An experiment involving 283 preadolescent schoolchildren investigated how d
ivergent-thinking training affected subsequent creativity for promised rewa
rd in a new task administered by a different individual. The promise of rew
ard for picture drawing increased creativity if children had previously gen
erated novel uses for physical objects with or without reward. In contrast,
the promise of reward did not increase the creativity of picture drawings
if the children had been rewarded for giving conventional object uses. Dive
rgent thinking training evidently conveys a task administrator's desire for
creative performance; task participants generalize this discrimination to
new tasks administered by other individuals and perform creatively when mot
ivated to do so by the promise of reward. Thus, creativity is increased by
the discrimination of a positive relationship between novel performance and
reward. (C) 1999 Academic Press.