Stimulus Specificity in the Measurement of Original Thinking in Preschool Children

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Abstract
A patterns task consisting of six stimuli, three presented in two-dimensional form and three presented in three-dimensional form were administered to 47 preschool children. The three-dimensional patterns task generated a greater number of responses than the two-dimensional task. Moreover, the two-dimensional task was related to intelligence whereas the three-dimensional task was not. In the second phase of the study the greater fluency elicited by the three-dimensional pattern task was found to be a function of the added dimension and not of the specific stimuli used. The implications of the findings for Mednick's response hierarchy formulation and the creativity-intelligence distinction are discussed. The findings demonstrate the importance of developing measures of original thinking which are specifically appropriate for use with preschool children.

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