Prior visual inspection and object naming: Two factors that enhance hidden feature inclusion in young children's drawings

It is widely held that young children draw what they know rather than what they see. However, evidence is growing that they can be provoked into making visually realistic drawings. In this study two factors were found to affect the form of visual realism. In Expt 1, 5- and 6-year-olds produced visually realistic drawings of a familiar object when it was neither named nor given to the child to inspect before drawing. On the other hand, prior inspection led to significant hidden feature inclusion at 5 and 6 years, and this applied whether the object drawn was familiar or novel. Seven-year-olds' drawings were visually realistic in all presentation conditions. In Expt 2, 6-year-olds were shown to include the hidden feature if the object was named before drawing. Two conclusions are drawn. It is possible that children draw what they have seen over time rather than what they see at a particular time. Secondly, object naming may lead to drawing from a canonical model tagged by the object's name.     

The Role of Cognitive Flexibility in the Spatial Representation of Children's Drawings

Representing the spatial appearance of objects and scenes in drawings is a difficult task for young children in particular. In the present study, the relationship between spatial drawing and cognitive flexibility was investigated. Seven- to 11-year-olds (N = 60) were asked to copy a three-dimensional model in a drawing. The use of depth cues as an indicator of spatial drawing was examined. Furthermore, cognitive flexibility was assessed by three measures: the Wisconsin Card-Sorting Test 64 (reactive flexibility), the Five-Point Test (spontaneous flexibility), and omission/inclusion (representational flexibility). The results revealed significant relationships between all measures of flexibility and the depth cues in children's drawings. However, only spontaneous and representational flexibility turned out to be significant predictors of the spatial drawing score. The results are discussed in light of the specific requirements of spatial representations in drawings.     

Emergence of representational activity during the early drawing stage: process analysis

This study analyzed the process underlying the emergence of representational drawing. Eighty-seven children aged 1–3 years were asked to color or draw either a simple picture (P) or a contour for an object (DC) in a shared task. After that, they were asked to draw their mother on a blank sheet of paper in a no drawn contour task (NC). Whereas 1½- and 2-year-olds were more successful in the P task than in the DC task, the 2½- and 3-year-olds were successful in both. The 2-year-olds were better in the DC than the NC task. The results show that 1½- and 2-year-olds can extract the component parts of a drawing even though they cannot produce them and children over 2½ years old can organize these components into a drawing by themselves. These findings indicate that representational drawing is based on the extraction of the component parts and the acquisition of the drawing ability to combine the parts into a drawing and that the beginnings of representational drawing are found in 1½- and 2-year-old children.     

The Importance of Modeling Method Effects: Resolving the (Uni)Dimensionality of the Loneliness Questionnaire

In this study, we tested whether children and young adults varied the size and color of their tree drawings based on hypotheses related to the emotional characterization of the drawn topic. We asked a sample of 80 5- to 11-year-old children and adults to draw a tree (baseline drawing) and then a happy versus sad tree from their imagination. Results indicate that size, but not color, is used to express emotion under free drawing conditions. We discuss implications for clinical psychologists and practitioners interpreting drawings of the tree.     

The Roles of Emotional Comprehension and Representational Drawing Skill in Children's Expressive Drawing

The purpose of the present study was to investigate the roles of emotional comprehension and representational drawing skill in children's expressive drawing. Fifty 7‐ to 10‐year‐olds were asked to produce two (happy and sad) expressive drawings, two representational drawings (drawing of a man running and drawing of a house) and to answer the Test of Emotion Comprehension (Pons & Harris, 2000). The expressive drawings were assessed on the number of expressive subject matter themes (‘content expression’) and the overall quality of expression on a 5‐point scale. Each of the representational drawings was measured on a scale assessing detail and visual realism criteria, and contributed to a single representational drawing skill score. In line with our predictions, we found that both emotional comprehension and representational drawing skill accounted for a significant variance in children's expressive drawings. We explain that children's developing emotional comprehension may allow them to consider more detailed and poignant expressive ideas for their drawings and that their developing representational drawing skill facilitates the graphic execution of these emotional ideas. Copyright © 2014 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Contribution of the visual perception and graphic production systems to the copying of complex geometrical drawings: A developmental study

The aim of this study was to determine the contribution of the visual perception and graphic production systems [Van Sommers, P. (1989). A system for drawing and drawing-related neuropsychology. Cognitive Neuropsychology, 6, 117–164] to the manifestation of the “Centripetal Execution Principle” (CEP), a graphic rule for the copying of drawings consisting of embedded simple geometric shapes from the outside shape to the inside shape. Children aged 4–8 years copied two types of model that differed in the visual salience of one of the simple geometric shapes (drawn in bold or normal weight lines), producing the drawings either by graphic execution (freehand) or by superimposing the simple geometric shapes. The results indicated that the frequency of CEP depended both on the type of model and on the drawing context in the youngest children. They suggest that the CEP is determined by the structure of the representation of the models and the planning of the execution of the drawings. The developmental differences in the effects of visual salience and execution context are discussed in the light of the development of representational flexibility and planning abilities. These data are consistent with a dissociation between the visual perception and graphic production systems and account for their interaction.     

Effets du bilinguisme précoce sur la flexibilité représentationnelle et procédurale dans le dessin du bonhomme

The present research aims to evaluate representational and procedural flexibility by comparing the performances of simultaneous bilingual children French-Arabic (n = 28), successive bilingual children Tamil-French (n = 21) and French monolinguals (n = 24) at 5 years old and at 8 years old educated, in public school, in a disadvantaged neighborhood. The paradigm of the man that does not exist (Karmiloff-Smith, 1990) has been proposed to measure the ability to introduce graphic innovation into a familiar production and drawing a man by starting with the foot (Baldy, 2010) was used to evaluate the ability to make an usual pattern in an unusual way. The results show that bilingual children as young as 5 years old produce significantly more inter-categorical innovations than their monolingual peers while in monolingual children this capacity doesn’t appear until 8 years old. In procedural representations, the results are more nuanced. The underlying mechanisms that explain the best performance of bilingual children are discussed.     

Social grooming in the kindergarten: the emergence of flattery behavior

The present study examined the emergence of flattery behavior in young children and factors that might affect whether and how it is displayed. Preschool children between the ages of 3 and 6 years were asked to rate drawings produced by either a present or absent adult stranger (Experiments 1 and 2), child stranger (Experiments 2 and 3), classmate, or the children's own teacher (Experiment 3). Young preschoolers gave consistent ratings to the same drawing by the person regardless of whether the person was absent or present. In contrast, many older preschoolers gave more flattering ratings to the drawing when the person was present than in the person's absence. Also, older preschoolers displayed flattery regardless of whether the recipient was an adult or a child. However, they displayed flattery to a greater extent towards familiar individuals than unfamiliar ones, demonstrating an emerging sensitivity to social contexts in which flattery is used. These findings suggest that preschoolers have already learned not to articulate bluntly their true feelings and thoughts about others. Rather, they are able to manipulate their communications according to social context.     

Developmental Changes in Early Comprehension and Production of Drawings: Evidence From Two Socioeconomic Backgrounds

Two studies examined young children's comprehension and production of representational drawings across and within 2 socioeconomic strata (SES). Participants were 130 middle-SES (MSES) and low-SES (LSES) Argentine children, from 30 to 60 months old, given a task with 2 phases, production and comprehension. The production phase assessed free drawing and drawings from simple 3-dimensional objects (model drawing); the comprehension phase assessed children's understanding of an adult's line drawings of the objects. MSES children solved the comprehension phase of the task within the studied age range; representational production emerged first in model drawing (42 months) and later in free drawing (48 months). The same developmental pathway was observed in LSES children but with a clear asynchrony in the age of onset of comprehension and production: Children understood the symbolic nature of drawings at 42 months old and the first representational drawings were found at 60 months old. These results provide empirical evidence that support the crucial influence of social experiences by organizing and constraining graphic development.     

Emergence of representation in drawing: The relation between kinematic and referential aspects

To identify and characterize early instances in which children attribute meaning to their drawings, scribbles of 2- to 3-year-olds were examined from kinematic and representational perspectives. Scribbles were shown to be composed of smooth-inertial and angular-intentional curves, the former revealing a systematic relation between curvature and speed (the 2/ 3 power law). Children tended to attribute a-posteriori representational meanings (e.g., an airplane) to angular curves and nonrepresentational meanings (e.g., a line) to smooth curves, that they have just finished drawing. They did not do so with reference to scribbles drawn by peers, by themselves in the past, or by the experimenter who imitated their scribbling. Children's attribution of representational meanings increased with age. The phenomenon studied was discussed as a possible precursor of preplanned representational drawing, indicating the child's awareness of the symbolic function of a line—standing for itself and signifying a referent.     

Constraints on representational change: evidence from children's drawing.

This paper uses children's drawing as clues to general constraints on internal representational change and flexibility. Fifty-four children between 4 and 11 years of age each produced six drawings. They were first asked to draw a house, and then to draw a house that does not exist. The same procedure was used for man and animal. The technique forced children into operating on their normal, efficient drawing procedures, and allowed the researcher to ascertain the types of constraint that obtain on representational change and flexibility. Striking developmental differences emerged between the 4- to 6-year-old age group and the 8- to 10-year-old age group. Changes introduced by the younger children involved deletions and changes in size and shape, whereas older children changed position and orientation of elements and added elements from other conceptual categories, resulting in ever-increasing inter-representational flexibility. Development is accounted for in terms of reiterated cycles of change from internal representations specified as a sequentially fixed list, embodying a constraint that was inherent in the earlier procedural representations, to internal representations specified as a structured, yet flexibly ordered set of manipulable features. The constraints are considered to be general and are compared with work on seriation and number in children, and on phonological awareness and musical ability in adults. The results are integrated into a general model of developmental change which is compatible both with initial modularity and with subsequent domain-general constraints.     

da Vinci's window facilitates drawings of total and partial occlusion in young children

When two or more objects are present in a scene, children 5 and 6 years of age rarely draw the scene such that one object totally or partially occludes another object. Instead they draw complete objects. The present study separated two components of drawing: perspective taking and graphic skill. Perspective taking was examined by comparing a free viewing condition with a restricted viewing condition in which a model could only be viewed through four apertures. Graphic skill was examined by comparing drawings requiring total occlusion with drawings requiring partial occlusion under both viewing conditions. Experiment 1 showed that 90% of 5- and 6-year-olds drew total occlusions under restricted viewing conditions but only 32% did so in the free viewing condition. Experiment 2 showed that drawings of partial occlusion were unaffected by viewing condition among 5-year-olds, but that restricted viewing increased the number of partial occlusions that 6-year-olds drew. Thus, failures of young children to draw occlusions have less to do with graphic skill than was previously thought. Instead, it is suggested that young children have a more general difficulty selecting one perspective and maintaining it over time.     

Constraints on the visual accuracy of drawings produced by young children

Errors made by young children when they are asked to draw a model were investigated in two studies. In the first study, the experimenter asked 5- and 8-year-old children to draw a cup that had a flower decal (transfer) attached to its outside surface, attached to its inside surface or positioned beside it. The 8-year-old children in all conditions produced visually accurate drawings. The 5-year-old children produced visually accurate drawings when the flower decal was positioned beside the cup and when the flower decal was attached to the inside surface of the cup but not when the flower decal was attached to the cup's outside surface. In the second study, 5- and 8-year-old children were asked to draw a cup that had either an intact or a broken handle. The handle area of the cup was either in view or not in view. The 5- and 8-year-old children performed comparably in this experiment. The children had difficulty producing accurate copies of the model only when the cup had a handle and the handle was not in view. Taken together, these studies indicate that 5-year-old children are more likely to produce visually accurate drawings than has previously been supposed. Difficulty in producing accurate drawings occurred when drawing rules and drawing conventions interfered with the task.     

Children's understanding of counting

This study examines the abstractness of children's mental representation of counting, and their understanding that the last number word used in a count tells how many items there are (the cardinal word principle). In the first experiment, twenty-four 2- and 3-year-olds counted objects, actions, and sounds. Children counted objects best, but most showed some ability to generalize their counting to actions and sounds, suggesting that at a very young age, children begin to develop an abstract, generalizable mental representation of the counting routine. However, when asked "how many" following counting, only older children (mean age 3.6) gave the last number word used in the count a majority of the time, suggesting that the younger children did not understand the cardinal word principle. In the second experiment (the "give-a-number" task), the same children were asked to give a puppet one, two, three, five, and six items from a pile. The older children counted the items, showing a clear understanding of the cardinal word principle. The younger children succeeded only at giving one and sometimes two items, and never used counting to solve the task. A comparison of individual children's performance across the "how-many" and "give-a-number" tasks shows strong within-child consistency, indicating that children learn the cardinal word principle at roughly 3 1/2 years of age. In the third experiment, 18 2- and 3-year-olds were asked several times for one, two, three, five, and six items, to determine the largest numerosity at which each child could succeed consistently. Results indicate that children learn the meanings of smaller number words before larger ones within their counting range, up to the number three or four. They then learn the cardinal word principle at roughly 3 1/2 years of age, and perform a general induction over this knowledge to acquire the meanings of all the number words within their counting range.     

Children's response biases to results of object sharing

This study investigated whether 2- to 6-year-old children exhibit a response bias to questions pertaining to the results of sharing objects that should attract their interest. An experimenter distributed four objects between herself/himself and a child, equally or unequally (more to the child or more to the experimenter) and asked the child yes-no questions: “Is this okay?” and “Is this bad?” The results indicated that 2- and 3-year-olds exhibited a yes bias in all conditions, 4-year-olds exhibited a yes bias to the equal condition and to the unequal condition with more distributed to the child, and 5-year-olds exhibited a yes bias to both unequal conditions, whereas 6-year-olds did not show any response bias. Young preschoolers exhibited a yes bias regardless of questions and children may become able to say both “yes” and “no” appropriately to questions about object sharing after the age of six.     

A New Look at Gaze: Preschool Children's Understanding of Eye-Direction

This study challenges the consensus view that children can judge what someone is looking at from infancy. In the first experiment 2-, 3-, and 4-year-old children were asked to judge what a person in a drawing was looking at and which of two people was “looking at” them. Only 6% of 2-year-olds and young 3-year-olds passed both gaze-direction tasks, but over 70% passed an analogous point-direction task. Most older 3-year-olds and 4-year-olds passed all three tasks. Experiment 2 compared children's ability to judge what the experimenter was looking at with performance on the picture tasks. Three-year-olds performed significantly worse than 4-year-olds on the real life and picture gaze tasks. Performances on the two types of gaze task were highly correlated. Experiment 3 included stimuli with the additional cue of head-direction. Even the younger children performed well on these stimuli. These results suggest that, regardless of task format, children cannot judge what someone is looking at from eye-direction alone until the age of 3 years. Weaknesses in the evidence supporting the consensus view are highlighted and discussed.     

The effect of affective characterizations on the size of children's drawings

Previous research has yielded conflicting findings about the existence and the direction of the size changes which occur in children's drawings when they are asked to draw topics which have been given an affective characterization. The present study was designed to investigate whether children scale up the size of drawings of topics which have been given a positive characterization, and scale down the size of drawings of topics which have been given a negative characterization. The participants were 258 children aged between 4 and 11 years who completed three drawings of either a man, a dog or a tree. Each child drew a baseline drawing of a neutrally characterized figure, and two further drawings of a positively and a negatively characterized version of the same figure. It was found that the children drew the positively characterized topics larger than the neutrally characterized topics, and reduced the size of the negatively characterized topics relative to the baseline drawings. These patterns occurred at all ages and with all three drawing topics. Two possible explanations of the findings are discussed: the operation of an appetitive‐defensive mechanism in children, and the acquisition of pictorial conventions.     

2～3岁儿童对视频信息的理解

选取2岁、2．5岁和3岁儿童72名,比较儿童通过窗口、视频和模型三种条件观看藏玩具过程,然后正确找到玩具的表现,考察了2～3岁儿童对视频信息的理解特点。结果表明：（1）与通过直接经验获得信息相比,2岁与2.5岁儿童从视频获得表征信息存有一定困难;3岁儿童能够顺利地从视频获得并运用表征信息。（2）2～3岁儿童在视频条件下获取表征信息的能力要强于模型条件。研究认为3岁前儿童完成将视频图像视为真实物向视为表征信息的转换,双重表征并非儿童将视频图像作为表征信息加以理解的先决条件。     

Children in Asian cultures say yes to yes-no questions: Common and cultural differences between Vietnamese and Japanese children

We investigated whether children's response tendency toward yes-no questions concerning objects is a common phenomenon regardless of languages and cultures. Vietnamese and Japanese 2- to 5-year-old (N = 108) were investigated. We also examined whether familiarity with the questioning issue has any effect on Asian children's yes bias. As the result, Asian children showed a yes bias to yes-no questions. The children's response tendency changes dramatically with their age: Vietnamese and Japanese 2- and 3-year-olds showed a yes bias, but 5-year-olds did not. However, Asian 4-year-olds also showed a yes bias only in the familiar condition. Also, Asian children showed a stronger yes bias in the familiar condition than the unfamiliar condition. These two findings in Asian children were different from the previous finding investigated North American children (Fritzley & Lee, 2003). Moreover, there was a within-Asian cross-cultural difference. Japanese children showed different response tendencies, which were rarely observed in Vietnamese children. Japanese 2-year-olds and some 3-year-olds showed a "no answer" response: they tended not to respond to an interviewer's questions. Japanese 4- and 5-year-olds also showed an "I don't know" response when they were asked about unfamiliar objects. Japanese children tended to avoid a binary decision. We discussed the cross-cultural differences.