The abilities to enhance neural responses for relevant stimuli and to suppress responses to irrelevant stimuli are necessary for effective attention. The present study explores the relationship between executive functions and creativity, which may not be positively correlated. The study further investigates whether, as individuals age, potential declines in executive function may not necessarily lead to declines in creative functioning. College-aged participants will complete two components of this study: 1) an initial series of paper tests measuring creativity and executive functions such as selective attention and 2) a working memory task during which EEG is recorded. The data collected will then be compared to a dataset of similar measures previously collected from older participants. Changes in amplitudes and latencies of visual event-related potential waveform peaks recorded from posterior sites, as well as changes in EEG bandwidths recorded from frontal and posterior areas, will be used to assess attentional performance across age groups. These results will further be compared to behavioral measures across younger and older participants in order to measure how the relationship between creativity and executive function changes as one ages.
