The effect of stimulus presentation on original thinking by preschool children

The purpose of this study was to investigate the effects of stimulus dimension and mode of exploration on preschool children's responses to two original thinking tasks. Eighty children from four child care centers ranging in age from 46-65 months comprised the five condition groups: 2-D stimuli for visual exploration only, 2-D stimuli for visual plus haptic exploration, 3-D stimuli for visual exploration only, 3-D stimuli for visual plus haptic exploration. The groups were match on intelligence, sex, and center attended. IQ scores were extrapolated from the Information and Picture Completion subtests of the Wechsler Preschool and Primary Scale of Intelligence. During the test session the children were shown the stimulus materials in the appropriate dimension and mode of exploration for their condition. The unusual uses task and the pattern meanings task were used to assess original thinking. The children's responses were scored for total fluency and unique responses. Several factors relating to the selection of the optimal method of stimulus presentation were considered in relation to the development of an assessment tool for creativity in young children. Significant relationships were found between the pattern meanings task and unusual uses task when the 3-D stimuli were used and haptic exploration was allowed. This relationship was much higher for this condition than the correlation of either task to IQ. Three dimensional stimuli and visual plus haptic exploration also had the highest mean fluency of responses although one way analysis of covariance failed to show significant effects of group and total fluency or unique responses. From these findings the best form of stimulus presentation to assess original thinking in preschool children appears to be three-dimensions with visual plus haptic exploration. Additional investigation is warranted into the effects of dimension and exploration and their interaction on the generation of responses to original thinking tasks in young children.

Name thesis:degree_name

Master of Science

Level thesis:degree_level

masters

Discipline thesis:degree_discipline

Family and Child Devolopment

Department dc:contributor.department

Family and Child Devolopment

Grantor dc:publisher

Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University

Year dc:date.issued

1982

Author dc:creator

• Kelso, Gail Bohannon

Statement dc:rights

• In Copyright

Licence dc:rights.uri

• http://rightsstatements.org/vocab/InC/1.0/

Language dc:language.iso

en_US

Handle dc:identifier.uri

http://hdl.handle.net/10919/80144

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:vtechworks.lib.vt.edu:10919/80144