Summary: Study found no correlation to substantiate the claim that better autobiographical memory enhances creativity or creative thinking.
Source: Bial Foundation
Researchers from universities in Italy and the USA studied the relationship between memory and creativity to assess whether those who remember the smallest details of their lives (highly superior autobiographical memory) may have a greater propensity for creative thinking.
The results showed no relation.
There is still much to discover about the relationship between memory and creativity, but it is thought that creative ideas can result from the flexible recombination of concepts from memory. Several behavioral and neuroscientific studies support this assumption by proving a link between episodic memory and divergent thinking, which is the basis for the emergence of creative ideas.
Researchers Sarah Daviddi, William Orwig, Massimiliano Palmiero, Patrizia Campolongo, Daniel L. Schacter and Valerio Santangelo, from the Universities of Perugia, Aquila, Sapienza Rome (Italy) and Harvard (USA), came together to analyse the potential contributions of autobiographical memory for creative ideation, a relationship still little studied.
In the paper “Individuals with highly superior autobiographical memory do not show enhanced creative thinking”, published in the scientific journal Memory in July 2022, the authors explain that they assessed measures of divergent and convergent creative thinking in a cohort of 14 rare individuals showing Highly Superior Autobiographical Memory (HSAM), having been compared with a control group composed of a cohort of 28 other subjects who showed a normal-memory.
The HSAM group completed several memory tasks and a battery of creativity measures, such as Alternative Uses Task, Consequences Task and Remote Associates Task. Statistical analyses were then performed to assess the existence of relevant differences between the HSAM group and the control group regarding these measures.
The results revealed that, although participants in the HSAM group were superior in recalling autobiographical events compared to the control group, no overall differences were observed between the groups with regard to creativity measures.
The multidisciplinary team of researchers then concluded that constructive episodic processes relevant to creative thinking are not enhanced in individuals with highly superior autobiographical memory performance. A possible justification could be that they are compulsively and narrowly focused on the consolidation and recovery of autobiographical events.
One of the authors of the paper, Valerio Santangelo from the University of Perugia, and Sabrina Fagioli from the University of Roma Tre, are now investigating, with the support of the BIAL Foundation, the specific physiological characteristics of individuals with highly superior autobiographical memory performance.
About this memory research news
Author: Sandra Pinto
Source: Bial Foundation
Contact: Sandra Pinto – Bial Foundation
Image: The image is in the public domain
Original Research: Closed access.
“Individuals with highly superior autobiographical memory do not show enhanced creative thinking” by Sarah Daviddi et al. Memory
Abstract
Individuals with highly superior autobiographical memory do not show enhanced creative thinking
Creative ideas are thought to result from flexible recombination of concepts from memory. A growing number of behavioural and neuroscientific studies provide evidence of a link between episodic memory and divergent thinking; however, little is known about the potential contributions of autobiographical memory to creative ideation.
To provide a novel perspective on this issue, we assessed measures of divergent and convergent creative thinking in a cohort (n = 14) of rare individuals showing Highly Superior Autobiographical Memory (HSAM). The HSAM cohort completed memory tasks in addition to a battery of creativity measures, including the Alternative Uses Task, Consequences Task and Remote Associates Task. We performed statistical analyses to establish whether there were any significant differences between HSAM and controls (n = 28) across these measures.
Although HSAM participants were superior in the recall of autobiographical events compared to controls, we observed no overall difference between the groups in relation to the creativity measures.
These findings suggest that the constructive episodic processes relevant to creative thinking are not enhanced in individuals with HSAM, perhaps because they are compulsively and narrowly focused on consolidation and retrieval of autobiographical events.
