Physical Activity Benefits Creativity: Squeezing a Ball for Enhancing Creativity

Abstract

Studies in embodied cognition show that physical sensations, such as touch and movement, influence cognitive processes. Two studies were conducted to test whether squeezing a soft versus a hard ball facilitates different types of creativity. Squeezing a malleable ball would increase divergent creativity by catalyzing multiple or alternative ideas, whereas squeezing a hard ball would increase convergent creativity by facilitating only a single correct response. In Study 1, participants squeezed either a hard ball or a soft ball while completing the Torrance Test of Creative Thinking (TTCT), a divergent creativity test. The same procedures were used in Study 2 except that the TTCT was replaced with the Remote Associates Test, a convergent creativity test. Participants who squeezed a soft ball generated more original and diverse ideas (Study 1), whereas participants who squeezed a hard ball were better at coming up with a single correct answer (Study 2).