Object play is widely considered a primary medium through which children develop cognitive skills. In an attempt to examine the relative importance of different types of play experience and selected play components on children's subsequent approach to problem solving, 31 four-year-olds (19 boys, 12 girls) were matched on sex and PPVT-R raw score, and were then assigned to one of the three treatment groups. Seven triplets (5 male, 2 female) and five pairs (2 male, 3 female) of children were formed. Children in each group were exposed to a different type of experience relative to task-relevant materials (active play, passive observation of play, and no involvement) and subsequently given a lure-retrieval task. The solution to this task involved the joining of the two longest sticks with a block to produce a tool to retrieve a lure. Subjects were compared on their problem-solving performance as measured by solution time and specific object play components obtained in Cheyne and Rubin's (1983) study were replicated in this study. Examination of additional components in play indicated that problem solution was enhanced not only by frequent use of long double-stick construction, but also by double-stick constructions with any stick length. Problem-solving performance of the three groups of children were not significantly different. However, a Treatment x Sex interaction was noted among children in the active and passive groups; passive girls spent more time and tended to require more assistance to task solution than active girls, active boys, and passive boys. Factors which may have contributed to this finding are discussed.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:MANITOBA/oai:mspace.lib.umanitoba.ca:1993/24071 |
| Date | January 1984 |
| Creators | Wong, Maggie Leung |
| Source Sets | University of Manitoba Canada |
| Detected Language | English |
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