Developmental Study of Ambiguity Level in Picture-Story Stimuli

Summary

Previous research has shown that moderate ambiguity of meaning in pictures composing a TAT-type series results in maximum productivity with adults. Ss, 5 and 12 years old, and of average and above-average intelligence, were used to study the relevance of ambiguity of picture design with children. Highly structured, high emotion pictures evoked greater response productivity from the older sample. By contrast, the younger children responded more productively to the ambiguous series of pictures. A structured positive affect picture elicited the least productive stories in both age groups when compared with negative affect and ambiguous stimuli.