1. Mark A. Runco, PhD
Torrance Professor of Creativity Studies
University of Georgia, Athens, GA, USA

2.  How do we recognize creativity of children?
 How does it differ from that of adults?
 Are children really creative? (!)
 What is the connection, child to adult?
 Is development fixed? Or can it be optimized?

3.  First: “potential” or “performance?”

4.  Potential indicated by ideas & ideation
 Divergent thinking
 Open ended, ill defined tasks
 Fluency, flexibility, originality
 Reliable and some predictive validity
 Divergent thinking is not synonymous with
creative talent. But surely it is meaningful
when a child can produce original ideas and
solve all kinds of problems (not just academic)
in original and flexible fashion.

5. Knowledge Motivation
Procedural Intrinsic
Declarative Extrinsic
Problem-Finding Ideation Evaluation
Fluency
Definition Originality Valuation
Identification Flexibility Critical Evaluation
Two-tier model of creative thinking. The three boxes on the primary tier represent stages
which are influenced by knowledge and motivation.

6.  Preconventional
 Norms, rules, fads, …all impossible
 Imagination and play
 Conventional
 Strict adherence to norms, rules, fads…
 Peer pressure
 Postconventional
 Aware of norms, rules, fads, but thinks for
oneself
 In games, play, art, language, divergent
thinking, moral reasoning, social behavior

7.  Children
 4th grade slump
 Original thinking & ideation
 Adults
 “Age & the rigidities”
 Flexibility
 Also trends in actual performance
 Math, age 20
 Painting, “old age style” in 70s, 80s, 90s

8.  Root-Bernstein et al. (1993) found some very
successful scientists retain a youthful profile
of scientific research well into old age....
scientific creativity need not decline.
Another example of “old age style.”
 The reason: These “long-term, high-impact
scientists” demonstrated that purposely
placed themselves in the position of
becoming a novice again every 5 or 10 years.
In effect they became mentally young by
starting over again.

9.  Ideation varies, but largest difference is in
judgments (the “two tier” model).
Intentions, motivations, and knowledge also
differ
 Difficulties
 Longitudinal vs. cross sectional methods
 Torrance 50 year study
 Transition to school? Or biology?
 Lopez et al. (1993) with bilingual Hispanics in US
 Ideational indicators changed at different rates
 Bilingualism contributing to creativity?

10.  Nature and nurture
Recent findings from genetic studies
“first candidate gene” (DRD2)
But fluency not originality
Also, genes only provide Range of reaction
Plenty of room for optimization
One theory:
opportunties
models
appropriate reinforcement

11.  Mostly after age 40, mostly in flexibility
 Cross sectional bias in test wiseness
 Possibilties:
 “reduced physical or mental energy, declining sensory
capacity, illness, increased competition and changes
in motivation, interest or intellectual curiosity….
changes in physical vigor or sensory processes brought
on by normal biological decline or disease processes
may set a limit on an individual's creative
accomplishments but not affect the person's creative
ability.”
 Old age style shows increased creativity among
highly talented artists
 Tactics and intentions

12.  Age – creativity? Creativity-age!
 Creativity as
adaptability, release, motivation
 “Writers die young,” but one explanation is
that it is their choice to life a writer’s life.
So why not choose a healthful and creative
life?

13.  Slumps and peaks have been found for both creative
potential and for creative performances. The ages of
those slumps and peaks vary. Trajectories are often
described as multimodal, U-shaped, J-shaped, or as an
inverted J.
 Various aspects of creative thinking seem to both develop
and decline at different rates.
 Individual differences in both childhood and adulthood.
Not all individuals show declines, just as not all persons
fulfill potential and perform in an unambiguously creative
fashion. Slumps and declines are therefore themselves
potentials and presumably can be understood as having
ranges of reaction.
 Creativity at all ages seems to involve certain decisions,
choices, and preferences. In childhood, binges of interest
and preferences for activities influence the development
of creative skills, and in adulthood career choice and
styles reflect investments in potential.