This study compared 52 undergraduate Introductory Psychology students at the University of Memphis. Half had ADHD, chosen by a self-reported diagnosis plus scores above a clinical cutoff on a symptom scale. Half of them were taking ADHD medication at the time. Each group had equal numbers of men and women. The ADHD group's average age was 20.4.
In one simple, open-ended task, students created alien fruit. The ADHD group's fruit was rated as more original, a moderate difference. Their fruit also had more unusual features, a large difference. The groups did not reliably differ in how many typical fruit features they used.
In another, they invented product labels. The ADHD group reused fewer endings from the task examples, a moderate difference. How descriptive the labels were did not reliably differ.
The author suggests adults with ADHD may be less held back by what they already know, or have just seen, during creative work.
The author calls the results preliminary. Each group had 26 students, short of the 28 per group that a power analysis recommended. The students had no other psychiatric conditions, were fairly high functioning and may have had above-average intellect. The results may not apply to all adults with ADHD. Harder or more constrained tasks might also increase reliance on examples.
The numbers Stats and what the terms mean
The statistics behind the plain-language claims above.
- White, 2018: originality of the alien fruit, d = 0.645.
- White, 2018: unusual features of the alien fruit, d = 1.22.
- White, 2018: fewer reused endings from the task examples, d = 0.760.
What the terms mean:
- d is an effect size. Roughly, 0.2 is small, 0.5 is moderate and 0.8 is large. A minus sign shows the direction of the change, not its size.
Source: White H. Thinking “Outside the Box”: Unconstrained Creative Generation in Adults with Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder. The Journal of Creative Behavior (2018). doi:10.1002/jocb.382