Creative Potential and Conceptual Tempo in Preschool Children

Abstract

The individual stylistic variations of creative potential and conceptual tempo were investigated in preschool children. The age-appropriate measure used for the reflective/impulsive dimension was the Kansas Reflection Impulsivity Scale for Preschoolers (KRISP), and the Multidimensional Stimulus Fluency Measure (MSFM) addressed ideational fluency, i.e. creative potential. Of the 31 boys and 30 girls (mean age = 56.9 months), who were given these measures, 15 were classified as impulsive (fast, inaccurate) and 21 as reflective (slow, accurate), via median spilts on the error and latency scores of the KRISP. This study also included the 14 children who were classified as fast, accurate and the 11 slow, inaccurate children in the analysis. Contrary to expectations, no differences between reflectives and impulsives were found on the ideational fluency measure. However, analysis of all four quadrants of the conceptual tempo dimensions revealed an intereaction of KRISP latency and error scores, F(1 ,57) = 12.78, p<.001, with greater originality scores evidenced in the fast/ accurate (M = 20.38) and slow/inaccurate (M = 25.00) groups then among the reflectives, i.e. slow/accurates (M = 12.71 ), and impulsives, i.e. fast/inaccurates (m = 11 .56). Speculations and implications of this unusual finding were discussed in terms of the manner in which children may approach convergent and divergent tasks.