While evidence is mixed about whether aggressive children generate fewer alternative solutions to social problems than do nonaggressive children, research has found consistent deficiencies in the qualitative kinds of solutions that aggressive children produce. This study assessed salience effects on the abilities of aggressive and nonaggressive boys from the fourth, fifth, and sixth grades to generate alternative solutions to social problems. Twenty-one aggressive and 15 nonaggressive boys were randomly assigned to two conditions, the Open-Middle or the Multiple-Choice condition. The dependent measure was the Problem Solving Measure for Conflict (Lochman & Lampron, 1986), which consisted of six means-ends stories. In the Open-Middle condition, subjects responded to the means-ends stories in the usual spontaneous manner, and produced patterns of solutions similar to prior results with aggressive and nonaggressive boys. When the Multiple-Choice condition was compared to the Open-Middle condition, aggressive subjects produced a significantly different pattern of response choices, with more verbal assertion and help-seeking solutions and fewer direct action choices. However, while the aggressive and nonaggressive boys no longer differed in rates of direct action solutions in the multiple-choice condition, the two groups still had a significantly different pattern of verbal assertion and help-seeking solutions. Aggressive and nonaggressive boys' response choice patterns appear to be highly affected by the social cognitive process of salience. (Author/ABL)