Creativity, expertise, and attention: exploring their development and their relationships

Recent evidence from neuroscience suggests that creativity is developed early in life and that the greatest improvements in creativity can be expected during this time. Therefore, the aim of this study was to investigate the creative development of children depending on their level of expertise and attention processes. Moreover, the significance of general and specific attention components and special training effects in the development of specific and non-specific creative thinking remain unclear. Thus, skilled (team handball) and non-skilled children (n = 120) aged 7, 10, and 13 completed two divergent thinking tasks (specific/non-specific) and two attention tasks (specific/non-specific) in a cross-sectional design. It is evident that general and sport-specific creativity have similar paths of development. Skilled players with high attention scores performed better than skilled players with low attention scores, in accordance with specific creative thinking abilities. In contrast, and in accordance with general creative thinking abilities, non-skilled players with less attentional skills outperformed non-skilled players.