PERCEPTUAL IMPULSIONS AND UNFAMILIAR SOLIDS - EVIDENCE FROM A DRAWINGTASK

Previous work (Dziurawiec & Deregowski, 1992) has shown that children' s distorted drawings of animal models may be explained by the child's tendency to depict typical contours, the outlines of the surfaces whic h undergo pronounced change. The present paper investigates whether th e typical contours notion can be extended to purely geometric solids. Results from a drawing task by children aged nine and eleven years, us ing unfamiliar models of varying complexity, indicate that the tendenc y to draw in perspective increases with the increase in figure complex ity for both age groups, but younger children show a greater reliance on typical contours than older children. Recasting the data from previ ous drawing experiments (Bartel, 1928/1958; Cox, 1986) further confirm s the utility of the typical contours approach. Finally, the advantage s of such an approach over that of canonicity (cf. Palmer, Rosch & Cha se, 1981) for the representation of solids are elaborated.