Howard-Jones, P.A. , Taylor, J. and Sutton, L.

(2002) The effects of play on the

creat!ty of youn" chldren, Early Child Development and Care, 172 (4), p
#2#-#2$.
The effect of play on the creat!ty of youn" chldren
durn" su%se&uent act!ty
PAUL A. H!A"D#$%E&, $A'%E ". (A'L" and LE&LE' &U((%
Cardiff School of Education, University of Wales Institute Cardiff.
ABSTRACT
This study investigated whether the experience of unstructured play in a preceding task
may influence the creativity of young children in subsequent activity. 52 children in the
age range 6- were randomly allocated to two groups. The first group was allowed to
play with salt-dough for 25 minutes! while the other group followed a structured
exercise involving the copying of text from the board. "ll children were then asked to
produce a collage of a creature! using a controlled range of tissue-paper materials. The
procedure was then repeated some days later! with the two groups experiencing the
other preceding task. #$ %udges & trainee teachers and ' lecturers( %udged the creative
quality of the work arising. The range of colours and total number of pieces used by
each child in each collage was also recorded. "nalysis of the results revealed a
significant positive effect of preceding task upon creativity and range of colours.
Keywords: )lay! creativity
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Email contact: )"*ones+uwic.ac.uk
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INTRODUCTION
)lay has been referred to as the ,work- of children &)apilia and .lds! #//$( and the
importance of play in the cognitive development of children has frequently been
acknowledged. 0n particular! children1s tendency towards play! or playfulness! has
been linked to creative thinking skills &2ieberman! #/65! 3allach! #/$! 2ieberman!
#/( and tends to indicate a disposition towards creativity in later life &4lark! 5riffing
and *ohnson! #/6/! 7chmukler! #/62-'! 8uss! 8obins and 4hristiano! #///(.
7ome immediate effects of playing have also been examined. "n early study by 7utton-
7mith &#/6( demonstrated how children1s ability to think up uses for an ob%ect was
improved by being allowed to play with it. 9ansky and 7ilverman &#/'( exposed
groups of pre-school children to conventional ob%ects for #$ minutes. .ne group was
allowed to play freely with it! another imitated an adult1s actions on the ob%ects and the
third group observed an adult act upon the ob%ects. The free-play group scored
significantly higher than the other two groups in an alternate uses test involving the
ob%ects. 9ansky and 7ilverman &#/5( later carried out a similar investigation but
assessed the children1s ability! after exposure to ob%ects! to produce alternate uses for
new ob%ects they had not seen before. The group who had been allowed to play
transferred their playful disposition towards the new ob%ects and again scored
significantly higher than the other two groups. 0n interpreting this and other studies!
)ellegrini &#/6:-#/65( distinguishes between exploration and play! suggesting that
exploration can be characterised by a behaviour that seeks to answer ,3hat is it;-
,3hat can it do;-. This explorative behaviour then wanes and is replaced by a playful
behaviour that is more concerned with ,3hat can 0 do with it;-. )ellegrini &#/6'-
#/6:( suggests! given the short time that the children were allowed with the ob%ect!
that it may have been the transfer of an explorative mind set that supported the
'
children in determining uses for the new ob%ect. This idea was successfully exploited in
later studies that showed adult-led exploratory questioning to be more effective than
free play in improving the general associative fluency of children &)ellegrini! #/6#!
#/62! )ellegrini and 5reene! #/6$(.
"ffect may also play a role in influencing the creativity observed in tasks following
playful activity. 0n a study by 0sen! *ohnson! <ert= and 8obinson &#/65(! adult
sub%ects who watched films designed to induce a happy mood made more unusual
associations on subsequent verbal tasks. >owever! these findings appear to conflict
with those of Tighe! &#//2(! who found that sub%ects in positive mood conditions
wrote stories that were rated as less creative than did sub%ects in either negative or
neutral conditions. ?urther! "mabile &#//6( reports that she has failed! in several
attempts! to show that inducing a positive affect significantly influences the creativity
of her sub%ects. 7uch apparently contradictory findings may be due to the relationship
between associative fluency and more general measures of creativity &see below(.
"dditionally! the level of relaxation induced by the experimenters may be a more
significant factor than the positive mood of their sub%ects. @y considering models of
creative cognition involving movement between focused and unfocused states of mind
&<artindale! #//5! >oward-*ones and <urray! in press(! it can be predicted that
relaxation of sub%ects should lead to greater associative fluency - as demonstrated for
adults by ?orgays and ?orgays &#//2(.
@erretta and )rivette &#//$( measured the creativity of children using the Torrance
Tests of 4reative Thinking for after they had experienced structured or flexible play
experiences. These tests provided scores for over-all creative thinking ! fluency!
flexibility and originality. 4hildren who participated in flexible play experiences
:
exhibited greater creative thinking than the children who had received highly structured
play experiences. These higher scores derived from increases in originality of thinking
rather than fluency or flexibility. The lack of an effect for fluency may be considered
surprising in the light of studies such as 9ansky and 7ilverman &#/5(. @erretta and
)rivette &#//$( suggest that those activities that benefit from improved creative
thinking should be scheduled after free-play! so that they may benefit from increased
originality.
7tudies that use measures of associative fluency! and even those that include flexibility
and originality! may not provide us with a direct indication of creativity in the broader
sense. 4reativity is most often defined as the ability to produce solutions which are
both appropriate and original. The ability to access remote associations may be
considered fundamental in producing original ideas. >owever! the appropriateness of
an idea relies upon an individuals ability to focus critically upon it and refine it
&<artindale! #//5(. The 4onsensual "ssessment Technique &"mabile! #//6( provides
a more general measure of creative value! by gaining a measurement of the creativity
of an outcome according to a panel of individuals according to their own
independently-formulated criteria. This technique has been used to assess the positive
impact of creative activity upon college students! showing it to have beneficial effects
upon creativity! intrinsic motivation and long-term retention &4onti! "mabile and
)ollak! #//5(. The creative task employed! however! was directly related to the
learning topic &dreams(! and this was chiefly a study of longer-term effects than those
considered in the present study.
The focus of the present study was to determine whether short periods of free-play
have an influence upon the creativity demonstrated by young children in an activity
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typical of the curriculum! when this subsequent activity is not related to either the
medium or topic of the preceding free-play. 0n this respect! it evaluated the potential
effectiveness of the type of schedule proposed by @erreta and )rivette &#//$(. Anlike
previous studies! however! it assessed the effect of preceding task upon creativity
using the 4onsensual "ssessment Technique &"mabile! #/62( - in which an
independent panel of %udges sub%ectively rate the creative value of outcomes produced
by children.
METHOD
DESIN
)articipants were attending a semi-rural! Bnglish-medium infants school in the 7outh
3ales area. They were in the same year &aged 6- years old(! and randomly allocated
into two groups of twenty-six childrenC " and @.
" repeated-measures design was followed. .n the first day! all fifty-two children
assembled in the classroom. 5roup " left the room accompanied by a teacher and
taken a spare classroom where they were allowed to indulge in free-play with salt
dough. There were about ' to : children per table! and each child was provided with
approximately the same si=e piece of blue salt dough. They were instructed to ,9o
whatever you want with it- and given no other guidance. 0nteraction with the adult
present was kept to an absolute minimum. "t the same time! 5roup @ were instructed
to complete a handwriting exercise that involved the copying of text from the board.
They were seated in groups of 6 to and were each supplied with a pencil and a lined
piece of paper. 0f the written task was completed they were asked to repeat it. "fter
25 minutes 5roup " were escorted back to the classroom where both groups " and @
6
were addressed and asked to make a collage of a creature using the materials
provided. The children sat in groups of 6- at a table. .n the table were the followingC
#$$ sheets of tissue paper &#$ sheets of #$ different colours(! : glue pots! 6 glue
spreaders! 6 pairs of scissors and a sheet of paper for each child to make their collage
on. The children were given '5 minutes to complete their collage and pencils were then
distributed for the children to write their name upon their work.
The next day! at the same time! the whole procedure was repeated with the groups
carrying out the alternative preceding task. @efore creating their collage! 5roup "
were allowed to play with the salt dough in the spare classroom while 5roup @ carried
out their handwriting exercise.
SCORIN
The outcomes of the children were scored for their creativity according to "mabile1s
consensual assessment technique &"mabile! #/62(. This technique involves having
%udges independently and sub%ectively rate the level of creativity of the outcomes. "ll
%udges were blind to experimental condition but were made aware of the task given to
the children. The initial panel of %udges were trainee teachers approaching the end of
their third year of training. These trainees teachers! as result of their training! were
already familiar with the type of outcomes that might be produced by children of this
age! and thus their background met the criteria suggested by "mabile &#//6( for
identifying appropriate %udges. >owever! in order to confirm that the %udgements were
sound! the work was also %udged by a panel of ' ,expert- %udges who were
experienced lecturers in )rimary Bducation.

0n addition to rating the outcomes for their creativity! they were analysed by counting
the number of different colours used &colour range( and the overall number of pieces of
tissue paper used to construct the collage.
RESU!TS
The inter-%udge reliability amongst the panel of trainees was good &4ronbach1s alpha
D $.6#(! as was the inter-%udge reliability amongst the panel of ' expert %udges
&4ronbach1s alpha D $.6:(. There was also a good correlation between the two panels
&)earson1s r D $.6$ ! p E $.$$# (. *udgements from each of the #$ %udges were added
together to give a final score for each outcome out of 5$! with inter-%udge reliability
&4ronbach1s alpha D $.6/(.
<eans for the ' dependent variables of creativity! colour range and number of pieces
used! together with standard deviations! are shown in Table # for the two preceding
tasks of a writing exercise and free-play with salt dough.
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4reativity 4olour range Fumber of pieces used
3riting )lay 3riting )lay 3riting )lay
M 2#.'# 2'./6 '.66 :./ #2.5 #5.
SD 6.'6 6.'6 #.56 #./# .$$ ##.2'
Ta"le # <ean and standard deviations for ' dependent variables of creativity! colour
range and number of pieces used.
7eparate "F.G" analyses of the ' dependent variables revealed that there was a
significant subsequent effect of preceding task upon creativity &F &#!5#( D ##.6$! p
D$.$$# (! colour range &F &#!5#( D #$.$ ! p D $.$$2( and number of pieces used &F
&#!5#( D .$2! p D $.$##(. >owever! correlation analysis revealed strong associations
between these variables &pE$.$# for all combinations(.
"lthough repeated-measures experimental designs are generally more sensitive
experimental method than between-sub%ects studies! it has been pointed out that these
methodologies can be vulnerable to differential transfer! especially when investigating
the effect of instructional variables &Anderwood and 7haughnessy! #/5(. "s a
precaution against such effects! the first stage of the experiment was treated as a
random groups design to investigate the effect of the independent variable without any
possible influence from differential transfer &)oulton! #/62(. <eans and standard
deviations for sub%ects arising from the first condition are shown in Table 2. @etween-
sub%ects "F.G" analysis of the ' dependent variables from the first condition
revealed that there was a significant subsequent effect of preceding task upon creativity
&F&#!5$( D :.6'! p D $.$''( and colour range &F &#!5$( D #$.56! p D $.$$2(! but the
effect upon the number of pieces did not reach significance &F&#!5$( D 2./$ ! p D
/
$.$/5(. 4orrelations between dependent variables were significant for all combinations
&p E $.$#(.
4reativity 4olour range Fumber of pieces used
3riting )lay 3riting )lay 3riting )lay
M 22.5 2:.#6 :.$ :.6 #2.// #6.'6
SD /.$6 6.2 #. #./ 6./6 #'.26
Ta"le $ <ean and standard deviations for ' dependent variables of creativity! colour
range and number of pieces used for the first condition experienced by sub%ects.
DISCUSSION
The present study has shown that the nature of a preceding task! comparing a highly
structured writing task with free-play! can influence the creative value of children1s
outcomes in a subsequent task as %udged by an independent panel. The study by
9ansky and 7ilverman &#/5( demonstrated that preceding task can influence
associative fluency! and @erreta and )rivette &#//$( found that the degree of structure
of the preceding play could influence originality in later tasks! although not! apparently!
fluency. The present study has not shed light upon which individual thinking skills are
most influenced by the preceding task - but it has shown that the overall creative effect
upon a subsequent activity typical of the school curriculum can be significant.
0t remains! then! an issue of debate how such effects are best explained and what are
the essential elements of play that support creativity subsequently. 0t may be! as
discussed above! the transfer of a playful mind set &9anksy and 7ilverman! #/5(! or
possibly an exploratory one &)ellegrini! 6:-65(. There was a statistically significant
increase in the range of colours used - which may reflect an increased tendency to
#$
explore the materials provided. >owever! it would be very difficult to confidently
analyse the outcome of a creative process in terms of what has been achieved by
exploration and what is the result of playfulness. 0ndeed! such distinctions are difficult
to make even from close observation and discussion with young sub%ects! due not least
to limitations in language &)ellegrini! 6:-65(.
"lternative explanations for an increase in creativity might be the more relaxed mental
state of the children after playing with the salt-dough &?orgays and ?orgays! #//2(! or
simply that the children were more awake after a session of play than after a writing
exercise. The increase in the number of pieces of tissue papers used in the children1s
collages after the free-play session might be interpreted as evidence of a simple
increase in general productivity. >owever! productivity and creativity are very closely
associated with each other and so some increase in quantity of work should be
expected &9iehl and 7troebe! #/6(. 0f the effect is due only to a simple increase in
general productivity &as opposed to creative productivity(! one would also expect to
detect it in non-creative tasks and this would be a useful line of enquiry for future
investigations. "dditionally! since tutored play has been shown to be more effective
than free play in developing children1s associative fluency &)ellegrini! and
5reene!#/6$! ?eitelson! and 8oss! #/'(! it would be interesting to know how the two
types of activity might impact upon the rated creative value of outcomes in subsequent
tasks - especially since @erreta and )rivette &#//$( found that fluency was not
influenced by the degree of structure of the preceding play.
The type of motivation that the children were experiencing may also have influenced
results. 4hildren! when in the free play condition! were pursuing activities of their
choice! and thus were intrinsically motivated. The children completed each part of the
##
hand-writing exercise because they had been asked by the teacher to do so - and thus
were being extrinsically motivated. "ccording to the intrinsicHextrinsic motivation
principle &"mabile! #//6(! these two types of motivation will impact positively and
negatively &respectfully( upon creativity. Thus our results could be explained by a
transfer of the motivation type.
<any questions remain to be answered about the mechanisms by which play supports
creativity and how the positive effects of play can transfer to other contexts. The
present study further emphasises the need for a better understanding of the cognitive
significance of play and to ensure it is given the consideration it deserves in educational
programmes.
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#5
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