Cargando…

Giving Ideas Some Legs or Legs Some Ideas? Children’s Motor Creativity Is Enhanced by Physical Activity Enrichment: Direct and Mediated Paths

Approaches to foster motor creativity differ according to whether creative movements are assumed to be enacted creative ideas, or solutions to emerging motor problems that arise from task and environmental constraints. The twofold aim of the current study was to investigate whether (1) an enriched p...

Descripción completa

Detalles Bibliográficos
Autores principales: Tocci, Nicoletta, Scibinetti, Patrizia, Mazzoli, Emiliano, Mavilidi, Myrto Foteini, Masci, Ilaria, Schmidt, Mirko, Pesce, Caterina
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: Frontiers Media S.A. 2022
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8960453/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/35360626
http://dx.doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2022.806065
_version_ 1784677386923540480
author Tocci, Nicoletta
Scibinetti, Patrizia
Mazzoli, Emiliano
Mavilidi, Myrto Foteini
Masci, Ilaria
Schmidt, Mirko
Pesce, Caterina
author_facet Tocci, Nicoletta
Scibinetti, Patrizia
Mazzoli, Emiliano
Mavilidi, Myrto Foteini
Masci, Ilaria
Schmidt, Mirko
Pesce, Caterina
author_sort Tocci, Nicoletta
collection PubMed
description Approaches to foster motor creativity differ according to whether creative movements are assumed to be enacted creative ideas, or solutions to emerging motor problems that arise from task and environmental constraints. The twofold aim of the current study was to investigate whether (1) an enriched physical education (PE) intervention delivered with a joint constraints-led and cognitive stimulation approach fosters motor creativity, and the responsiveness to the intervention is moderated by baseline motor and cognitive skills and sex; (2) the intervention may benefit motor creativity through gains in motor coordination, executive function, and creative thinking. Ninety-five children, aged 6–9 years, participated in a 6-month group randomized trial with specialist-led enriched PE vs. generalist-led conventional PE. Before and after the intervention, Bertsch’s Test of Motor Creativity, Movement Assessment Battery for Children, Random Number Generation task and Torrance Test of Creative Thinking were administered. Linear mixed models were run accounting for the random effects of data clusters. Multiple mediation analysis was performed to assess whether motor coordination, executive function and creative thinking mediated any improvement of motor creativity. Results showed that (1) specialist-led enriched PE, compared to generalist-led conventional practice, elicited a more pronounced improvement in all motor creativity dimensions (fluency, flexibility, and originality) independently of baseline levels of motor and cognitive skills and sex; and (2) improved motor creativity was partially mediated by improved motor coordination and, as regards motor flexibility, also by improved inhibitory ability. In conclusion, enriching PE with tailored manipulations of constraints and variability may enhance the ability to create multiple and original task-pertinent movements both directly and through indirect paths. The results are discussed extending to motor creativity a theoretical framework that distinguishes different creativity modes. The intervention may have fostered the generation of creative movements directly through the exposure to variation in constraints, activating the sensorimotor ‘flow’ mode of creativity that bypasses higher-order cognition, but also indirectly through a systematic and conscious convergence on solutions, activating the ‘deliberate’ mode of creativity that relies on inhibition to reject common or task-inappropriate movement categories.
format Online
Article
Text
id pubmed-8960453
institution National Center for Biotechnology Information
language English
publishDate 2022
publisher Frontiers Media S.A.
record_format MEDLINE/PubMed
spelling pubmed-89604532022-03-30 Giving Ideas Some Legs or Legs Some Ideas? Children’s Motor Creativity Is Enhanced by Physical Activity Enrichment: Direct and Mediated Paths Tocci, Nicoletta Scibinetti, Patrizia Mazzoli, Emiliano Mavilidi, Myrto Foteini Masci, Ilaria Schmidt, Mirko Pesce, Caterina Front Psychol Psychology Approaches to foster motor creativity differ according to whether creative movements are assumed to be enacted creative ideas, or solutions to emerging motor problems that arise from task and environmental constraints. The twofold aim of the current study was to investigate whether (1) an enriched physical education (PE) intervention delivered with a joint constraints-led and cognitive stimulation approach fosters motor creativity, and the responsiveness to the intervention is moderated by baseline motor and cognitive skills and sex; (2) the intervention may benefit motor creativity through gains in motor coordination, executive function, and creative thinking. Ninety-five children, aged 6–9 years, participated in a 6-month group randomized trial with specialist-led enriched PE vs. generalist-led conventional PE. Before and after the intervention, Bertsch’s Test of Motor Creativity, Movement Assessment Battery for Children, Random Number Generation task and Torrance Test of Creative Thinking were administered. Linear mixed models were run accounting for the random effects of data clusters. Multiple mediation analysis was performed to assess whether motor coordination, executive function and creative thinking mediated any improvement of motor creativity. Results showed that (1) specialist-led enriched PE, compared to generalist-led conventional practice, elicited a more pronounced improvement in all motor creativity dimensions (fluency, flexibility, and originality) independently of baseline levels of motor and cognitive skills and sex; and (2) improved motor creativity was partially mediated by improved motor coordination and, as regards motor flexibility, also by improved inhibitory ability. In conclusion, enriching PE with tailored manipulations of constraints and variability may enhance the ability to create multiple and original task-pertinent movements both directly and through indirect paths. The results are discussed extending to motor creativity a theoretical framework that distinguishes different creativity modes. The intervention may have fostered the generation of creative movements directly through the exposure to variation in constraints, activating the sensorimotor ‘flow’ mode of creativity that bypasses higher-order cognition, but also indirectly through a systematic and conscious convergence on solutions, activating the ‘deliberate’ mode of creativity that relies on inhibition to reject common or task-inappropriate movement categories. Frontiers Media S.A. 2022-03-10 /pmc/articles/PMC8960453/ /pubmed/35360626 http://dx.doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2022.806065 Text en Copyright © 2022 Tocci, Scibinetti, Mazzoli, Mavilidi, Masci, Schmidt and Pesce. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) and the copyright owner(s) are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
spellingShingle Psychology
Tocci, Nicoletta
Scibinetti, Patrizia
Mazzoli, Emiliano
Mavilidi, Myrto Foteini
Masci, Ilaria
Schmidt, Mirko
Pesce, Caterina
Giving Ideas Some Legs or Legs Some Ideas? Children’s Motor Creativity Is Enhanced by Physical Activity Enrichment: Direct and Mediated Paths
title Giving Ideas Some Legs or Legs Some Ideas? Children’s Motor Creativity Is Enhanced by Physical Activity Enrichment: Direct and Mediated Paths
title_full Giving Ideas Some Legs or Legs Some Ideas? Children’s Motor Creativity Is Enhanced by Physical Activity Enrichment: Direct and Mediated Paths
title_fullStr Giving Ideas Some Legs or Legs Some Ideas? Children’s Motor Creativity Is Enhanced by Physical Activity Enrichment: Direct and Mediated Paths
title_full_unstemmed Giving Ideas Some Legs or Legs Some Ideas? Children’s Motor Creativity Is Enhanced by Physical Activity Enrichment: Direct and Mediated Paths
title_short Giving Ideas Some Legs or Legs Some Ideas? Children’s Motor Creativity Is Enhanced by Physical Activity Enrichment: Direct and Mediated Paths
title_sort giving ideas some legs or legs some ideas? children’s motor creativity is enhanced by physical activity enrichment: direct and mediated paths
topic Psychology
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8960453/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/35360626
http://dx.doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2022.806065
work_keys_str_mv AT toccinicoletta givingideassomelegsorlegssomeideaschildrensmotorcreativityisenhancedbyphysicalactivityenrichmentdirectandmediatedpaths
AT scibinettipatrizia givingideassomelegsorlegssomeideaschildrensmotorcreativityisenhancedbyphysicalactivityenrichmentdirectandmediatedpaths
AT mazzoliemiliano givingideassomelegsorlegssomeideaschildrensmotorcreativityisenhancedbyphysicalactivityenrichmentdirectandmediatedpaths
AT mavilidimyrtofoteini givingideassomelegsorlegssomeideaschildrensmotorcreativityisenhancedbyphysicalactivityenrichmentdirectandmediatedpaths
AT masciilaria givingideassomelegsorlegssomeideaschildrensmotorcreativityisenhancedbyphysicalactivityenrichmentdirectandmediatedpaths
AT schmidtmirko givingideassomelegsorlegssomeideaschildrensmotorcreativityisenhancedbyphysicalactivityenrichmentdirectandmediatedpaths
AT pescecaterina givingideassomelegsorlegssomeideaschildrensmotorcreativityisenhancedbyphysicalactivityenrichmentdirectandmediatedpaths