DEVELOPMENTAL-TRENDS IN VISUOSPATIAL ANALYSIS AND PLANNING .2. MEMORYFOR A COMPLEX FIGURE

The ability of children between the ages of 6 and 12 to draw the Rey-O sterrieth Complex Figure immediately after having copied the figure wa s assessed with an existing scoring system, as well as additional meas ures that the researchers developed to more precisely describe the pro cess used by children in drawing this figure. As expected, younger chi ldren were poorer in their ability to recall the figure than older chi ldren. All children, regardless of age, were more likely to use contin uous lines when drawing the main units of the figure from memory than when copying the figure. The approach used to analyze the figure when copying it from a model influenced the accuracy of the information rec alled and the process by which it was recalled. That is, those childre n who broke the figure up into smaller units during copy were also mor e likely to recall the figure in a similar fashion and were more likel y to recall less about the figure.