Age differences in creativity: Task structure and knowledge base

This study explored performances on 3 types of creativity tasks (real-world problem, figural, and verbal; Torrance, 1974) in 22 6th-grade students and 22 university students from Hong Kong. As compared to 6th-grade students' scores, university students' scores (both quality and quantity) were significantly higher on the real-world problem and significantly lower on the figural task. On the verbal task, the groups did not differ. Results are interpreted in terms of an interaction between task structures and students' knowledge bases. Knowledge enhances one's performance in knowledge-rich creativity tasks, whereas functional fixedness may occur in knowledge-lean tasks.