Creative Thinking in an Emotional Context: Specific Relevance of Executive Control of Emotion-Laden Representations in the Inventiveness in Generating Alternative Appraisals of Negative Events

Abstract

Although divergent thinking ability in different domains may largely rely on the same basic executive functions, domain-specific functions may also be important, in particular when it comes to more real-life creativity demands. This study investigated if functional executive control of emotion-laden representations may be specifically relevant in cognitive reappraisal, which implies being creative in an affective context. In a sample of 88 healthy individuals, the relation between the participants’ inventiveness in generating positive reappraisals of adverse events (Reappraisal Inventiveness Test) and in generating novel ideas without emotional component (conventional divergent thinking test) to their executive functioning in tasks without (Mittenecker Pointing Test) and with emotional contribution (humor processing task) was studied. In line with hybrid models of creative thinking, poorer basic inhibition skills were found to be associated with poorer fluency performance in both divergent thinking tasks. Relations applied more specifically to reappraisal inventiveness when it came to executive processes with a more prominent emotional component. Creative performance in both tasks may have been hampered by time limits. The results support the notion that, in addition to basic executive functioning, more specific cognitive control functions are implicated in more real-life creative performance, according to related domain-specific demands.

Notes

¹T he behaviorally assessed inventiveness in generating alternative appraisals of negative emotional events, on which this study focuses, is unrelated to the self-reported habitual use of reappraisal (Weber et al., 2014). Therefore, and for space limits, research having used self-reported habitual tendencies to engage in reappraisal efforts is not reviewed here.

² Depending on the type of joke additional, more complex cognitive processes such as mentalising or anticipation of events that are only insinuated may be required for understanding the punch line (Weiss et al., 2013).

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the Austrian Science Fund under Grant P 30362.