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Panel information
Panel 4. Cognitive Processes

Abstract

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Fostering creative thinking in children is one of the critical issues in school education (OECD, 2018). Previous studies (e.g., Hoffmann & Russ, 2012; Lloyd & Howe, 2003) have shown that imaginative play in childhood influences creative thinking. However, there is little evidence of the development of creative thinking and its related factors in non-Western children. Therefore, we examined the relationship between creative thinking and imaginative play in Japanese preschoolers based on studies of Western children.

Methods. Sixty-five Japanese preschoolers (30 boys, 35 girls: M = 68.37 months, SD = 7.50) and their parents (6 males, 59 females: M = 38.92 years, SD = 4.18) participated in the study. Participating children completed the Alternate Uses Task (AUT: Wallach & Kogan, 1965) in individual interviews. In the AUT, children were presented with one everyday object (e.g., newspaper, ball) at a time and asked to respond to as many different uses of the object as possible. Fluency (number of responses per item) and creativity (number of unusual uses per item) scores were calculated based on the children's responses in the AUT. Parents completed the Japanese versions of the Childhood Imagination Questionnaire (CIQ: Gilpin et al., 2017) and the Children's Behavior Questionnaire – Short Forms (CBQ-S: Putnam & Rothbart, 2006). On the CIQ, parents rated their children’s “Sociodramatic play/Pretense,” “Imagination companions,” and “Imaginary/Fantastical” on a 5-point scale; on the CBQ-S, parents rated their children's “Impulsivity (IMP),” “Attentional focusing (ATF),” and “Inhibitory control (INH)” on a 7-point scale.

Results. To examine differences by gender, a t-test was conducted with each score as the dependent variable (Table 1). Results showed that the score for “Sociodramatic play/Pretense” tended to be higher for girls than for boys (t (63) = 1.97, p = .05). Other AUT, CIQ, and CBQ-S scores did not differ significantly by gender.
　Next, partial rank correlation analyses (control variable: age in months) were conducted using the AUT, CIQ, and CBQ-S scores by gender (Table 2). The results showed that for girls, creativity score was positively correlated with “Sociodramatic play/Pretense,” “Imagination companions,” and “Imaginary/Fantastical” on the CIQ and with IMP on the CBQ-S. On the other hand, there was no association among boys.
　Finally, multiple regression analyses (dependent variable: creativity score; independent variables: age in months, three scores on CIQ, and IMP score) were performed by gender. Results showed that for girls, the model was significant (R2 = .34, p = .03), with “Imagination companions (β = .35, p = .05)” and IMP (β = .35, p = .03) contributing. In contrast, the model was not significant for boys.

Discussion. This study showed that imaginative play is associated with creative thinking in Japanese girls, not boys. This result indicates that the role of imaginative play in developing creativity might be one of several developmental pathways (Smith, 2010). This study also showed that Japanese parents perceived creative thinking (i.e., divergent thinking) as an impulsive tendency. Future research should examine the influence of the attitudes and awareness of parents/caregivers to foster creative thinking in young children.

Author information

Author	Role
Keito Nakamichi, Ph.D., Chiba University	Presenting author
Naoko Nakamichi, Ph.D., Toyo University	Non-presenting author

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