Thinking creatively in two languages: Effects of mental imagery vividness, foreign language proficiency and hand gestures on bilingual creativity

Abstract

This study investigated the influence of language context on creative thinking, mental imagery vividness and the use of representational hand gestures among Turkish-English bilinguals. Participants solved verbal divergent and convergent thinking tasks in both their native (L1) and second languages (L2) and self-reported their mental imagery vividness during each task. Results revealed that participants were more creative and experienced more vivid mental imagery in L1 compared to L2. Surprisingly, L2 proficiency was not associated with L2 imagery. Gestures in L1 had a positive association, while gestures in L2 had a negative association with divergent thinking. Higher gesture rates were related to lower convergent thinking performance in both languages, especially when imagery vividness was high. These findings suggest that creativity and mental imagery vividness might depend on the language context. The role of gestures for verbal creativity might also differ according to the language used.