Abstract Children’s creativity is often investigated through adults’ subjective judging of novelty in a product, or by assessing the flexibility of children’s thinking. These approaches do not explicitly ask children to reflect on what they think is creative and often ignore children’s metacognitive understanding of creativity. We took two approaches to examining this development. First, using semi-structured interviews, we asked children, ages of 5–10 (N = 75), to define creativity and reflect theirs and others’ creative actions (Study 1). As children got older, they reflected more on the novelty of the action and were more likely to describe creativity as a process that could be applied generally. Second, using more laboratory-based methods, we asked 5- to 10-year-olds (N = 137) and adults (N = 150) about the role that novelty (Study 2) and utility (Study 3) play in creative actions. In Study 2, children were more likely to judge that a novel action was more creative as they got older, and there was no difference between children and adults’ responses by age 8. In Study 3, when two novel actions were contrasted, and one was more useful (but less novel), adults chose the useful action as more creative, whereas older children chose the more novel action. Overall, children’s understanding of creativity as a general process undergoes significant change around mid-childhood, which has implications for its importance for informal learning environments.

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儿童对创造力的发展反思和理解

摘要 儿童创造力的考察往往通过成人对产品新颖性的主观判断，或通过评估儿童思维的灵活度来考察。这些方法并没有明确要求儿童反思他们认为什么是创造性的，而且往往忽略儿童对创造力的元认知理解。我们采用了两种方法来检查这种发展。首先，使用半结构化访谈，我们要求 5-10 岁（N = 75）的儿童定义创造力并反映他们和他人的创造性行为（研究 1）。随着孩子年龄的增长，他们更多地反映了动作的新颖性，并且更有可能将创造力描述为一个可以普遍应用的过程。其次，使用更多基于实验室的方法，我们询问了 5 至 10 岁儿童（N = 137）和成年人（N = 150）关于新颖性（研究 2）和实用性（研究 3）在创造性行为中所起的作用。在研究 2 中，随着年龄的增长，孩子们更有可能判断一个新动作更有创意，并且到 8 岁时，儿童和成人的反应没有差异。在研究 3 中，当对比两个新动作时，一个更有用（但不那么新颖），成年人选择有用的动作作为更有创意，而年龄较大的孩子选择更新颖的动作。总体而言，儿童对创造力作为一个一般过程的理解在童年中期发生了重大变化，这对其在非正式学习环境中的重要性产生了影响。随着年龄的增长，孩子们更有可能判断一个新动作更有创意，到 8 岁时，儿童和成人的反应没有差异。 在研究 3 中，当对比两个新动作时，一个更有用（但不那么新颖），成年人选择有用的动作作为更有创意，而年龄较大的孩子选择更新颖的动作。总体而言，儿童对创造力作为一个一般过程的理解在童年中期发生了重大变化，这对其在非正式学习环境中的重要性产生了影响。随着年龄的增长，孩子们更有可能判断一个新动作更有创意，到 8 岁时，儿童和成人的反应没有差异。 在研究 3 中，当对比两个新动作时，一个更有用（但不那么新颖），成年人选择有用的动作作为更有创意，而年龄较大的孩子选择更新颖的动作。总体而言，儿童对创造力作为一个一般过程的理解在童年中期发生了重大变化，这对其在非正式学习环境中的重要性产生了影响。