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Creativity Research Journal

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Creativity and Brain-Functioning in Product

Development Engineers: A Canonical Correlation
Analysis
a b
Frederick Travis & Yvonne Lagrosen
a
Maharishi University of Management
b
University West , Sweden
Published online: 08 May 2014.

To cite this article: Frederick Travis & Yvonne Lagrosen (2014) Creativity and Brain-Functioning in Product Development
Engineers: A Canonical Correlation Analysis, Creativity Research Journal, 26:2, 239-243, DOI: 10.1080/10400419.2014.901096

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 CREATIVITY RESEARCH JOURNAL, 26(2), 239–243, 2014
Copyright # Taylor & Francis Group, LLC
ISSN: 1040-0419 print=1532-6934 online
DOI: 10.1080/10400419.2014.901096

RESEARCH NOTE

Creativity and Brain-Functioning in Product Development

Engineers: A Canonical Correlation Analysis
Frederick Travis
Maharishi University of Management
Downloaded by [Eindhoven Technical University] at 01:30 18 November 2014

Yvonne Lagrosen
University West, Sweden

This study used canonical correlation analysis to explore the relation among scores on
the Torrance test of figural and verbal creativity and demographic, psychological and
physiological measures in Swedish product-development engineers. The first canonical
variate included figural and verbal flexibility and originality as dependent measures
and (a) higher scores on the brain integration scale, (b) faster speed of processing in
an event-related potential task, (c) faster conflict-resolution during the Stroop task,
(d) higher moral reasoning, and (e) higher manageability and lower comprehensibility
as independent measures. Flexibility and originality reflect the ability to see old situa-
tions in new ways leading to unique responses. Greater mental adaptability was associa-
ted with greater brain integration and speed of processing along with higher moral
reasoning and feeling of being in control. Future research could investigate effects of
interventions that optimize brain integration on creative output across professions.

Creativity is a factor in successful problem solving
(Andreasen, 2011), and in innovation, entrepreneurship,
and competitiveness (Granot, 2011). Creative problem
solving is supported by specific patterns of brain
functioning.
A critical review of the literature observed that left-
and right-hemisphere brain areas are involved during
creativity tasks, and that alpha EEG is frequently seen
during creative problem solving (Sawyer, 2013). During
generation of original ideas, alpha EEG is reported to
increase in frontal and parietal brain areas (Dietrich &
Kanso, 2010; Martindale & Hasenfus, 1978). Higher
frontal alpha activity is thought to indicate the internal
transformation of the current problem space into a
creative solution (Benedek, Bergner, Konen, Fink, &
Neubauer, 2011). Just before solving a problem with
insight, a burst in frontal alpha is seen that is followed
We thank University West for help to fund this research.
Correspondence should be sent to Frederick Travis, 1000 North
4th MR 683, Fairfield, IA 52557. E-mail: ftravis@mum.edu
by gamma EEG as the details of the solution unfold
(Kounios et al., 2006). More generally, the process of
hypothesis generation required by a divergent condition
activates frontal brain areas (Vartanian & Goel, 2007).
Alpha EEG during creativity tasks does not appear
to indicate idling. Higher performance on Torrance
Tests of verbal creativity has been associated with great-
er cerebral frontal blood flow (Chávez-Eakle, Graff-
Guerrero, Garcı́a-Reyna, Vaugier, & Cruz-Fuentes,
2007). In an EEG=fMRI study, higher frontal alpha EEG
and higher frontal cerebral metabolic rate were both
found during creative problem solving (Fink et al., 2009).
Distributed brain functioning is a mark of creative
problem solving. It is also a mark of successful indivi-
duals. Brain integration, as measured by frontal EEG
coherence, relative alpha power, and brain preparatory
response during demanding tasks, was reported in top-
performers in sports, management, and classical music,
as compared to controls (Harung & Travis, 2012;
Harung et al., 2011; Travis, Harung, & Lagrosen, 2011).
Higher levels of brain integration, suggesting more
 240 TRAVIS AND LAGROSEN
distributed brain functioning, may be a component of
successful problem solving.
This study explored the relation of creativity, as
measured by the Torrance tests of verbal and figural
creativity, with physiological and psychological mea-
sures in product development engineers. Product-
development engineers were tested because creativity is
a key factor in their success (Sprecher, 1959). EEG
was measured during paired-reaction time tests to calcu-
late the level of brain integration, and during two
event-related potential tasks to measure speed of proces-
sing and vigilance (Polich, 2007). Participants also recei-
ved the Stroop Color-Word test, a standard measure of
frontal executive functioning, and two psychological
tests: Antonovsky’s Orientation to Life question-
Downloaded by [Eindhoven Technical University] at 01:30 18 November 2014
naire, measuring psychological ‘‘sense of coherence’’
(Antonovsky, 1993, p. 725) and Gibb’s Social-Moral
Reflection that correlates highly with tests of cognitive
stage development (Gibbs et al., 1990).
METHOD
Participants
The study was conducted with engineers, involved in
product development, who worked at a major Swedish
company that develops and manufactures aircraft
engines and stationary gas turbines. Twenty-one engi-
neers volunteered for the research. They ranged in age
from 29 to 56 years (average 39.5
6.5 years). A major-
ity had leading positions as project leaders, department
leaders, or unit leaders. They were highly educated: 8
had PhDs or were full professors, 11 had Master
degrees. Two engineers had no university education.
Procedure
A unit manager at the company sent out an invitation
to engineers he thought might be interested in a study
regarding product development, creativity, and brain
functioning. After a general introductory meeting, inter-
ested engineers set up appointments for individual
recording of EEG. They completed the paper-and-pencil
test instruments at that time.
Test Instruments
Demographics. The engineers reported their ages
and levels of education. In addition, a unit manager at
the company assigned an experience and achievement
level for each engineer. Experience included: number
of years education, years at the company, and other
engineering experience. Achievement reflected their rank
in the company in relation to expected performance.
These were combined into a single measure for analysis.
Figural and verbal creativity. Two tests of creativity
were used from the Torrance Tests of Creative
Thinking—the parallel lines test (figural creativity) and
the alternative uses of a tin can test (verbal creativity).
These tests result in three subscales—fluency, which is
the ability to produce a large number of responses;
flexibility, which is the ability to give responses from
different categories; and originality, which is the ability
to produce uncommon or unique responses. This test
has extensive norms from over 55,600 people, and
has very strong reliable and test–retest coefficients
(Torrance, Treffinger, & Ball, 1987). The Torrance tests
were scored according to guidelines in the Torrance Test
of Creativity thinking manual.
BRAIN INTEGRATION SCALE
The Brain Integration Scale includes frontal alpha
coherence, frontal-central alpha relative power, and
the difference in brain preparatory response during sim-
ple and choice paired-reaction-time trials (Travis, Tecce,
Arenander, & Wallace, 2002). The simple reaction-time
trials included an asterisk as a warning stimuli followed
by a tone 1.5 seconds later. The choice reaction-time
trials included a one or two digit number as a warning
stimuli followed by a second one or two digit number.
Engineers were asked to indicate which number was
larger.
Event-related potential measures. Engineers were
presented 240 stimuli with one-sec interstimulus inter-
vals: 10% were rare, unexpected white noise bursts (novel
tones); and 10% were rare, expected 85 dB 1000 Hz tones
that they were asked to count (oddball tones). The other
80% of stimuli (192) were standard 85 dB 500 Hz tones,
which subjects were told to ignore.
The novel tones result in a frontal component that
reflects vigilance levels (Polich, 2007), and is called a
P3a. The oddball tones result in a parietal component
that reflects timing and magnitude of memory and stim-
ulus categorization processes (Brázdil, Roman, Daniel,
& Rektor, 2003; Polich, 2007), and is called a P3b.
Stroop Color-Word Test. The Stroop Color-Word
test is a standard measure of frontal executive function-
ing. In this test, subjects are presented color words writ-
ten in a different color than the color word itself, for
instance, the word red written in blue ink. Reading the
word is a fast, automatic process; naming the color of
 CREATIVITY IN PRODUCT DEVELOPMENT ENGINEERS
the ink that the word is written in is a slow, controlled
process (Stroop, 1935). The difference in reaction time
in naming the word and naming the color of ink the
word is written in is called the ‘‘color-word interference
effect’’ (Cohen, Dunbar, & McClelland, 1990, p. 334).
This indexes frontal executive circuits.
Self-reported health. Subjects responded along a
7-point Likert scale, agree not at all (1) to agree com-
pletely (7), to two questions on health. These questions
were: (1) I am feeling most often alert. (2) I think my
health is very good.
Orientation to Life. This measure contains 29 items
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that yield three factors defining one’s sense of coherence
(Antonovsky, 1979). The first factor is comprehensibility,
the belief that things happen in an orderly and predict-
able fashion. The second factor is manageability, the
belief that you have the skills and the resources neces-
sary to take care of things. The third factor is meaning-
fulness, the belief that life is meaningful, interesting, and
a source of satisfaction. A meta-analysis of 50 studies
reported a high association of sense of coherence with
physical health (Eriksson & Lindström, 2006; Flensborg-
Madsen, Ventegodt, & Merrick, 2005).
Gibbs Socio-Moral Reflection questionnaire. This
instrument presents moral statements and asks subjects
to describe why a moral act may be important to them
(Gibbs et al., 1990). This instrument has high test–retest
reliability (r ¼ .88), high Cronbach alpha coefficients
(r ¼ .92), and is highly correlated with scores on
Kohlberg’s Moral Judgment Interview (r ¼ .70; Gibbs,
Basinger, & Fuller, 1992), a widely used test of moral
development. The Gibb’s Sociomoral Reflection ques-
tionnaires were sent to trained scorers who returned a
score between 1 and 4.
RESULTS
The data were first tested for normality. Only two vari-
ables differed significantly from normality, the ‘‘color-
word interference effect’’ during the Stroop task
(skewness ¼ 1.4; Kurtosis ¼ 3.4) and P3b latency during
the odd ball task (skewness ¼ 1.7; Kurtosis ¼ 3.7).
Because canonical correlation analysis is sensitive to
outliers, a Windsorized mean was calculated for these
two variables. This involves replacing the smallest and
largest values with the observations closest to them.
After this procedure, none of the variables differed
significantly from normality.
241
Canonical Correlation Analysis (CCA)
Canonical correlation analysis (CCA) was used to assess
the relation between the psychological, physiological
and creativity measures. The CCA calculates a linear
combination of independent and dependent measures
that are maximally correlated (Sherry & Henson, 2005).
Due to limited number of subjects, CCA was conduc-
ted with two sets of independent variables. The first
included demographic measures (age, education, experi-
ence, and achievement), and self-reported health ques-
tions (feeling alert and health is good). The second
included psychological (socio-moral reflection and ori-
entation to life), performance (color-word interference
effects in the Stroop test) and brain-derived variables
(latency during the novel and oddball tasks, and the
Brain Integration Scale). In both analyses, the second
set—dependent variables—included three figural
(fluency, flexibility, and originality) and three verbal
creativity measures (fluency, flexibility, originality).
The canonical correlation analysis module in STATA-10
was used to conduct the analysis.
The first CCA with demographics, self-report health
questions, and creativity measures was not significant,
Wilkes Lambda F(36,84) ¼ 0.96, p ¼ 0.59. The second
CCA with psychological, performance, and brain
measures and creativity measures was statistically sig-
nificant, Wilkes Lambda F(42,38) ¼ 3.04, p ¼ 0.014.
Table 1 presents the first three canonical variates from
this analysis, their correlation coefficients, percent vari-
ance accounted for and Chi Square statistics. (The
fourth and further variates accounted for less than 10%
of the variance and so are not shown.) The first canoni-
cal variate from this analysis was statistically significant
and so is further discussed.
The next table presents the loadings of variables on
the first canonical variate. Significant weights are bolded
for easy identification. As seen in Table 2, the inde-
pendent variables that significantly loaded on this
variate were faster color-word interference times, higher
scores on the Brain Integration Scale, faster processing
of stimuli, higher moral reasoning, lower comprehensi-
bility and higher manageability. The creativity (depen-
dent) variables that significantly loaded on the first
TABLE 1
The First Three Canonical Variates and Their Correlation
Coefficients, Percent Variance Accounted For and
Chi-Square Statistics
Canonical Correlation Percent Variance Chi
Coefficient Accounted Square df p-Value
1st 0.92 38.6 84.9 36 0.008
2nd 0.83 32.1 26.2 25 0.121
3rd 0.58 15.5 10.1 16 0.662
 242 TRAVIS AND LAGROSEN

TABLE 2 and comprehensibility negatively loaded on the first

Loading of Each Variable on the First Canonical Variate canonical variate. This was not expected. Higher man-
Standardized ageability is related to perceived internal control—one
Variable Weights F-Statistic p-Value believes that they have sufficient inner resources to
cope with life’s challenges (Antonovsky, 1993), which
First set: Independent variables
in a meta-analysis is associated with higher creative
Color-word interference effect 0.51 20.0 0.001
Brain integration scale 0.61 25.2 0.000 performance (Byron, Khazanchi, & Nazarian, 2013).
Oddball latency 0.50 15.9 0.001 Comprehensibility is the degree that you feel you can
Novel latency 0.06 0.23 0.639 ‘‘reasonably predict what will happen in the future.’’
Moral reasoning 0.68 33.7 0.000 Inverse loading of comprehensibility on the creativity
Comprehensibility 0.74 35.3 0.000
subscales suggests that creative people are not tied to
Manageability 0.47 13.8 0.001
Meaningfulness –0.08 .20 0.657 routine but expect new things will happen.
Second set: Dependent variables
Figural fluency 1.29 36.6 0.000
Figural flexibility 0.91 23.5 0.000 IMPLICATIONS FOR FUTURE RESEARCH
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Figural originality 0.41 6.25 0.021

Verbal fluency –0.32 1.5
Verbal flexibility 0.95 26.9
Verbal originality 2.02 58.1
canonical variate were higher flexibility and originality
in both figural and verbal creativity. Lower figural
fluency also loaded on this factor.
DISCUSSION
The canonical correlation analysis suggests a strong
relation among flexibility and originality subscales and
physiological and psychological measures in a group
of product-development engineers. High scores on the
flexibility subscale reflect the ability to generate res-
ponses from different categories. High scores on the
originality subscale include items that were more rarely
seen in the 55,000 protocols used to create the norms.
The creativity subscale, fluency, which was negatively
loaded on the canonical variate, is a measure of number
of items. Focusing on generating many responses may
miss consideration of different kinds of responses and
so miss original solutions.
Brain integration and speed of processing (oddball
latency) significantly correlated with the creativity sub-
scales. The Brain Integration Scale includes higher fron-
tal coherence and diffuse increase in alpha activity,
which supports the model of creativity as involving the
whole brain. Faster processing would allow one to con-
sider more alternatives during problem solving leading
to greater flexibility of categories and higher originality.
Four psychological measures also significantly corre-
lated with the creativity subscales. Faster resolution of
conflict in the Stroop task, a reliable measure of frontal
executive thinking, supports the role of frontal areas in
creative processing. Higher moral reasoning, an index
of development, suggests that development supports
creative thinking. Manageability positively loaded
0.238 Creativity is an important factor for individual success.
0.000
It could be considered a core value of the employee
0.000
along with honesty, being fair, being good, and open-
minded that would contribute to success of organiza-
tions across time, cultures, and ethnicities (Hofstede,
1997; Lagrosen, Bäckström, & Lagrosen, 2010;
Thornbury, 2003). A recent paper argues that brain inte-
gration may be the driver of core values and so quality
management success (Lagrosen, Travis, & Lagrosen,
2012). Future research could address the impact of
interventions such as meditation practices to optimize
brain integration and creative output across professions
(Travis, 1979).
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