Differential Effects of Divergent Thinking, Domain Knowledge, and Interest on Creative Performance in Art and Math

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to investigate the main effects of divergent thinking, domain knowledge, and two types of interest (i.e., individual and situational interest) on creative performance in art and math, as well as moderating and mediating effects of the two types of interest. A series of hierarchical multiple regression analyses were conducted on data collected from 221 Korean 8th graders. Both divergent thinking and domain knowledge contributed to creative performance in art and math. However, the relative importance of these two factors was different in the two domains. In art, divergent thinking explained more of the variance in creative performance than domain knowledge did; in math, domain knowledge explained more of the variance than divergent thinking. Individual interest had no statistically significant main effect either in art or math. Situational interest had a statistically significant main effect on creative performance in math, but not in art. None of the hypothesized moderating and mediating effects of the two types of interest was statistically significant. The theoretical implications of the study are discussed, especially with respect to linking the relative importance of the variables in this study to the different domain structures of art and math.

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