Symbolic play and ideational fluency as aspects of the evolving divergent cognitive style in young children

Abstract

This chapter reviews a number of studies which have found relationships between symbolic play and ideational fluency. It reports results from own recent research that shed light both on the relationship between pretend play and associative fluency during the preschool years and the longitudinal relationship between play at preschool and other manifestations of creativity during the early school years. The chapter suggests alternative conceptualizations, consistent with the data, which might help to explain the manner in which pretend play contributes to the cognitive development of young children during the preschool and early school years. Preschool play observations were conducted during indoor free-play periods. Each child was observed for five-minute periods on each of six different days during a two to three week period of time. In 1959, while Guilford distinguished between associative fluency and ideational fluency, that distinction has not been generally maintained in the literature.