Finding appropriate and original solutions: An investigation into personal and situational factors that influence motor problem solving and creativity.
Final Report Abstract
The ability to adaptively solve motor problems is a significant property of motor control and motor learning. Despite this, this area of research has received little attention in applied (sport) psychology and exercise science and has been largely ignored for talent search and development in sport and school sports programs. Currently, there is an urgent need in cognitive science to investigate the usefulness of models of problem solving and creativity in task domains other than cognition. Our research program proposes to achieve these goals by extending and specifying the "dual pathway to problem solving and creativity" theory, currently one of the most significant theories in cognitive creativity research, in the domain of motor creativity. Specifically, we used valid creativity tests i) to examine whether motor problem solving and creativity can be mediated by the two separate pathways of flexibility and perseveration, ii) to assess whether individual differences in motor problem solving and creativity reflect differential influences of attentional breadth and working memory to flexible and perseverative pathways, (iii) to determine whether relationships exist between cognitive and motor problem solving and creativity and how they evolve with age, and (iv) to examine the extent to which motor learning promotes problem solving and creativity, particularly as a function of the magnitude of variability and motor learning proceeding through the provision of declarative knowledge. We found that motor creativity is similarly affected by working memory and attentional breath as cognitive creativity. Suggesting that indeed separate pathways of flexibility and persistence mediate motor creativity. We also found that experts of a specific field (here: pool) perform similarly in motor creativity tasks compared to cognitive creativity tasks. Novices tend to be more original in the cognitive tasks, compared to the motor tasks. However, when taking the appropriateness of the solutions into account, it is revealed that novices tend to come up with original but inappropriate solutions. This suggests that novices can be original, but struggle with being creative (i.e. original and appropriate).
Publications
- (2015). Creativity and Working Memory Capacity in Sports: Working Memory Capacity Is not a Limiting Factor in Creative Decision Making amongst Skilled Performers. Frontiers in Psychology
Furley, P., & Memmert, D.
- (2016). Motor creativity: The roles of attention breadth and working memory in a divergent doing task. Journal of Cognitive Psychology, 28(7), 856-867
Moraru, A., Memmert, D., & van der Kamp, J.
(See online at https://doi.org/10.1080/20445911.2016.1201084) - (2017). Creativity as adaptability: A motor learning perspective. Frontiers – Movement Science and Sport Psychology
Orth, D., van der Kamp, J., Memmert, D., & Savelsbergh, G.
(See online at https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2017.01903) - (2017). Sports and Creativity. M.A. Runco and S.R. Pritzker (Eds.) Encyclopedia of Creativity, Second Edition, vol. 2, pp. 373-378. San Diego: Academic Press
Memmert D.
(See online at https://doi.org/10.1016/B978-0-12-375038-9.00207-7)
