Examining the influence of mind wandering and metacognition on creativity in university and vocational students☆

Article history: Received 17 March 2015 Received in revised form 19 July 2016 Accepted 27 July 2016 Available online xxxx We examined the relationship betweenmindwandering,metacognition and creativity in 116 university and 117 vocational Chilean students. They took a test of divergent thinking, a test of creative problem solving and a fluid intelligence test. Additionally, they answeredmindwandering,metacognition, and reading difficulties self-report scales. We performed multivariate analyses of variance, hierarchical regression models and tests of moderation. Fluid intelligence predicted performance on both creativity tests. The reading difficulties scale predicted the test of creative problem solving but not the test of divergent thinking. Mind wandering significantly predicted both creativity measures above the contribution of fluid intelligence and reading difficulties. Metacognition did not significantly predict the measures of creativity. The type of school where the participants studied moderated the effect ofmetacognition on creativity.Wediscuss the implications of these results for research and assessment on mind wandering, metacognition and creativity. © 2016 Published by Elsevier Inc.