Are Creative People More Susceptible to False Memory? Evidence for Age- and Task-Related Differences

Prior research suggests that people high in quantitative divergent thinking – the ability to fluently and flexibly generate original ideas – are more likely to falsely recognize novel yet related items on memory tests, potentially because both phenomena rely on common semantic associative processes. However, it remains unknown whether this relationship extends to later life, when memory errors are particularly salient. We investigated this issue in a sample that completed multiple measures of these constructs (n = 334, 138 older adults, 196 younger adults). Although we replicated the positive association between false recognition and quantitative divergent thinking on one of our four memory tasks, this relationship did not generalize across tasks as indicated by latent variable analyses, applied only to younger adults, and was restricted to one of our two divergent thinking task cues. Additionally, we observed a negative relationship between originality and false recognition in younger adults at the latent level, suggesting that younger adults who generate more original ideas are actually less susceptible to false memory. These results suggest that although divergent thinking and false memory may be positively related on some tasks, this relationship may not extend to the broader constructs, and may only apply to certain age groups.