Abstract
Based on the assumption that human behaviour is goal directed and that goals regulate activities, the purpose of the present study was to explore the development of productive goal setting with preschool children. Productive goals refer to children's ideas about what they want to achieve as a result of concrete or imaginary transformations of the environment. For this purpose, 166 children (age range: 2-4 years) were invited to play with a set of different play materials (e.g. clay, colour pencils and paper, wooden building blocks, and three dolls). Their play activities were recorded as well as verbal statements about their activities. Indices for goal-directed behaviour were children's spontaneous statements about the purpose of their activities. Comments at moments of completion of activities or concerning the results of activities were indices for productive outcome attainment. The data indicate that at the age of 3 years half the children were able to perform activities that were directly related to attaining the desired outcomes (i.e. fully manipulative activities). From the age of 3.6 years, the abilities to formulate productive goals and attain productive outcomes stabilise. The findings are discussed in terms of developmental prerequisites for the emergence of goal-directed behaviour.