This study investigated the development of divergent thinking (DT) in early childhood. We followed 107 4-year-olds for 1.5 years. Children's DT was assessed with the Alternative Uses Task (AUT) every 6 months, four times in total. Within the AUT, children were asked to generate unusual uses of common objects while explaining how they came up with…

This study attempts to assess and compare the residential and non-residential schoolchildren in information-processing skills and creative thinking abilities. A sample of 80 children from Classes 5 and 7 were selected from two types of schools, residential/ashram (02) and non-residential/formal schools (02) in Bolpur subdivision of West Bengal in…

Age-related differences in cognitive processes were used to understand age-related declines in creativity. According to the Geneplore model (Finke, Ward, & Smith, 1992), there are two phases of creativity--generating an idea and exploring the implications of the idea--each with different underlying cognitive processes. These two phases are…

The study argues that, in addition to advantages in conscious attention-demanding processing, bilinguals may also exhibit enhanced unconscious divergent thinking. To investigate this issue, the performance of Russian-English bilingual immigrants and English monolingual native speakers was compared on the Abbreviated Torrance Test for Adults, which…

This paper reports a longitudinal study that explored the relationship between children's thinking and self-esteem. The level of self-esteem can serve as a powerful motivational force. Because positive self-evaluations are emotionally pleasurable, we are generally motivated to act in ways that enable us to feel good about ourselves. Self-esteem…

Employs a clinical interview methodology to examine some of the creative thinking strategies commonly used by children in elementary school grades. Results suggest that children use several strategies on creativity tasks. (RH)

Two studies were conducted, one using 80 university students and the other 140 fifth through seventh graders, to examine the relationship between problem-solving strategies (leaping and flexibility) and measures of insight and scholastic aptitude. Relationships among insight, leaping, and quantitative scholastic aptitude were found. A…

A study was conducted to identify types of mental operations of 4- and 5-year-olds and to relate them to the child's age and the educational level of the mother. The sample consisted of 423 white English-speaking children of American parentage, evenly divided by sex and as evenly distributed as possible over the 12-month-age range of 4 to 5 years.…

Problem solving flexibility (PSF), an ability commonly assessed in creativity batteries, was studied in a sample of middle class children (grades 1 through 3, average IQ 114), tested on questions resembling Guilford's consequences procedure. An hypothesis linking PSF with alertness to and interest in the environment was generally supported, more…