greatest increase in AUT performance at T2. This finding provides evidence that older adults can effectively use a semantic retrieval strategy to engage and enhance elements of creative divergent thinking.
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- Award ID(s):
- 2155070
- PAR ID:
- 10603994
- Publisher / Repository:
- Taylor & Francis
- Date Published:
- Journal Name:
- Aging, Neuropsychology, and Cognition
- Volume:
- 32
- Issue:
- 3
- ISSN:
- 1382-5585
- Page Range / eLocation ID:
- 449 to 458
- Format(s):
- Medium: X
- Sponsoring Org:
- National Science Foundation
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