Digital touchscreens as a media for creativity during adolescence

Based on embodied representation theory (Pezzulo 2011) considering the creative process as a predictive motor control process (Dietrich & Haider 2015), this research was aimed at evaluating whether direct finger feedbacks on a tablet could promote originality in drawings. Twenty-one adolescents aged 13/14 were asked to produce the most original house possible on a tablet using finger and stylus and on paper using a pen, and an unoriginal house using a pen on paper. Originality in drawing was scored with a rating scale comparing original drawings to a prototypical house, then comparing original drawings to unoriginal ones. The results revealed that original scores were higher for drawings on a tablet (with no difference between finger and stylus) than on paper. These findings highlight the role played by offline simulation of action in the creative process.