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Divergent thinking ability of 30 preschool children 4 years of age was assessed with a multiple-use task procedure that was modified to allow the subjects to demonstrate and verbalize their responses. Findings indicated that fluency scores were greater for demonstrated responses than for verbalized responses. The correlation between verbal fluency and demonstrated fluency was negative, and the total fluency score was highly correlated with the demonstrated fluency component. Findings on verbal and demonstrative divergent thinking components of the study were compared to the results of a previous study which used a standard multiple-use task procedure with kindergarten children. It is concluded that tentative findings support the claim that preschool children are not as verbally sophisticated as older children. Therefore, their divergent thinking ability can be more accurately assessed when a demonstration component is included in the experimental task. (Author/RH)

Claims about the relative holding-power and play-versatility of toys either low or high in amount of realistic detail, such as miniature metal cars, were tested in a solitary play environment with and without the use of props. Subjects were 36 middle-class preschool children. Results suggest that, when structure is varied within the toy prototype, high-detailed cars had a greater holding power than low-detailed cars on children's pretend play, a finding contrary to prevalent claims. Significantly less distracted behavior occurred with high-detailed cars. Contrary to claims about the versatility of play, no significant differences were found between children exposed to high- and low-detailed cars in the number of play categories they engaged in. While props, such as roads, had little impact upon the length of time children spent in pretend play, they did focus the children's play upon prototypic-theme behaviors. It is concluded that a prototypic toy seems to elicit a somewhat fixed repertoire of play behaviors in preschool children playing alone. Increasing the amount of realistic detail on the prototypic toy does not appear to enhance the versatility of toy-manipulation behaviors, but it does appear to influence the duration of play. (Author/RH)