Cambios asociados a la edad en la creatividadel papel mediador de las funciones ejecutivas

Abstract

The purpose of this thesis was to investigate age-related changes in creativity during childhood and adolescence. The first study developed a set of problems based on the Remote Associates Test (a measure of convergent creativity) suitable for administration with Spanish-speaking children and adults. The measure demonstrated good psychometric properties in terms of reliability and convergent validity. The second study aimed to determine the extent to which possible age-related differences through childhood and adolescence in convergent and divergent creativity are mediated by different executive functions (updating, inhibition and switching) as well as by associative processes. The results showed that updating and inhibition (but not switching) accounted for age differences in convergent creativity. In contrast, neither of the executive functions explained age differences in divergent creativity. Finally, verbal fluency, which taps associative processes, was found to play a role in mediating the relationship between age and both types of creativity.