Development of sensitivity to static pictorial depth information

Sensitivity to the pictorial depth cues of shading, linear perspective, and position on the picture plane were investigated with children from 3 to 7 years of age as well as with adults. Using a discriminative learning method, all Ss were found to be sensitive to shading information for depth when the display was oriented vertically, but not when it was oriented horizontally. In addition, binocular view did not decrease sensitivity relative to monocular view. Linear perspective was found to be effective in controlling 3-year-olds’ size discriminations of equal-area figures, while position on the picture plane was ineffective in the absence of other information for depth.