A Developmental Study of Young Children's Drawings : Visual Realism and Amount of Information

Abstract

This study examined whether amount of information affects children's expression of visually realistic drawings. Participants, 169 children 4-6 years of age, were each assigned to one of two conditions. In the partial condition, children were shown the back of a doll before drawing, and in the whole condition, they were shown entire doll. While the children were told to draw what they saw, the doll was set with its back facing them. The results showed that 5 year-old children in the partial condition composed more view-specific drawings than in the whole condition. In addition, view-specific drawings became more common with age in the partial condition. In the whole condition, however, the view-specific drawings of the 4- and 6-year olds were more common than those by the 5-year olds. Finally, non-view specific drawings of 4-year olds were canonical and among the 5- and 6-year olds' drawings were communicative. The results suggested that 5-year olds draw objects in consideration of the information presented to them.