Developmental study of the effect of dimensionality and presentation mode on original thinking of children.

A sample of 188 children in three age groups, preschool, first and third grades, were administered the Patterns Task of Multidimensional Stimulus Fluency Measure in four test conditions. The conditions systematically varied dimension (three or two) and presentation mode (handling or nonhandling). The fluency measure assessed ideational fluency, popular and original responses, as a measure of creative potential in young children. Analysis showed that dimensionality does not play a major role in the generation of original responses for any grade. However, handling 3-dimensional or 2-dimensional stimuli did appear to facilitate original thinking in preschool children. The use of 2-dimensional photographs which depict dimensionality appeared to compensate for the need to have 3-dimensional stimuli.