Research on animals, infants, children, and adults provides evidence that distinct cognitive systems underlie navigation and object recognition. Here we examine whether and how these systems interact when children interpret 2D edge-based perspectival line drawings of scenes and objects. Such drawings serve as symbols early in development, and they…

Children drew pictures of two objects placed in side-by-side or end-to-end views. Objects faced forward, backward, right, or left in such a way that one object occluded the other in some views. Children produced fewer drawings depicting occlusions for end-to-end than for side-by-side alignments. (BC)

Ninety-seven children between 5 and 8 years of age drew two arrays, four times each, in different orientations vis-a-vis the child. Younger children's drawings contained much array-specific information but often no indication at all of the child's viewing position. Older children's drawings were predominantly view-specific, often containing little…

Had children draw two blocks arranged in depth, and then moved either child or array and had children draw what was then a left-right arrangement; the transformation was then reversed for a final drawing. Found that when children moved to a new standpoint, there was a significant increase in vertical portrayal (as depth portrayal) between first…

In this experiment, 446 children, ranging in age from 5-10 years, were required to draw one object behind another in a situation in which adults invariably produce the further object partially occluded to the nearer. (MS)

Reports two experiments in which plain blocks of various sizes were presented in various spatial orientations to children three-eight years old in an attempt to establish how they represent three-dimensional spatial relations pictorially. Results showed that young children represented depth in the array vertically in the picture plane. (RH)

Young children drew two opaque objects placed one behind the other. Over two-thirds of the children drew the objects separately in horizontal or vertical relationships. When drawing an object in a glass beaker, half of the children depicted the object vertically or horizontally separate from the beaker. (Author/DB)

This study concerns children's understanding of spatial relationships and their expression in drawings and photographs. Sixty children (ages 5, 8, and 11) were asked to discriminate and reproduce three types of depth relationships in either drawings or photographs: enclosure, where a larger object is placed directly behind a smaller object;…

In this study of sensitivity to viewpoint, children between the ages of 6 and 14 years were asked to draw an L-shaped array of 3 cubes from 1 of 3 views. At every age, children showed sensitivity to their view in the sense that there were consistent differences between the drawings produced in the three viewing conditions. (SH)

Traces the development of artistic ability in a six-year-old boy with autism and mild mental retardation. Addresses questions concerning autism and artistic development including whether intellectual realism is a necessary precursor to visual realism and whether a two-dimensional photographic memory is used as opposed to three-dimensional…

Analyzes the research strategies, stimuli, subjects, statistical strategies, and relative variables in 34 empirical studies on children's representation of three-dimensional objects. The studies fell into three categories: children's representation of spatial relationships within an object, between two objects, and studies that included both. (MJP)