Bilingualism and creativity: The effects of bilingual experiences of interpreters and translators on creative thinking
Abstract
Mounting evidence suggests that bilinguals have a creative advantage compared to monolinguals in that bilinguals score higher on tests measuring respondents' ability to generate creative ideas by exploring many possible solutions (divergent thinking) or tests for which they need to bring together different ideas to find a solution to a problem (convergent thinking) (for review see van Dijk et al., 2019). However, not all previous studies found positive effects of bilingualism on creativity (e.g., Lange et al., 2020).
A possible reason for the discrepancies is a lack of assessment of specific bilingual language use patterns and inhibitory skills that influence bilinguals' creativity. In the current study, we aim to investigate the relative contribution of specific bilingual experiences on divergent and convergent thinking skills by focusing on interpreters and translators, who need strongly developed linguistic and inhibitory skills in their jobs.
Based on Hommel et al. (2011), we expected the interpreters to outperform the translators and a group of non-professional bilinguals in inhibition and convergent thinking, but to score lower on divergent thinking tasks. We tested three groups of Czech-English bilinguals: interpreters (n = 29), translators (n = 37) and bilinguals without professional experience (n = 47).
The participants completed a divergent thinking (ATTA) and a convergent thinking task (RAT), an inhibitory control task (Eriksen flanker task), an intelligence test (WAIS-III), a language proficiency test (Lextale), and questionnaires measuring participants' specific use of and exposure to both languages. Contrary to our expectations, the interpreters outperformed the regular bilinguals not only on the intelligence and language proficiency tasks, but also on the divergent thinking task.
The groups did not differ on inhibition, although reaction times on the inhibitory control task did explain some variance in RAT, in line with predictions. We conclude that bilinguals' professional and everyday-life experiences need to be analysed carefully in studies of creativity.