Creativity in old age: a longitudinal study.
A creativity test was administered to a selected sample of 52 subjects all 70 years old and repeated in the same group 13 years later. The stimuli used were diffuse ink-blots coded for three components of creativity: fluency, flexibility and originality. The three components were also summed to form a composite creativity score. Repeated analyses showed no age-related changes in the creativity scores obtained at the two testing times. Furthermore, no gender differences nor age and gender inter-actions were found. The results of this longitudinal study indicate that, contrary to earlier findings from cross-sectional studies, creativity does not seem to decline significantly in old age.
Age Factors↗