Uninhibited imaginations: Creativity in adults with Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder

This study applies a theoretical approach to understanding creativity of ADHD individuals in terms of inhibitory control and its relative import in two aspects of creativity: divergent and convergent thinking. We compared adults with and without ADHD on the Unusual Uses Task (divergent thinking) and the Remote Associates Test (convergent thinking), and a measure of executive inhibitory control, semantic inhibition of return. ADHD individuals outperformed non-ADHD individuals on the Unusual Uses Task, but performed worse than non-ADHD on the Remote Associates Test and the semantic IOR task. The relationship between ADHD and creative ability was mediated, in part, by differences in inhibition.