| Abstract: | Sixty-four children in kindergarten and first grade were asked to color one of three pictures which varied in complexity. Following the coloring exercise the children were administered the CIRCUS: Make a Tree, a measure of divergent pictorial production which yields three scores (Appropriateness, Unusualness, Difference). A one-way ANOVA revealed a main effect of the coloring exercise in Unusualness and Difference. The findings suggest that giving children models to color can increase the novelty displayed in their subsequent productions, and that giving children complex models to color can increase the variety displayed in the pictures that they make. The findings are consistent with Gardner's (1980) suggestion that adult models can contribute to the substance of the child's pictoral productions by providing new ideas and information about how to achieve desired effects, and that they do not necessarily induce the slavish copying feared by many early childhood- and art-educators. |
