| dc.description.abstract | While previous research suggests people with sub-clinical levels of schizophrenic
symptoms achieve a greater number of creative accomplishments, the cognitive reasons
for higher proportions of creativity in this population are poorly understood. The
contention that there is a creative cognitive advantage in schizotypy has received mixed
support. It was hypothesized that accounting for complex relationships between (1)
creative cognition abilities (moderated relationships), and (2) creative cognition and
schizotypy variables (mediated, moderated, and curvilinear relationships) would
significantly increase the ability to predict creative accomplishment and provide a more
accurate survey of the schizotypic creative cognitive advantage. One hundred and
fourteen participants completed a creative problem solving measure, measures of
cognitive creative abilities (Remote Associates Test, a divergent thinking task, and a
deductive reasoning task) and measures of positive and negative symptoms of schizotypy
(Perceptual Aberration, Magical Ideation, Social Anhedonia and Physical Anhedonia).
Regression analyses supported the conception of a multi-stage process in which creative
cognition variables interact with each other to predict creative accomplishment. There
was no evidence of a creative cognitive advantage in schizotypy: people high in
schizotypy performing the same or worse than people reporting few schizotypic
symptoms on measures of creative cognition and accomplishment. As no mediator or
moderator effects were observed, the independence of cognitive creativity and schizotypy
suggests that if schizotypics are indeed more creative than normal controls it is because
of factors other than the cognitive ones surveyed in this investigation. | |
