Summary

In the spring of 1972, 90 students in the fourth through seventh grades of an Atlanta city elementary school participated in an experiment involving small group tasks that required creative scientific thinking. Each class was divided into groups of five each. The experiment was divided into three time periods: 25 minutes for exploring ideas and discovering uses, five minutes for planning and organizing, and 25 minutes for demonstrations. During all phases, the ideas and explanations advanced by each member, as well as interaction among members, were recorded by the group's trained observer. At the end, the subjects ranked themselves and the other group members on the basis of their contribution to the group's success.

The results show that there was only a significant difference between males and females on verbal creativity. On the variables of number of ideas and explanations initiated and advanced, self-ranking and rank by others, and enjoyment of the task there were no significant differences between the sexes.