Creative thinking in schizophrenia: the role of executive dysfunction and symptom severity

Abstract

Introduction: This study examines the notion of enhanced creative thinking in schizophrenia and determines the mediating role of executive dysfunction and symptom severity in this relationship.

Method: Patients with chronic schizophrenia (n=28) were assessed on varied facets of creative cognition and standard tests of executive control relative to matched healthy control participants (n=18).

Results: Multivariate analyses revealed poorer performance by the patient group across almost all creative and executive function measures, except in the ability to be unconstrained by the influence of restrictive examples. Symptom-based contrasts using partial correlations revealed that differences were most extensive in the presence of thought disorder. Using hierarchical regression analyses, performance on the executive function tasks was found to play a mediatory role on specific aspects of creative cognition.

Conclusions: Results are at odds with the popular notion of enhanced creative thinking in schizophrenia, but elucidate complex interactions between executive control and certain facets of creative thinking. In particular, performance of the schizophrenia group on measures that tap creativity elements of fluency and relevance were either partially or fully mediated by their performance on the executive control tasks, but this was not true of measures of originality.