Creativity-Related Hemispheric Selective Processing: Correlations on Global and Local Levels of Attentional Set

Creativity-related characteristics of hemispheric attentional processes operating on local and global level were examined using a hierarchical letter paradigm comparison task. The figural originality of college students (N = 116) was predicted by reaction times (RT) during information selection on the global level, with local-global interference effects. High originality was related to faster right-hemispheric RT and slower cooperative hemispheric processing RT. Other predictors of originality included an increase in right hemispheric local-global interference effects and decreases in interhemispheric interference. The results suggest that figurative creativity is associated with global selective processing in the right hemisphere and weak global-to-local interference effects in interhemispheric interaction.