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.
Radkey
A L
AL
Dalhousie University, Canada.
Enns
J T
JT
D001288:Attention; D002648:Child; D002657:Child Development; D002675:Child, Preschool; D003118:Color Perception; D003463:Cues; D005260:Female; D005556:Form Perception; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D009949:Orientation; D010364:Pattern Recognition, Visual; D010470:Perceptual Masking; D011597:Psychomotor Performance