Feeling of Competence Affects Children’s Curiosity and Creativity

• In Event: Creativity in Childhood: Contexts and Conditions That Foster Children’s Creativity and Innovative Abilities

Abstract

Children’s creative potentials measured by Torrance Test of Creative Thinking (TTCT) predict their creative achievements later in life (Runco, Millar, Acar, & Cramond, 2010). Carr, Kendal, and Flynn (2016) proposed that curiosity and exploration might facilitate children’s creativity. Motivational factors are also important for creativity (Amabile & Hennessey, 1992). In the present studies, we built on these frameworks and investigated whether children’s feeling of competence would affect their curiosity and creativity.

In Experiment 1 (n = 53), 5- to 7-year-olds completed a set of math problems that was either relatively easy or relatively hard for their age (Figure 1) and evaluated their own performance. 24 children reported that they did well on the math problems (High Competence condition), while 26 children reported that they did not do well (Low Competence condition). Then, children completed three tasks in counterbalanced orders. In the curiosity task, children played with a novel toy (Figure 2) adapted from Bonawitz et al. (2011). In the creative problem-solving task adapted from Sylvia et al. (1976), children used sticks and clips to retrieve a prize that is beyond their reach. A hint was given every minute if the child did not make progress. The third task was the Wallach & Kogan’s (1965) adaptation of Guilford’s Alternative Uses Task (AUT).

N-way ANOVA models with interaction were used for statistical analysis. For the curiosity task, children in the HC condition performed more unique actions on the toy than children in the LC condition (MHC = 10.60, MLC = 7.58; p = .03). In the creative problem-solving task, the odds of spontaneous solution (solving the problem within the first minute) were higher in the HC condition than in the LC condition (MHC = .71, MLC = .35; p = .03), and increased with age (p = .006). Older children needed fewer hints (p = .006) and less time (p = .002) than younger children to come up with the solution. For the AUT, older children came up with more total uses (p = .002) and more categories of uses (p < .001), but we found no differences between HC and LC conditions.

In Experiment 2 (n = 31; data collection interrupted due to COVID-19), we aimed to replicate the main results of Experiment 1, with minor procedural modifications. We found converging evidence for the unique actions performed on the toy (MHC = 9.19, MLC = 8.71) in the curiosity task and for the proportion of children who solved the problem (MHC = .29, MLC = .21) in the creative problem-solving task. For the AUT, using more familiar everyday objects, children in the HC condition came up with more total uses (MHC = 4.10, MLC = 3.31), categories of uses (MHC = 2.39, MLC = 2.04), and original uses (MHC = 0.29, MLC = 0.21) than children in the LC condition.

In sum, these findings provide initial evidence that children’s feeling of competence affects their curiosity and creativity. Future studies are needed to examine the mechanisms of these effects.

Authors

• Rongzhi Liu, University of California - Berkeley
  Presenting Author

• Fei Xu, University of California - Berkeley
  Non-Presenting Author