The Development of Preschoolers’ Semantic Strategy Use on a Divergent Thinking Task.

Abstract

Aim. To date there is still little known about the development of preschoolers in terms of their strategy use in divergent thinking (DT). Therefore, the aim of this study was to investigate the longitudinal relationship between semantic strategy use and the quality of DT in preschool children, including the effect of gender. Method. This relationship is investigated through the results of the Alternative Uses test (AU) of 35 children (14 boys), 3.94-4.88 years old. These children were tested twice within approximately five months. Results. Semantic strategy use appeared to be only a significant predictor of DT quality at the first measurement, not at the second. In addition, children did not use the semantic strategy more often over time. The quality of DT on the other hand did increase significantly between the first and second measurement (partial η2 = 0.288). Furthermore, there were no gender differences for both the semantic strategy use and the quality of DT. Finally, the quality of DT at the second measurement could not be predicted by how often the participants used semantic strategy at the first measurement. Conclusion. Altogether, it can be concluded that the quality of DT and semantic strategy use develop differently, resulting in no clear longitudinal relationship between DT quality and semantic strategy use.