CREATIVITY AND ENVIRONMENTAL CUES IN NURSERY SCHOOL CHILDREN

Administered 3 creativity tests, each requiring 53 children to name as many ideas as he could that met a simple problem requirement. 2 of these tests were given in a typically barren experimental setting and served as the basis for dividing the sample into creative and uncreative Ss. The 3rd test was given to some Ss under the same cue-poor conditions, but to others in a cue-rich testing environment a room containing objects and pictures which provided cues to possible responses. Creativity and environmental richness interacted significantly in their effect on ideational production. Creative Ss gave more responses in a rich than a poor environment, while uncreative Ss showed no overall effect for environmental cues. It is argued that scanning the environment for task-relevant information is 1 of the strategies employed by the creative S in his search for problem solutions. This interaction also shows that despite low test intercorrelations, the creativity dimension has some stability across tests and over a period of several mo. in nursery school children. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2006 APA, all rights reserved). © 1969 American Psychological Association.