Peer-Reviewed Publication
BMC Psychol2026June 5, 2026Journal Article
The association between cognitive flexibility and creativity across childhood and adolescence: a scoping review.
Kastoori Kalaivanan1, Rui Wang2,3, Jiani Ren1, Mengquan Liu4, Xueni Zhang1, Chew Lee Teo5, S H Annabel Chen1,5,6,7
1Centre for Research and Development in Learning (CRADLE), Nanyang Technological University, Singapore, Singapore.
2Centre for Research and Development in Learning (CRADLE), Nanyang Technological University, Singapore, Singapore. rw623@cantab.ac.uk.
3Faculty of Education, University of Cambridge, Cambridge, UK. rw623@cantab.ac.uk.
4Department of Education, University of Oxford, Oxford, UK.
5National Institute of Education, Nanyang Technological University, Singapore, Singapore.
6Psychology, School of Social Sciences, Nanyang Technological University, Singapore, Singapore.
7Lee Kong Chian School of Medicine (LKCMedicine), Nanyang Technological University, Singapore, Singapore.
Abstract
Cognitive flexibility (CF), the ability to adaptively shift between perspectives, ideas, or strategies, is increasingly recognised as an important executive function underlying creativity. Creativity broadly refers to the capacity to generate ideas or solutions that are both unique and suitable to a given context. A positive association between CF and creativity is well-documented in adults. Howev…
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