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eview of Research in Visual Arts Education

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Winter 1982

Editorial Consultants

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Jerry W. Morris

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Ron Neperud

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Ross A. Norris

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David A. Pariser

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Phil E. Phillips

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Gordon Plummer

University of Cincinnati

Charles A. Qualley

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Max Rennels

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Eric E. Rump

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Jean C. Rush

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Elizabeth J. Sacca

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Robert J. Saunders

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Bernard Schwartz

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Maurice J. Sevigny

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Ralph A. Smith

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Mary Ann Stankiewicz

University of Maine at Orono

Martha Taunton

University of Iowa

Anne Taylor

University of New Mexico

James Victoria

Michigan State University

Brent Wilson

Pennsylvania State University

Marjorie Wilson

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James Wright

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Michael Youngblood

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Marilyn Zurmuehlen

University of Iowa

Review of Research in Visual Arts Education

Proceedings of The National Symposium for

Research in Art

Learning in Art: Representation and Metaphor

Winter 1982

Number 15

Editors

Editorial Board

George W. Hardiman
Theodore Zernich

School of Art and Design
University of Illinois
Champaign, Illinois

Laura H. Chapman

Cincinnati, Ohio

Dennis A. Dahl

University of Illinois

Edmund B. Feldman

University of Georgia

Howard Gardner

Harvard University

Jessie Lovano-Kerr

Indiana University

June King McFee

University of Oregon

Editorial Associates

Jane C. Maitland-Gholson

Alice Arnold

Birdie Cooper

Carol Fisher

Ahmad Hashim

Andra Johnson

Marilyn Munski

The Review of Research in Visual Arts
Education is published twice yearly
(fall and winter) by the Office of Con-
tinuing Education and Public Service
and the Department of Art and Design,
University of Illinois, Urbana, Illinois
61801. Subscriptions are $10.00 for one
year; single issues are $6.00. Checks
and money orders should be made pay-
able to the University of Illinois. Pay-
ment must be enclosed. Mail remit-
tance to:

Editorial Office
143 Art and Design Building
4th St. and Peabody Drive
University of Illinois
Champaign, Illinois 61820

Second-class postage approved at
Urbana, Illinois.

Contents

Articles

The Persistence of the
Perpendicular Principle: Why,
When and Where Inate Factors
Determine the Nature of Drawings

Brent Wilson and Marjorie Wilson ... .1

The Case of the Disappearing
Two-Eyed Profile: Or How Little
Children Influence the Drawings
of Little Children

Marjorie Wilson and Brent Wilson . . .19

Correspondence Between Implied
Points of View and Selected
Points of View in Children's
Drawings of Familiar and
Unfamiliar Objects
James Victoria 33

Compositional Design as a
Perceptual Determinant of
Aesthetic Judgment

Calvin F. Nodine

Children's Comprehension of
Photographic Representation

Harry Beilin

.43

Project Zero: The Evolution of
Visual Arts Research During
the Seventies

Jessie Lovano-Kerr and Jean Rush . .61

Response to Comment on
Project Zero by Jessie Lovano-
Kerr and Jean Rush

Howard Gardner 82

THE PERSISTENCE OF THE PERPENDICULAR PRINCIPLE: WHY, WHEN AND
WHERE INNATE FACTORS DETERMINE THE NATURE OF DRAWINGS

Brent Wilson
Marjorie Wilson

Introduction

We thought we saw a foolish cow

Standing on her head

We looked again and saw her

Perpendicular instead

"We wonder why," we were heard to cry,

"To this muddle she was led."

(with apologies to Lewis Carroll)

The aforementioned cow is only one
of sixteen that cling tenaciously at
right angles to a mountain path, re-
gardless of whether the path slopes
gently upward or plunges downward
and turns at such extreme angles that
our cow does appear to be hanging
head down, while another adheres to
the path's underside as a fly clings to
a rafter. The path, the mountain, a dog,
two people and the sixteen perpen-
dicularly attached cows appear in a
drawing reproduced in Henry Schaefer-
Simmern's The Unfolding of Artistic
Activity (1948). The drawing is one of
a series by Miss "E," a 33-year-old
woman whose perpendicular orienta-
tion of objects to a baseline Schaefer-
Simmern attributes to a stage of visual
conceiving — the stage of the great-
est contrast in direction of lines. He
notes, however, that the illusion of dis-
tance shown by the gradual diminu-
tion in the size of the cows from the
lower to the upper parts of the drawing
is based upon the woman's "spontane-
ous visual experience" (Schaefer-Sim-
mern, 1948, pp. 131-141). Schaefer-
Simmern expresses concern that there
might seem to be an inconsistency be-
tween the perpendicular-to-the-base-
line orientation of the cows and their
diminution in size, contradicting his
assertion that "the unity of form is an

essential characteristic of any organi-
cally developing process of visual con-
figuration" (Schaefer-Simmern, 1948,
p. 138). Something, it seems, was
muddying Schaefer-Simmern's explan-
atory waters. For Schaefer-Simmern
and, we might add, for many others,
"artistic unfolding" is entirely an in-
nate and organic process — indeed it
is believed that in order for the process
to be properly achieved it should be
— it must be — natural and unfettered.
No piece of evidence, however incon-
sistent, has been allowed to interfere
with his beliefs.

The confusion of Schaefer-Simmern
and others between what they wish to
be the case and what is actually the
case, leads to the systematic disregard
for some aspects of graphic develop-
ment and the exaggeration of others.
If we are to understand graphic devel-
opment it seems necessary to take a
more rigorous and careful look at the
full range of factors that affect this
development. As the path to that under-
standing we have chosen to begin with
Miss "E's" curious gravity-defying per-
pendicularly-oriented cows.

This investigation was supported in part by
a grant from The Institute for the Arts and
Humanistic Studies at The Pennsylvania
State University.

The authors wish to recognize the assis-
tance of Barbara Roberts in collecting the
data, Ralph Raunft and Ken Bojrab in scor-
ing the data and Jon Lemke in the statisti-
cal analysis of the data.
Additional unpublished graphic materials
supporting this research are available from
the editorial office of the Review of Research
in Visual Arts Education.

Figure 1. "Taking the Cows Home from the Hill." Collected by Schaefer-Simmern.

Schaefer-Simmern reports that,
sometime after drawing her upside-
down cows, Miss "E" drew cows on
horizontal baselines because, she
wrote "no longer wishing to see the
cows coming downhill at such awk-
ward angles, I had to draw a serpentine
pathway which gave me the opportu-
nity of placing all the cows right-side-
up" (Schaefer-Simmern, 1948, p. 139).
We wish to raise the specific question
"What led Miss E' to subject her cows
to the laws of gravity rather than to
those of innate graphic order?"; and
from this specific question we will
raise the whole issue of the interplay
of nature and nurture in graphic de-
velopment.

The Nature of Innate Theories
of Graphic Development

Nearly all theories of drawing develop-
ment are predicated on the single as-
sumption that the unfolding of graphic
achievement is determined by the
child's stage-by-stage application of
a series of innate factors or rules.

These factors have not been set down
in one place or integrated into one
comprehensive theory; rather they
have been identified singly or in small
clusters by psychologists, art educa-
tors and others interested in artistic
development. Among the rules are:
(1) keep shapes undifferentiated and
simple for as long as possible while
still achieving graphic goals (Arn-
heim, 1974, p. 181); (2) achieve the
greatest possible contrast of lines,
often through a horizontal/vertical
orientation (Schaefer-Simmern, 1948,
pp. 11-21); (3) orient objects in a per-
pendicular fashion to the nearest base-
line (Piaget and Inhelder, 1956, pp.
375-417); (4) end-anchor and attach
limbs to the largest mass (Freeman,
1975); (5) depict conceived as well as
perceived information (Luquet, 1913,
1927); and (6) avoid overlap and pro-
vide each object with its own space
(Goodnow, 1977, pp. 40-46). It is inter-
esting to note in passing that most art
educators writing on children's art
have been content to describe the
characteristics of age-based develop-

B. Wilson, M. Wilson

mental stages, but they have generally
eschewed the explanatory power af-
forded by the innate rules.

Although explanations of graphic
development arising from these and
other innate rules and factors have
not been extended to their logical
conclusions, we might expect that ex-
tensions in which development pro-
ceeds from a lower to a higher level
would take one or more of the follow-
ing forms: (1) innate factors have struc-
tures ranging from simple to complex
through which the child moves in se-
quence; (2) a more advanced form of
some innate factor replaces a more
basic form of innate factor; (3) one
innate factor is replaced by an entirely
different factor; or (4) the range of
application of a rule is increasingly
more restricted, i.e., the rule is applied
less and less generally. Each of these
explanations assumes the graphic
learner's growing cognitive ability to
handle increasing complexity and his
increasing ability to note discrepan-
cies between that which has been
drawn and that which has been per-
ceived in the phenomenal world. Once
noted, these discrepancies presumably
trigger in the individual the desire to
reduce the discrepancy by inventing
a new graphic equivalent for the phe-
nomenal perception. This, in turn, de-
mands a different or higher level appli-
cation of one or more innate graphic
factors. This would seem to be the the-
oretical concept implicit in Schaefer-
Simmern's formulation. Although he
recognizes that phenomenal percep-
tions alter the nature of drawings and
presumably also affect the application
of innate factors, this point seems not
to have been fully acknowledged nor
its implications investigated. Much the
same might be said for the work of
Lowenfeld (1963) as he sees the child
moving from the scribbling stages
through dawning realism and the
pseudo-realistic stage. Luquet (1913
and 1927) too, divided development

into stages including those of: intel-
lectual realism where the younger child
applies internal graphic factors in or-
der to draw what he knows about things
and visual realism where the older
child draws or at least attempts to draw
things as they appear to him in the
phenomenal world. In these and other
explanations of graphic development
it is not clear what happens to the in-
nate factors with the onset of visual
realism or pseudo-realism. Are the
innate factors gradually but finally re-
placed by non-innate graphic factors?
Or do the innate rules continue to exist
in some diminished role as they be-
come submerged or overridden by new
governing factors? It seems that the
strong theoretical reliance on the pri-
mary and pervasive role of the innate
rules in graphic development has im-
peded the investigation of factors other
than the innate which might determine
the nature of graphic development. In
this paper we propose to (1) investi-
gate the nature of both the innate and
non-innate principles that affect
graphic development, (2) to investi-
gate the nature of the interaction be-
tween these two types of principles,
and (3) to investigate the conditions
under which one or the other of the
principles dominate.

The Study

Miss "E" drew the path for her cows.
We provided a hill for our subjects —
one with a slope of 40 degrees on
either side. Subjects were asked to
draw a figure walking one-half way up
one side of the hill and another walk-
ing one-half way down the other. We
observed the means by which subjects
of different ages oriented their fig-
ures to the baseline. These observa-
tions, we assumed, would provide the
basis for insights into whether sub-
jects' productions were governed by
an innate factor or by some other.

Perpendicular Principle: Inate Factors

The Subjects

Statistical Analysis

Four hundred and sixty-five subjects
participated in the study. The subjects
were divided into four groups: the first
group of 112 subjects consisted of two
five-year-olds, 83 six-year-olds and 34
seven-year-olds; the second group of
123 subjects consisted of 85 eight-
year-olds, 30 nine-year-olds and eight
ten-year-olds; the third group of 82
subjects consisted of four eleven-year-
olds, 15 twelve-year-olds, 19 thirteen-
year-olds and 44 fourteen-year-olds;
and the fourth group consisted of 148
young adults ranging in age from 18 to
36. Approximately one-half of the sub-
jects in each of the four groups came
from the East Central region of the
United States and the other half from
the Southeastern region of the United
States.

Scoring

The angle of both up-hill and down-
hill figures in each drawing was ana-
lyzed in relation to the angle of the
hill on which it was placed and to the
page itself by (1) measuring the num-
ber of degrees by which a figure
departed from the vertical (a figure
parallel to the side of the page and per-
pendicular to the bottom of the page or
baseline was scored as zero degrees,
while a figure that was perpendicular
to the slope of the hill was scored as
40 degrees); by (2) indicating whether
the figures were (a) stick, (b) shown
front-view, profile, or mixed profile
and front-view, (c) whether the legs
were straight or bent and (d) whether
the legs were of different lengths; and
by (3) classifying whether (a) two feet
were on the surface of the hill, (b) only
one foot was on the surface, (c) two
feet were off the surface of the hill,
(d) one foot was below the surface of
the hill, (e) and whether two feet were
below the surface of the hill.

From simple plots of the angle of the
figures in relationship to the other
variables, it became immediately clear
that the use of measures of central
tendency such as mean and median
would provide either few or distorted
views about the governing role of the
innate perpendicular factor and the
non-innate vertical factor. In fact not
only were the measures of central ten-
dency seen to have little value but
tests used to compare them would be
inappropriate since the distributions
were found to (1) be skewed to the left
(both unimodally and bimodally) where
the vertical factor governed, (2) skewed
to the right (both unimodally and bi-
modally) where the perpendicular fac-
tor governed, (3) symmetrical where a
tension between the perpendicular and
the vertical factors were heaviest and
(4) symmetrical but bimodal where
both the perpendicular and vertical
factors governed equally. Since the
variances of the distributions were
found to be unequal, it became neces-
sary, in order to discuss the governing
role of the perpendicular and vertical
factors, to view the proportion of sub-
jects that were governed by the per-
pendicular and vertical factors as well
as those subject to the tension be-
tween them. Thus subjects who ori-
ented figures between -10 to 10 de-
grees of being perpendicular to the
base of the hill were considered to be
governed by the vertical factor; sub-
jects who oriented figures 11 to 29 de-
grees from the vertical were consid-
ered to be in the region of tension;
and subjects who oriented figures be-
tween 30 to 50 degrees from the verti-
cal were considered to be governed
by the perpendicular factor. Subjects
orienting figures beyond these regions
were considered outliers and were ex-
cluded from further analysis because
of the strong distorting influence they
would have had on the measures.

B. Wilson, M. Wilson

It was necessary to use two separate
analyses, one for the figure walking
uphill and another for the downhill
figure because the distributions of the
two angles of orientation were dis-
tinctly different (there were, for exam-
ple, more bimodal occurrences for
downhill figures). Indeed the two tasks
were somewhat unrelated, as the data
show. For example, it would not be
possible to predict the type of surface
contact for the downhill figure on the
basis of the surface contact of the up-
hill figure, nor were differences in leg
length predictable from downhill to
uphill figures.

In an initial analysis the variables
(1) stick figure, (2) front, profile and
mixed views, and (3) the sex of the
subject were found to be independent
of all other variables or conditionally
independent of angle and were there-
fore eliminated from further analysis.
Instances in which either two feet, or
only one foot broke the surface of the
hill or disappeared behind the hill
were infrequent and were pooled into
one larger category of breaking-the-
surface. Thus the initial 4032 cross-
classifications were reduced to 192.

Finally, although the tables were
still sparse the displays of age x bent-
legs x leg-length x surface contact
showed that the huge majority of
sparse cells occurred when the legs
were bent. The bent-leg variable had
a very complex interaction structure
with the other variables. By condition-
ing the variable on bent legs it was
found that figure-orientation angle was
completely independent of all other
variables. This separate analysis of
bent legs had important theoretical
implications that will be discussed
later.

The analyses, then, were made to
estimate the extent to which the per-
pendicular and vertical factors and
the tension between them governed
in relation to the age of the subject,
the angle of figure orientation, whether
legs were bent or lengthened and the

nature of the contact with the surface
of the hill.

Findings

Two major sets of findings will be pre-
sented. The first contains estimates of
the number of individuals to be influ-
enced by the perpendicular factor
when the legs of figures are not bent,
the second contains estimates of the
influence when legs are bent.

Analysis of the Figure-Baseline Ori-
entation When Legs Are Not Bent.
Through the application of log-linear
models to the cross classified data it
was found that the response variable
an gle-of-figu re-orientation interacted
simultaneously with the variable of
legs-of-different-lengths, the various
types of contact with the baseline of
the hill, and with the age of the sub-
ject. The appropriate log-linear model
fit to the data, then, contains the struc-
tural third-order interaction of age, leg
length and surface contact; the sec-
ond-order interaction of the angle-of-
orientation with leg length and surface
contact; and the first-order interaction
of the response angle with age. Tables
1 and 2 present the maximum likeli-
hood estimates for the proportions
that fall into the perpendicular, verti-
cal and tension angle groupings for
each of the 32 cross-classifications.

In order to indicate as simply as
possible just what these tables show
we shall illustrate the data by present-
ing examples of features of the up- and
down-the-hill drawings.

Floating Leg. When subjects de-
picted one foot on the hill and the
other floating freely (Figure 2) there
was more likelihood that the figure
would be in the vertical or tension re-
gions than in the perpendicular region
for both uphill and downhill figures.
In other words, although the govern-
ing power of the perpendicular was
present especially for the downhill
figures, the one-foot-on-one-foot-off
solution seemed to be quite a useful

Perpendicular Principle: Inate Factors

TABLE 1

Estimates of the Maximum Likelihood That Uphill Figures With Unbent Legs

Will Be Oriented in the Vertical, Tension and Perpendicular Regions

Percentage

Surface

Leg Length

Group

Vertical

Tension

Perpendicular

One Foot

Legs Same

One

43.88

41.27

14.85

Off Surface

Length

Two

46.69

42.40

10.91

Three

41.73

37.93

20.33

Four

61.73

27.00

11.27

Legs Dif-

One

42.49

30.86

26.65

ferent

Two

46.84

32.87

20.29

Lengths

Three

38.38

26.93

34.69*

Four

59.64

20.16

20.20

Two Feet

Legs Same

One

30.25

40.52

29.23

Off Surface

Length

Two

33.78

43.69

22.53

Three

27.12

35.12

37.76

Four

46.60

29.08

24.32

Legs Dif-

One

41.34

31.49

27.17

ferent

Two

45.67

33.60

20.73

Lengths

Three

32.27

27.40

35.33*

Four

58.50

20.75

Foot Breaks

Legs Same

One

41.32

35.80

22.88

Surface

Length

Two

45.06

37.71

17.23

Three

37.95

31.76

30.29

Four

58.74

23.71

17.56

Legs Dif-

One

49.22

23.32

27.46*

ferent

Two

54.25

24.84

20.91

Lengths

Three

44.22

20.24

35.55*

Four

65.70

14.51

19.79

Two Feet

Legs Same

One

9.36

46.73

43.91

on Surface

Length

Two

11.04

53.22

35.75

Three

7.95

38.33

53.72

Four

17.07

39.70

43.23

Legs Dif-

One

54.68

37.77

7.54

ferent

Two

56.74

37.86

5.41

Lengths

Three

53.59

35.76

10.65

Four

71.62

23.04

5.33

* Bimodal distributions; higher percentage in the distribution is italicized.

means for orienting figures toward
the vertical. It is also important to
note that three of the four distribu-
tions for downhill figures are bimodal,
indicating that there was a tendency
for subjects to be influenced either by
the vertical or the perpendicular for
the downhill application of this vari-
able. It appears then that the subjects
had implicitly determined which polar
extreme would govern their figure ori-

entation, thus reducing the use of the
tension area between the poles.

The depiction of legs of differing
lengths with one foot off the surface
would appear to increase the likeli-
hood of subjects' achieving a vertical
figure orientation, yet the estimated
proportions are very much like those
for one-foot-off with legs of the same
length. Perhaps the orientation was
established and the leg lengthened

B. Wilson, M. Wilson

TABLE 2

Estimates of the Maximum Likelihood That Downhill Figures With Unbent Legs

Will Be Oriented in the Vertical, Tension and Perpendicular Regions

Percentage

Surface

Leg Length

Group

Vertical

Tension

Perpendicular

One Foot

Legs Same

One

46.48

26.09

27.47*

Off Surface

Length

Two

30.52

32.46

37.01

Three

47.18

17.38

35.44*

Four

61.00

11.51

27.49*

Legs Dif-

One

39.13

29.76

31.12*

ferent

Two

24.57

35.37

40.05

Lengths

Three

39.86

19.88

40.26*

Four

53.77

13.73

32.56*

Two Feet

Legs Same

One

34.39

35.14

30.47

Off Surface

Length

Two

21.05

40.72

38.23

Three

35.78

23.96

40.25*

Four

49.52

17.04

33.44*

Legs Dif-

One

36.55

56.74

6.71

ferent

Two

23.17

68.09

8.73

Lengths

Three

44.42

45.22

10.37

Four

60.16

31.40

8.44

Foot Breaks

Legs Same

One

31.28

43.91

24.82

Surface

Length

Two

18.92

50.30

30.78

Three

34.15

31.44

34.42*

Four

48.16

22.73

29.11

Legs Dif-

One

57.57

34.61

7.82

ferent

Two

41.40

47.09

11.51

Lengths

Three

63.84

25.16

11.00

Four

76.60

15.48

7.92

Two Feet

Legs Same

One

6.24

31.67

62.10

on Surface

Length

Two

3.22

30.99

65.79

Three

5.89

19.62

74.49

Four

9.71

16.59

73.70

Legs Dif-

One

39.30

38.69

22.01

ferent

Two

24.93

46.45

28.62

Lengths

Three

42.43

27.39

30.18*

Four

56.89

18.83

24.28*

* Bimodal distributions; higher percentage in the distribution is italicized.

merely to fill available space. For up-
hill figures the vertical factor governs
in all four groups. For downhill figures
the estimates are split, with the per-
pendicular factor governing most fre-
quently for two groups and the vertical
for two groups. This time four of the
eight distributions are bimodal. Again
these bimodal distributions point to the
possibility that subjects were governed
by one or the other of the extreme fac-

tors, diminishing the attraction to the
other pole and thus diminishing the
occurrence of responses within the ten-
sion region.

Floating Figures. As with subjects
who depicted figures with one-leg-
touching and one-leg-off the hill, sub-
jects who drew figures floating freely
above the hill were more likely to be
influenced by the vertical than the per-
pendicular factor. In the 16 distribu-

Perpendicular Principle: Inate Factors

Figure 2. Floating Leg — Legs of the
Same Length.

Figure 3. Floating Leg — Legs of
Differing Lengths.

tions, the vertical factor governed
seven times. Seven times the tension
region predominated; in only two in-
stances did the perpendicular factor
govern. Indeed it was our informal ob-
servation that the more highly the fig-
ures floated above the hill the more
likelihood there was that the figures
would have a vertical orientation. Con-
versely, as floating figures were drawn
closer to the baseline of the hill, it
was almost as if a powerful magnet
pulled them toward the perpendicular.
For floating figures, only three of
the 16 distributions are bimodal. For
uphill figures five of the eight distribu-
tions are skewed to the left, favoring
the vertical region, while for downhill,

five of the eight distributions favor the
tension region. For downhill floating
figures with legs of different lengths
there was a less than ten percent
chance that the figures would be gov-
erned by the perpendicular factor.

Figures Breaking the Surface. The
depiction of the legs as breaking or
going behind the surface was also an
effective means by which subjects were
able to achieve a more vertical figure
orientation. All eight of the uphill dis-
tributions are strongly skewed to the
left, favoring the vertical region, al-
though it should be noted that three
of the eight distributions are bimodal
(where the legs were of different
lengths). Four of the eight distribu-

8 B. Wilson, M. Wilson

Figure 4. Floating Figures — Legs of the
Same and Differing Lengths.

Figure 5. Figures Breaking the Surface.

tions for downhill figures are also
skewed to the left, favoring the verti-
cal; but only one of the eight distribu-
tions is bimodal. It is also worth noting
that if, in downhill figures, the legs
broke the surface and were of differ-
ent lengths, there was only about a ten
percent possibility that the orientation
would be governed by the perpendicu-
lar factor.

Figures with Two Feet on the Sur-
face. It is only when two legs of the
same length are anchored to the sur-
face of the hill that the full governing
effect of the perpendicular factor is
to be seen. Under such conditions for
both up and downhill figures, 57% of
the responses for the four age groups
fall into the perpendicular region,
while only 9% of the responses fall

Perpendicular Principle: Inate Factors

Figure 6. Both Feet on the Surface —
Legs of the Same and Differing Lengths.

into the vertical region. These figures
nearly reverse themselves when the
legs are of differing lengths; 50% of
the responses fall into the vertical
range and only 17% fall into the per-

pendicular range. In other words, when
the responses fell into the perpendicu-
lar region they were more likely to have
been achieved by anchoring two legs
of the same length to the baseline of
the hill than by any other means.

Analysis of Figure-Baseline Orien-
tation When Legs Are Bent. The bent-
leg variable displayed a strong rela-
tionship to the variable age. Tables 3
and 4 show this relationship. In the
first two age groups bent legs were
virtually non-existent. Approximately
29% of the third age group and 51%
of the oldest group depicted bent legs.

As indicated earlier, an examination
of the data also revealed the need to
analyze the bent-leg variable sepa-
rately from the not-bent variables. By
pooling the age groups and by condi-

Figure 7. Figures with Bent Legs.

B. Wilson, M. Wilson

TABLE 3

The Relationship Between Age and

the Drawing of Uphill Figures

With Bent Legs

AGE GROUP
1 2 3

Unbent Legs (No.)

111 119 56

Bent Legs (No.)

1 4 26

TABLE 4

The Relationship Between Age and

the Drawing of Downhill Figures

With Bent Legs

AGE GROUP
2 3

Unbent Legs (No.)

112

119

Bent Legs (No.)

tioning on bent-legs it was found that
angle of figure orientation was com-
pletely independent of all other vari-
ables. Table 5 shows the maximum like-
lihood estimates obtained for figure
orientations in each of the three re-
gions. Both distributions are strongly
skewed to the left, indicating that bend-
ing legs was a highly effective means
for orienting figures in the vertical
region.

In order to compare figure orienta-
tions when legs are bent and not bent,
Tables 6 and 7 (Summary Tables for
Not-Bent) are presented. Comparisons
of Tables 5, 6 and 7 show the strong
relationship of the use of bent legs to
a vertical figure orientation as com-
pared to any of the non-bent variables

— approximately 20% more for both
up- and down-hill figures.

An examination of the summary
tables also reveals these facts:

(1) When the percentages for all
groups were averaged for figure ori-
entation in either the perpendicular
or tension regions, it was found that
over 60% of all subjects were influ-
enced by the perpendicular factor.

(2) The perpendicular factor is more
likely to govern for downhill than for
uphill figures, perhaps indicating that
regardless of the means employed —
whether bent or non-bent leg treat-
ments and surface treatments — the
downhill figure presented the more
difficult task. (3) The perpendicular
factor governed the second age group
more strongly than it did the first age
group (as indicated by the downhill
data where 36% of the first age group
oriented their figures in the vertical
region while only 23% of the second
age group did so). In other words,
under certain conditions the govern-
ing power of the perpendicular factor
actually becomes stronger with age
before that power is finally diminished.

Now, what do all those data mean?
What do they have to do with Miss
"E's" cows, with innate and non-in-
nate principles and with graphic
development?

Theoretical Projections

We now wish to use these data in
order to examine the origins and na-
ture of the interactions of the factors
associated with the orientation of fig-

TABLE 5

Estimates of the Maximum Likelihood That Figures With Bent Legs Will Be

Oriented in the Vertical, Tension and Perpendicular Region

Vertical

Percentage
Tension

Perpendicular

Uphill Pooled Groups
Downhill Pooled Groups

62.39
58.70

26.61
17.39

11.01
23.91

Perpendicular Principle: Inate Factors 11

TABLE 6

Summary of Maximum Estimates of Percentages of Uphill Unbent Figures That

Will Be Oriented in the Vertical, Tension and Perpendicular Regions

Group

Vertical

Tension

Perpendicular

39.07
42.51
35.40
54.95

35.97
38.27
31.68
24.74

24.96
19.22
32.29
20.31

TOTAL

42.98

32.67

24.20

TABLE 7

Summary of Maximum Estimates of Percentages of Unbent Downhill Figures

That Will be Oriented in the Vertical, Tension and Perpendicular Regions

Group

Vertical

Region
Tension

Perpendicular

36.37
23.47
39.19
53.09

38.20
43.93
26.26
18.41

26.57
32.59
34.55*
29.62

TOTAL

38.03

31.70

30.83

* Bimodal distribution; the highest percentage is italicized in each distribution.

ures in the up-and-down-the-hill task.
In other words, what might these data
mean when used in the generation of
hypotheses about graphic production?

Our first and most essential asser-
tion is that in each graphic configura-
tion there are two potent principles —
the innate and the influence. Briefly,
the innate principle governs such
things as basic simplicity and composi-
tional order — the manner in which the
parts of configurations are related spa-
tially. The influence principle governs
differentiation and the stylistic aspects
of configurations. Each principle is
multifaceted, comprised of various fac-
tors; but before a closer examination,
it is important to discuss the theoreti-
cal implications of postulating two
graphic principles rather than one.

Although those who explain graphic
development by innate principle alone
have not been greatly concerned about
how the innate principle functions with
older children, with adults (Schaefer-
Simmern is perhaps the exception) and

especially not with adult artists. Yet,
whether the innate principle dimin-
ishes in power, is somehow gradually
but totally replaced, or continues to
influence in some weakened or dimin-
ished state seems a most central ques-
tion. This question is important be-
cause "child art" is not an end state
(Day, 1979, p. 11) but a route through
which one travels toward some higher
or at least some different graphic end.
A full map of that route is the key,
of course, to the understanding of
graphic development and, by exten-
sion, to the understanding of artistic
development. Following only innate
"routes" leaves us far short of our
destination.

Projecting two co-existing govern-
ing factors eliminates the knotty and
perhaps even unsolvable problems of
establishing when the influence prin-
ciple begins and determining the even-
tual fate of the once singular and all
powerful innate principle. With the
positing of the two principles an ex-

12 B. Wilson, M. Wilson

plication of the nature of each seems
the next order of business, followed
by an examination of the relative in-
fluence of each principle at anytime
during development, an exploration of
the interplay among factors within
each of these two general principles
and finally and most importantly, an
investigation of the interactions be-
tween the two general governing prin-
ciples. We wish now to examine the
nature of the innate and the influence
principles as we think they functioned
in the up-and-down-the-hill task and
then explore some of the interactions
between them.

As we examine these two principles
it is important to note that they should
be considered to be mental phenom-
ena. The interaction between them
occurs as a cognitive operation. In
other words graphic configurations
are behavioral manifestations of cog-
nitive operations. As such, these con-
figurations might contain isolated fea-
tures that may be pointed to as pure
or as nearly pure instances of the in-
nate, and others, of the influence. At
the very beginning of graphic devel-
opment it is possible for a configura-
tion to appear to manifest only innate
factors. This fact notwithstanding, most
configurations manifest at least traces
of each.

Even when the configurations do not
manifest the fetures of either the in-
nate or influence principles, the two
factors are functioning, but either the
influence has not developed suffi-
ciently to produce behavioral evidence
or, in the case of the highly skilled
artist, the innate factors have been vir-
tually overridden. (We might add par-
enthetically that, depending on con-
ditions, a highly skilled artist may
produce images that are strongly in-
fluenced by the innate. We once
watched an artist, prominent enough
to have exhibited in the Venice Bien-
nale, resort to drawing tadpole figures
in order to quickly illustrate a point
that he was making.) As we now be-

gin discussing features found in the
up-and-down-the-hill drawings, it is
important to remember that these are
isolated manifestations of one or the
other of the principles. The images as
a whole display both.

The innate principles in the up-and-
down-the-hill task. When subjects ori-
ented their figures in the perpendicu-
lar and tension regions, they were
following, to a greater or lesser degree,
the innate predisposition to order ob-
jects at right angles to the nearest
baseline (Piaget and Inhelder, 1956,
pp. 375-417) in order to achieve the
maximum horizontal/vertical contrast
of lines and shapes (Schaefer-Sim-
mern, 1948). When legs of figures
were not bent, subjects were keeping
shapes undifferentiated while still
achieving their graphic goals (Arn-
heim, 1974, p. 181). In an overwhelm-
ing number of the responses, the
figures were drawn walking on the
baseline of the hill rather than be-
hind the ridge line or on the implied
plane of the hill. This on-the-baseline
response seems to be conditioned by
an innate factor — the desire to avoid
overlap or to provide each object with
its own space (Goodnow, 1977, pp. 40-
46) even if it is only a figure overlap-
ping a part of the hill. There seems
also to be a strong innate prohibition
against crossing the baseline of the
hill, thus affecting those subjects who
may have been inclined to place fig-
ures on the plane of the hill. Placing
part of the figure behind the baseline
of the hill would also have prevented
subjects from showing a maximum
amount of information about a figure
or from drawing what they knew to be
present in such situations (Freeman
and Janikoun, 1972). One other impor-
tant point should be made about the
use of the baseline: the youngest
group were far less apt to anchor legs
to the ridge of the hill than any of the
other groups. They floated figures
above the hill and occasionally sank
them into the plane of the hill. There

Perpendicular Principle: Inate Factors 13

are at least two possible explanations
for the "floating" and "sunken" fig-
ures of the first group. The first is that
some five-, six- and seven-year-olds
might have wished to place the figures
on the baseline, but they simply did
not have enough skill to accurately
anchor them — they were poor marks-
men. The second possibility is that
they simply had no innate propensity
to use the ridge baseline. If this were
the case then some other principle
would seem to be in effect, stated as:
"when showing relationships of ob-
jects, it is sufficient to place them on
the same page." We discount the sec-
ond possibility since it seems highly
unlikely that innate factors come and
go. It seems much more probable that
the anchor-to-the-baseline rule was in
effect but that some children did not
yet have the graphic skill to provide
behavioral evidence of the effect, or
that they were applying the factor in
some, as yet, unknown manner.

One of the most important observa-
tions to be made about the data is that
the innate factors were strongest when
they joined forces. When subjects used
the baseline, kept legs unbent, at-
tempted to show a maximum amount
of information and avoided overlap-
ping, their figures were far more likely
to fall into the perpendicular region.

One of the most curious phenomena
to be noted, however, was the manner
in which subjects used one or more
innate factors to overcome another in-
nate factor. When subjects moved their
figures into the tension or vertical
regions, they often did so either by
lengthening one leg to fill the extra
space created, or to "push" the figure
toward the vertical. In instances where
one foot of an unbent leg was an-
chored to the baseline and the other
was left suspended in space over the
hill so that the figure might be ori-
ented more vertically, we have the op-
portunity to observe the acceptance
of one gravity-defying improbability
— walking on air — in order to avoid

another — the perpendicularly-ori-
ented figure.

Thus we have seen that the various
innate factors sometimes joined forces,
leading subjects to produce figures in
the perpendicular region. At other
times innate principles were used in
order to enable subjects to orient fig-
ures toward the vertical.

The influence principle in the up-
and-down-the-hill task. Whereas pre-
vious inquiry into graphic develop-
ment has made easy the identification
of the innate factors, that same inquiry
makes difficult our task of identifying
influence factors. The primary reason
for the difficulty is that in most innatist
accounts of graphic development the
influence factors are assumed to be
higher order manifestations of innate
principles. However, three dimensions
of what might be considered the influ-
ence principle have been posited (Wil-
lats, 1979). Although Willats eventually
attempts to refute the role of all three
dimensions, he does characterize a
view of graphic development in which
the child draws from his knowledge
of "stereotypes." He presents three
possible sources for these "stereo-
types," each of which involves some
aspect of imitation. One possibility is
that the child discovers "stereotypes"
or schemata in his chance scribbles.
Later, more complex schemata are dis-
covered in random or less controlled
aspects of already mastered schemata.
The second is that the child bases
"stereotypes" on perceptual sensa-
tions; in other words, the child at-
tempts to produce a graphic equiva-
lent of what has been perceived in the
phenomenal world. Willats claims that
both of these assumptions are present
in Luquet's theory (pp. 14-15). The
third possibility, according to Willats,
is that they are learned either by "asso-
ciation from the pictorial environment"
— copying from other pictures — or
as the result of explicit teaching," "let
me show you how to draw a cube" (p.
15). Gardner (1980), too, argues that

14 B. Wilson, M. Wilson

graphic models play a role in develop-
ment. He states in his chapter "To
Copy or Not,"
We have seen that for individuals in
our society the achievement of accurate
representational skills is at a premium
during the years of schooling. Copying
presents itself as an obvious means for
attaining such skill, and we can expect
youngsters to gravitate toward it with
or without support from others in their
society (p. 191).

Perhaps even the strongest case that
might currently be made to support
evidence of the early age at which the
influence factors emerge, the extent
and the power with which they exert
themselves is in our paper on the two-
eyed profile (Wilson and Wilson, 1980).
In the figures in the up-and-down-
the-hill drawings, however, the precise
nature of the influence principle is
more difficult to discern than when one
detects an instance of rather direct
modeling. Obviously, present day in-
fluences may be seen in the general
style of the drawings, e.g., there were
no two-eyed profiles. But does the in-
fluence principle manifest itself in any
other way? We think that any move to
orient figures to the vertical is the
result of the influence principle. Here
is our argument. If the desire to use
the most simple configuration possible
while still achieving a graphic goal is
among the most basic innate factors
(Arnheim, 1974, pp. 174-182) then any
movement away from the simplest con-
figuration used to present an object
is, we think, the result of the influence
principle. In other words, when a three-
year-old child draws an unadorned cir-
cle and proclaims it to be a person, we
might assume that we are observing
the most basic instance of the child's
"satisfactory" symbolic presentation
of a person. If subsequently, the child
looks at an actual person or at a draw-
ing of a person by another, notices two
eyes and then thinks "oh, my person
needs eyes, too," then the influence
factor has come into play. Of course

the "simplicity-principle" is still in ef-
fect, i.e., the person does not yet have
a body, arms or legs. When they do
appear it will be a result of the influ-
ence factor. In the same way, an in-
visible "influence cable" pulls the up-
and-down-the-hill figures toward a
vertical orientation.

And now in respect to the influence
principle, what might we be able to
claim about the figures with the bent
legs — the feature that we assume to
be most highly related to the influence
principle so far as the orientation of
the figure toward the vertical is con-
cerned? (We are, of course, observing
one influence factor, bent legs, being
employed to achieve another influence
factor, a depiction of the effect of grav-
ity on figures.) It is obviously not pos-
sible from the data to conclude whether
or not the "bent" feature resulted from
direct observation of people walking
or from memories of other graphic
models of figures with bent knees.

We have written extensively about
the fact that graphic images appear to
be more influential than perceptions
of the phenomenal world in providing
models for drawings (Wilson and Wil-
son, 1977, 1979). The reasoning behind
our conclusion is this: graphic images
are much more like other graphic
images than they are like objects in
the phenomenal world. Thus the in-
venting of a graphic equivalent for an
actual object may be more time-con-
suming and more difficult than merely
borrowing directly from another static,
simplified, schematic graphic image.
This borrowing may occasionally re-
sult from direct copying or as is more
frequently the case, may be based on
a memory of a previously experienced
graphic image. In other words, graphic
images seem easier to remember than
phenomenal world perceptions.

We think that a further resolution of
the nature of the interplay between the
phenomenal perception and graphic
model aspects of the influence factor
are essential to the understanding of

Perpendicular Principle: Inate Factors 15

graphic development. Furthermore, we
think that experiments can be de-
signed that will reveal the relative ef-
fect of graphic models such as those
on (1) direct phenomenal-perceptual
observations, (2) memories of phenom-
enal perceptions, (3) memories of
graphic perceptions, (4) direct graphic
rule teaching and (5) teaching based
on kinetic perceptions of one's own
body.

Interactions of the Innate and
the Influence Principle

Each up-and-down-the-hill figure con-
tained manifestations of both the in-
fluence and the innate principles.
Sometimes these principles functioned
in unison to achieve particular graphic
ends — legs were lengthened to fill
space created by a vertically oriented
figure. At other times, even when bent
legs contained a high degree of differ-
entiation, the invisible power of the
innate principle still pulled figures into
the tension and occasionally into the
perpendicular orientation regions. Sim-
ilarly, the producers of figures with
influence-derived bent legs avoided
overlap of either hill or figure by plac-
ing figures on top of the hill baseline
rather than in the hill plane. Just as the
drawings of the oldest subjects con-
tained numerous innate mainfesta-
tions, the drawings of the youngest
subjects contained influence factors,
but these influence factors affected
the configurations or shapes of the
figures far more than they affected
the manner in which the figures were
oriented to the hill. Among the oldest
subjects the innate factors still per-
sisted although sometimes weakened
in their governing power. In no way
could it be claimed that one principle
was the exclusive possession of a par-
ticular age group.

Lest there be a misunderstanding
that we ascribe more value to one prin-
ciple than the other — that the mani-
festations of the influence principle

are more highly prized than the innate,
or that those of the innate are of a lower
order — may we now state that this is
not the case. Among the most powerful
graphic statements, for example, were
drawings of figures with straight legs,
although they might not give the pre-
cise appearance of walking up a hill.
It is only in relation to personal and
graphic goals that the question of
which is the more desirable or prefer-
able governing principle may be an-
swered.

In a culture such as ours that prizes
a high degree of graphic visual realism
(Gardner, 1980, p. 191), the continued
primary reliance of individuals on in-
nate factors for ordering spatial rela-
tionships in drawings arrests graphic
development far short of the implicit
cultural graphic goals, or in fact short
of an individual graphic goal. Remem-
ber that Miss "E" was dissatisfied with
her cows coming down the hill at such
"odd angles." Graphic development,
we think, is essentially a matter of
learning to override with influence fac-
tors those innate factors that conflict
with current cultural graphic norms
and personal graphic desires. Without
at least some overriding of the innate,
development simply does not occur.
There is no culture in which the innate
and the influence are isomorphic; and,
of course, we must also consider the
situations such as children's use of the
two-eyed profile (Wilson and Wilson,
1980) in which there was a widespread
modeling from what is now a rarely
occurring spontaneous innate mani-
festation. In other words, innate fea-
tures are as readily modeled as pre-
dominanty cultural ones.

We think that the innate principles
remain for a lifetime, and they have a
continued potential to affect graphic
production although, in some cases,
they are almost entirely overridden.
Artists, for example, who have fully
assimilated linear perspective and
foreshortening conventions in their
drawings and paintings, might still

16 B. Wilson, M. Wilson

manifest the effects of innate prin-
ciples in areas that are not as fully
conventionalized, such as pictorial
composition. (If we look carefully we
might see these innate manifestations
in Rembrandt just as readily as we see
influence manifestations in the draw-
ings of young children.) Attention to
the interactions between the innate
and influence factors and the inter-
actions among individual innate and
influence principles affords a totally
new means of theorizing about graphic
development. This new theoretical po-
sition would free us from the severe
limitations of the age-based-innate-fac-
tor-only formulations that are neither
able to account for an autistic 31/2-
year-old girl's being able to draw like
a skilled adult (Selfe, 1977) nor for the
normal elderly woman who draws like
a child of three (Wilson and Wilson,
1977, p. 7). A new interactionist theory
would even provide explanations for
why a single drawing sometimes con-
tains characteristics from three or four
of, say, Lowenfeld's developmental
stages.

We think that further attempts at
viewing graphic development as chil-
dren's acquisition of increasingly more
complex and powerful innate rules that
depend only on discoveries from the
phenomenal world or from inventions,
but not from modeling-after will yield
inadequate one-sided explanations.
Adequate theorizing involves account-
ing for and integrating all relevant vari-
ables.

Proceeding on the premise that
graphic configurations result from
interactions between the spatial/order-
ing innate principle and the stylistic/
contour influence principle, we pose
the following hypotheses: (1) When a
series of innate factors interact with
one another in a given graphic task,
the governing power of the innate prin-
ciple will be the strongest; (2) when,
in an individual's graphic configura-
tion, an innate factor governs one or

more aspects, the innate factor will
continue to govern until overridden by
an influence factor relating to the same
aspect or aspects; (3) when one or
more innate factors supersede another
innate factor, there is less necessity
to employ influence factors to over-
ride the innate factors; (4) the influ-
ence factors most easily acquired are
those that do not interfere or conflict
with innate ordering principles; (5) in-
nate-like features are just as readily
modeled as more purely influence-re-
lated features.

We have attempted to characterize
graphic development as a process in
which, at any one point, a number of
factors might come into play, as op-
posed to the traditional view that it is
simply an organic process. In order
to effect a single graphic configura-
tion, it is possible to suppose the inter-
play of a complex series of innate fac-
tors interacting among themselves, as
well as a group of influence variables
interacting both among themselves
and in tandem with or in tension to
the innate factors. Often, the results
of such a marriage are curious and
amusing; but curious and amusing as
were Miss "E's" cows and our up-and-
down-the-hill figures, they nonetheless
point to a new way to theorize about
drawing development.

References

Arnheim, R. Art and visual perception: a
psychology of the creative eye, the new
version. Berkeley & Los Angeles: Univer-
sity of California Press, 1974.

Day, M. Child art, school art and the real
world of art. In M. Dobbs (Ed.) Art educa-
tion and back to basics. Reston, Va.: Na-
tional Art Education Association, 1979.

Freeman, N. H. How young children try to
plan drawings. In G. Butterworth (Ed.)
The child's representation of the world.
New York: Plenum Press, 1977.

Freeman, N. H. and Janikoun, R. Intellectual
realism in children's drawings of a fa-
miliar object with distinctive features.
Child Development, 1972, 43, 1116-1121.

Perpendicular Principle: Inate Factors 17

Gardner, H. Artful scribbles: the significance
of children's drawings. N.Y.: Basic Books,
Inc., Publishers, 1980.

Goodnow, J. Children drawing. Cambridge,
Mass.: Harvard University Press, 1977.

Luquet, G. H. Les dessin enfantin. Paris:
Alcan, 1927.

Lowenfeld, V. Creative and mental growth,
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Piaget, J. and Inhelder, B. The child's con-
ception of space (Trans. F. J. Langdon
and J. L. Lunzer) London: Routledge and
Kegan Paul, 1956.

Selfe, L. Nadia: a case of extraordinary draw-
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Schaefer-Simmern, H. The unfolding of ar-
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implications. Berkeley and Los Angeles:
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Willats, J. Implicit rules: some of the truth
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Wilson, B. and Wilson, M. An iconoclastic
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Brent Wilson

School of Visual Arts
Pennsylvania State University
University Park, Pennsylvania 16802

Marjorie Wilson

Pennsylvania Furnace,
Pennsylvania 16865

B. Wilson, M. Wilson

THE CASE OF THE DISAPPEARING TWO-EYED PROFILE: OR HOW LITTLE
CHILDREN INFLUENCE THE DRAWINGS OF LITTLE CHILDREN

Marjorie Wilson
Brent Wilson

As I was going up the stair
I saw a man who wasn't there
He wasn't there again today -
I wish, I wish he'd stay away

Hughes Mearns

When Hughes Mearns wrote that qua-
train, the "man" to whom we devote
this paper was more than likely still
there; and, although he ceases to exist,
we are still apt to encounter him.
In each edition of Lowenfeld's Crea-
tive and Mental Growth, from the first
edition, published in 1947, to the sixth,
some twenty-eight years later, in 1975,
there appears in a child's drawing, the
same figure of a "man." His head is
clearly turned to present a profile view
and yet he possesses two eyes with
which he stares at us from the pages
of the book (1975, figure 96, p. 201).
We smile at the image but dismiss it
as yet another instance of the drawing
child's seeming insistence on present-
ing "all" that is known of an object —
the same phenomenon that produces,
simultaneously, interior and exterior
views of a house or both legs of a
rider astride a horse seen in profile.
And didn't Picasso, as well, present
us with the paradigmatic model for
the two-eyed profile?

The young "artist" was identified
by Lowenfeld (1939) as D.H., one of
the "weak-sighted children" with
whom he had worked in Vienna. Sub-
sequent information in The Nature of
Creative Activity tells us that the
drawings were made in 1936 when D.H.
was eleven years old. Lowenfeld ac-
counts for the appearance of the fig-
ure by noting that ". . . as characteristic
in the representation of the face that
it develops from the frontal drawing,

with dots for eyes, a vertical line for
nose, a horizontal one for mouth, via
a mixed form containing the nose at
the side, to the profile proper" (p. 27).
He attributed the "mixed front view
and profile" including "both eyes and
the nose" to the fact that all were of
equal significance to the child (1947,
p. 43). By 1975, Brittain has modified
a good deal of the Lowenfeld text; yet
he not only retains D.H.'s two-eyed
profile, but he continues to account
for the appearance of the mixed view
"that includes a representation of two
eyes and a profile nose" (p. 187) as
though it continued to exist; but how
many of us who are regularly con-
fronted with drawings produced by
children have seen the two-eyed pro-
file in the course of the past forty-
five years or so? Who or what is this
spectral man? We know that he once
existed, and that he existed in a multi-
tude of forms. In the same way that
the early global and tadpole configura-
tions cover a wide spectrum, the many
manifestations of the two-eyed profile
range from the merest near-global rep-
resentation to a well-developed model,
complete with body, arms and legs.

In "true anthropological" manner we
have shown that the two-eyed profile
once inhabited the earth. Because of
the dearth of information regarding
the drawings of children before the
late 19th century, however, we have
been unable to trace the beginnings of
this phenomenon, although research

Additional unpublished graphic materials
supporting this research are available from
the editorial office of the Review of Research
in Visual Arts Education.

Figure 1. "Searching for the lost pencil" D.H., age 11. Collected by Lowenfeld, 1936, Vienna.
Collection of The Pennsylvania State University.

attests to a profusion of these speci-
mens as early as 1882.

The recorded history begins with a
study by the Italian Corrado Ricci,
dated 1887. Ricci has recounted the
story of his serendipitous discovery
of children's drawings on a portico
wall in 1882, and the way in which
he was inspired to make a study of the
drawings of young children. About the
early figure drawings, he states that
"before a man can become entire he
must pass through many stages, and
they are not prompted to jump at once
from this primitive form to complete
physical integrity." The stages to which
Ricci refers include the sideways move-
ment of the figure from front-view to
profile following "the little one's own
laws," described in this way:

A man should stand as it pleases him,
in profile or full face, and there is no
reason for curtailing him; seen from
just one side or the other, he will al-
ways be a man with two arms and two
eyes.

Ricci found, in a study of 1250 draw-
ings that when children drew the pro-
file, seventy times out of a hundred,
they continued to include the two eyes
of the full face.

Five years later, in 1892, Earl Barnes,
who had also conducted a study of
children's drawings, found that Ricci's
earlier study had reached conclusions
very like his own. Barnes, too, noted
the two-eyed profile to be "the general
law." He collated 12,740 faces from
pictures drawn by children from six
to thirteen years old. He found that

20 M. Wilson, B. Wilson

Figure 2. Collected by Thorndike, circa. 1913, U.S.A.

"At six years, twice as many full-faces
were drawn as profiles. From six to
thirteen, full-faces decreased, and pro-
files increased, and, at thirteen, there
were twice as many profiles as full-
faces. The number drawn of each was
equal to a point between nine and ten
years old."

In 1902, Lena Partridge studied the
human figure in the drawings of En-
glish children. Partridge's study is one
of the most rigorous, replete with nu-
merous tables and figures through
which she was able to chart the de-
velopment of the human figure. She
observed, as had Ricci and Barnes,
that the full-face man is gradually
turned into a profile man as the child
grows older. She made the additional
observation that, as the child advances
in age, there is a tendency to "turn cer-
tain limbs and features to the right"
during the stage occurring between
the representation of the full-face fig-

ure and the profile, a treatment she
described as "mixed." The pecentages
in her chart for the "mixed treatment
of heads" reveal that "until eight years
of age, more than half the attempts at
profile are really drawn in this con-
fused manner." At the age of eight the
percentage of two-eyed profiles was
calculated to be 30%. Partridge made
a supplementary study in which she
determined that the presence of a
model and the position in which the
children saw that model had little in-
fluence on the drawings of children
under the age of eleven. Of the hun-
dred girls in the study, 23 drew . . .
the mixed view, "a strange form," she
notes, "that could not have been seen
from any point of view."

Meanwhile, studies in other coun-
tries substantiated not only the exis-
tence of the two-eyed profile but the
great proliferation of these curious
creatures — not unlike the insidious

Two-Eyed Profile: Influence 21

Figure 3. Collected by Kerschensteiner, circa. 1905, Germany.

Schmoo (a creation of Al Capp that
bred in great multitudes) — whose
amorphous shape they sometimes as-
sume.

Of the 67 drawings mainly by five-
and six-year-old English children used
to illustrate the chapter in his book
dealing with children as "draughts-
men," Sully (1903) showed 36 two-
eyed profiles. It seems to be no acci-
dent that a full 54% of the characters
that he presents are of this type. Of
them he notes:

The first clear indication of an attempt
to give the profile aspect of the face
is the introduction of the angular line
of the side-view of the nose into the
contour. The little observer is soon im-
pressed by the characteristic well-
marked outline of the nose in profile;
and as he cannot make much of the
front view of the organ, he naturally
begins at an early stage, certainly by
the fifth year, to vary the scheme of the
lunar circle, broken at most by the ears,
by a projection answering to a profile
nose.

M. Wilson, B. Wilson

Figure 4. Gradual turning of the figure to the right, Partridge, circa. 1902, England.

Two-Eyed Profile: Influence 23

and again describes:
the mixed scheme, in which the eyes
and mouth retain their front-view as-
pect (p. 357).

In Germany in 1905, Levinstein re-
ported,
Young children usually draw the face
in a full front view, but at the age of
four, 4 percent of them introduce some
profile, some heads being drawn with
some features, especially the nose, both
in profile and in front. At seven, 34 per-
cent show transition stages.

In the same year, working in Munich,
Kerschensteiner presented his own
study including some of the most idio-
syncratic two-eyed profiles we have
found, as the common representation
of a man (1905).

In Belgium, Rouma (1912) sought to
trace the evolution of the representa-
tion of the man in children's drawings,
and to compare his own findings with
those presented by Lena Partridge. In
this extensive study, Rouma described
in detail the diverse aspects observed
in the development of the human fig-
ure in individual drawings. "Le Profil
de Transition," in which the drawings
appear part full-face and part profile,
is designated as a stage in that devel-
opment. The sixteen figures and heads
appearing under this caption include
figures with two noses — one profile,
one front-view, as well as a profile
head with two eyes, one atop the other
(pp. 50, 51). To the various explana-
tions for the existence of the two-eyed
profile — that it is the characteristic
view (Lark-Horovitz et al.); that the
child cannot draw the front-view nose
(Sully); that the child has a natural
tendency to turn the figure (Partridge)
— Rouma hypothesized that it was the
prominence of the nose itself that was
fascinating to the child, a feature he
had seen exploited in their humorous
drawings. Rouma's detailed descrip-
tions also revealed another significant
detail; before the child includes the
nose as a protrusion in the contour
of the face, he noted that the nose is

attached to the left side, drawn either
as a small circle or as two lines at an
acute angle, just as we observed in
some of Sully's specimens.

Luquet's familiar work categorizes
the stages of development in children's
drawing to include at age six and seven
what he called intellectual realism.
Among the characteristics of this stage,
Luquet numbered what he noted as a
contradiction or as a change in point
of view included in the same drawing
— a feature translatable to the two-
eyed profile — and leaving no doubt
of that fact when he suggests that an
indicator of the transition to the stage
beyond may be the child's restriction
to including only one eye in a profile
contour.

The two-eyed profile appears, also,
as step .31/2a on the 1923 revision of
Thorndike's 1913 Scale for General
Merit of Children's Drawings.

It becomes obvious, then, from this
mounting body of evidence, that the
two-eyed profile appeared, to these
early researchers, to have been an in-
nate phenomenon. Indeed, it would
seem that, along with the ubiquitous
scribble and tadpole person, the child
is applying a universal innate principle
of graphic development. The data in
studies such as Ricci's and Barnes'
and Partridge's show a pervasive fre-
quency of the two-eyed profile; and
the careful charting of the develop-
ment of a schema for "man" shows the
systematic sideways movement of the
figure — even, as documented by Par-
tridge, to the right — a regularity that
persisted through Lowenfeld's Vienna
studies well into the thirties. But where
is the two-eyed profile today, and
where, in fact, is its matured counter-
part, the profile proper?

We begin to note the decline and
fall of the two-eyed profile in Table 1.

Table 1 illustrates the surprisingly
high incidence of profiles and two-
eyed profiles in Western Europe, En-
gland and the United States between
the years 1883 and 1905, the sharp de-

24 M. Wilson, B. Wilson

TABLE 1
The Decline of the Two-Eyed Profile"

Source & Country

Year

Age

%
Profile

% Two- Eyed
Profile

Ricci; Italy

c 1883-86

6-8

70"

Barnes; U.S.

1892

Sully; England

C1895

5-7

Partridge; England

C1902

Levinstein; Germany

C1905

Goodenough; U.S.

C1923

7.5
to
9.5

Harris; U.S.

1953

* These data are interpolations, drawn from the researchers various ways of sampling and
reporting. The chart provides general trends but should not be used for precise comparisons.
The Goodenough and the Harris data are more accurate; they were tabulated by the authors
from national standardization samples of figure drawings from the Goodenough and Harris
Draw-A-Man Tests.
** 70% of all profile heads were reported to have two eyes forward.

dine in the United States by 1923, and
the complete disappearance of the
two-eyed profile by 1953. It is reason-
able to assume that the disappearance
probably occurred in the United States
some time before 1953; it is also pos-
sible that the sharp decline may not
have occurred as early in the European
countries as in the United States. We
have not located data to provide evi-
dence of this, one way or the other.

We should note, as well, that the
incidence of the representation of the
profile itself appears to be diminish-
ing along with its two-eyed counter-
part from 85% in 1895 steadily down
to a mere 28% in 1953.

The two-eyed profile seems to have
completely disappeared, and yet, is
it not curious that, in spite of these
facts, in Brittain's 1975 distillation of
Lowenfeld, D.H.'s anachronistic man
persists in his search for his pencil?
Similarly, in 1973, Lark-Horovitz, Lewis
and Luca assume the continued exis-
tence of the two-eyed profile. Return-
ing to Ricci's 1887 study, they main-
tain that "the schema of the human
face, and its development, has a logic

of structure and growth which is as
clear in drawings from the last century
as in those of the present time, and in
this part of the world as in another"
(pp. 50, 51). We say that this is simply
not so, and in spite of assertions to
the contrary, we fail to find, either in
the Lowenfeld/Brittain illustrations or
in those of Lark-Horovitz et al. another
incidence of the two-eyed profile. We
might add that in our recent examina-
tion of thousands of children's figure
drawings from Jordan, Egypt, Australia
and New Guinea, we have not found a
single two-eyed profile; and despite
Kellogg's (1969) meticulous analysis,
classification and cataloguing of every
particular in the drawings of young
children, our examination of 8000 or
so of these drawings on microfiche
failed to reveal a trace of our evanes-
cent friend.

In Claire Golomb's (1974) study of
the drawing and modeling in pla-do of
three hundred children between the
ages of two and seven in the United
States and Israel, the profile is given
only passing mention. She states that
there is some consideration given by

Two-Eyed Profile: Influence 25

the children to the drawing of profiles
(p. 119), but if the profile was at-
tempted by any of the subjects it seems
not to have merited illustration. Good-
now includes some profile figures in
Children Drawing (1977), but they gen-
erally appear as the running figures of
older children, which action is easier
depicted in a profile view. The turning
of the body sideways, however, is
noted by Goodnow as either a varia-
tion or a small change in a "formula,"
but nowhere in this recent work is
there a two-eyed profile to be seen.
"The little man who wasn't there" is
simply not there!

We have come to the important
question: What is the meaning of this
mysterious disappearance? If the child
had, indeed, been following innate
rules, how could the two-eyed profile
have gone away?

If innate rules become altered, modi-
fied or dissipated over time, why is it
that some seem to have done so and
others to have persisted?

Does the disintegration of this fac-
tual thread in the carefully constructed
fabric of belief about the child's
graphic development mean that the
entire cloth is likely to unravel?

If the explanation given for the exis-
tence of the two-eyed profile by Lark-
Horovitz et al. (1973) — that the pro-
file nose as well as the frontal eyes are
drawn by the child because it is the
most characteristic view — is taken as
true, why is it that the child no longer
includes, in the general repertoire of
her developing graphic schema, the pro-
file with either one or two eyes?

If, as Lowenfeld claimed, the child
includes both the profile nose and
frontal eyes because all are of equal
significance to the child, could they
have now become less significant?

If, as Partridge theorized, children
have a natural tendency to turn the
figure sideways, why now has it be-
come (according to Goodnow) merely
a "variation" in a "formula"?

If, as Sully supposed, the child draws

the profile nose because of the diffi-
culty of drawing the nose front-view,
has the child become more proficient
or the task less difficult?

If, on the other hand, the two-eyed
profile could be interpreted as a ran-
dom spontaneous occurrence, how
does this explain the high percentages
of occurrence in 1887 and would not
the two-eyed profile occur today in
drawings of humans with some fre-
quency?

All of this leads us to two further
questions: Of what, then, was the two-
eyed profile a result? Where did it
come from and why has it disap-
peared?

The coming and going of the two-
eyed profile would seem to have some
profound implications for theories of
graphic development.

The first conclusion we must come
to is that the two-eyed profile is not
merely an innate factor, as Barnes and
the rest would have it. If, as we have
shown, the two-eyed profile existed
in such astounding numbers in West-
ern Europe, England and the United
States in the late 19th and early 20th
centuries, and it has now disappeared,
then we must conclude that we are
seeing the result of some factor other
than the innate — an influence factor
that was operative at first and later
ceased to function.

It is important at this point to specu-
late about what the conditions for the
proliferation, the subsequent minimi-
zation and eventual demise of the two-
eyed profile might have been.

As we have already noted, the data
that might have disclosed the begin-
nings of the two-eyed profile have
been buried in the past. Although we
do not know of its precise origins,
there are a few possibilities worth
noting:

The contradictions referred to by
Luquet as "rabattement" which appear
in the stage of intellectual realism in
the child's graphic development, do,
in fact, occur spontaneously in the

26 M. Wilson, B. Wilson

drawings of children in the form of
aerial views, transparencies and other
such phenomena. We see, too, the
depiction of a cart or vehicle in a
splayed view, displaying four wheels,
two on top and two on the bottom, as
related to the two-eyed profile; while
the two-eyed profile, itself, appears
frequently in the child's depiction of
fish and animals that are traditionally
shown in a profile view. One such de-
piction appears among Heidi's many
renditions of a horse (Fein, 1976, p.
29). In addition, although appearing
infrequently as does the two-eyed pro-
file as we have described it, the mixed
profile of today, e.g., head and body
front; legs profile, is a similar manifes-
tation. (Even these anomalies however,
show some evidence of becoming less
frequent in the drawings of media-in-
fluenced boys.)

What may we infer from these spon-
taneous occurrences? Earlier we ad-
vanced the question that, if the two-
eyed profile could be interpreted as a
random spontaneous occurrence, then
how might we account for the high in-
cidence of two-eyed profiles in 1887
and for the absence of occurrence in
drawings of humans at the present
time. Here we will attempt to answer
that question.

Wilson and Wilson have earlier
(1977) made the assertion that the
drawings of children are affected by
influences of the culture, of objects
in the phenomenal world (1980) but
primarily and most importantly that
the drawings of children are influenced
by the drawings of children. Given the
fact of the spontaneous occurrence
of the two-eyed profile, might we not
assume that the two-eyed profile that
was so prevalent in the early part of
the century was a result of a spontane-
ously occurring phenomenon, appear-
ing in the work of some children, that
was passed on to other children? Even
so, could such an influence alone ac-
count for the extensive appearance of
the two-eyed profile in Western Eu-

rope, England and the United States?
Certainly inquiry into the functioning
of the spontaneous occurrence of the
two-eyed profile in the drawings of
some children today would reveal little
or not influence on the drawings of
other children. In fact, given no re-
inforcement and in the presence of a
multitude of options, these oddities
seem simply to remain with the origi-
nator, who plays with them for awhile
and then moves on to other images.
But this was surely not always the
case; even such insidious imports as
the Japanese beetle and the Russian
flu would cease to flourish if the fertile
conditions for their survival did not
prevail. Let us, then, speculate as to
what the fertile conditions for the pro-
liferation of the two-eyed profile might
have been. Before we do, however, we
would like to contemplate one aspect
of the suggestibility or model-ability
of certain images. How, for example, it
happens that we see certain motifs re-
peated over and over again as we study
children's drawings, e.g., the rectangu-
lar house with triangular roof and per-
pendicularly-oriented chimney, with or
without curling smoke. We do not con-
sider the appearance of the house and
other such configurations to signal a
separate stage in the child's innate
graphic development, as the appear-
ance of the two-eyed profile was
thought to do, and yet, both images
would seem to have been innately de-
rived, that is, derived through the ap-
plication of innate rules. We will show
in another paper, however (Wilson and
Wilson, 1980), the persistence of prin-
ciples that are known to be innate even
in the presence of factors that strongly
influence images otherwise, as found
in the drawings of children and adults
alike. It is the interplay of the innate
and the influence factors that we be-
lieve to have been operating in the
enduring life of the two-eyed profile
and that those things that are closest
to the innate, such as the spontane-
ously-occurring two-eyed profile are

Two-Eyed Profile: Influence 27

most readily, easily and naturally mod-
eled from one child to another. In
conjunction with the essential pre-
disposition of the two-eyed profile to
be modeled, then, we need to examine
the circumstances that might account
for the escalation of the two-eyed pro-
file to the position of so powerful and
dominant a model.

First we need to consider the state
of children's art about 100 years ago:

The concept of child art is one of
our own making, an invention that
occurred at the end of the 19th cen-
tury. Before that time child art as we
know it did not exist. There would
have been little drawing and little
encouragement to draw in the home.
The drawing done in schools was de-
scribed as highly structured: the
thought of that day was that "the ma-
terial best suited for originating art
instincts consists of the dislocated
parts of conventional designs and the
typical geometrical forms . . ." (Burk,
1902, p. 323). Spontaneous drawing
was surely not fostered, but Ricci him-
self supplied evidence of its presence
in 1882. His discovery of the drawings
of children on a remote portico wall
bespoke a sort of 19th century graffiti,
described, in the case of the older
children, as "hardly what could be
considered chaste . . . inspired by an
extremely crude realism'' and leaving
little doubt that spontaneous drawing
did exist. We might note, also, that
Franz Cizek, the so-called father of
child art, was observing at almost the
same time — Vienna in 1885 — young
boys making drawings with chalk on
a wooden fence, at times even fighting
over the ownership of the space (Viola,
1936, p. 12) — the now famous inci-
dent that led to his discovery of child
art. In search of truly spontaneous
drawings, Luquet, in fact, made copies
of children's drawings he had found
on walls in disparate locations in
France in the early part of the century,
drawings that he labelled graffiti, and
giving some hint of the prevalence of

the pre-twentieth century practice of
drawing on walls. And what did chil-
dren draw on walls and elsewhere?
Luquet shows the human figure. The
studies of Ricci and Barnes, of Sully
and Rouma and the rest attest to the
fact that the figure played a large part
in the early drawings of children. An
1895 (Maitland, cited in Burk, 1902)
study shows a marked preference by
children, when drawing "to please
themselves," for drawing the human
figure over animals, plants and houses.
The decline in interest in drawing the
human figure and the preference for
still life and geometric design after
the age of eleven demonstrated in
those same tables, indicates what we
know to be the case — that "after the
age of eight or nine, it seems that the
difficulty of representing begins to be
really appreciated and there is less
confidence and satisfaction in the
work" (report to N.E.A., O'Shea, 1894).
Where, then, could children learn to
satisfactorily represent the human fig-
ure? To whom did they turn? We might
assume a situation of this kind:

We have all been told of the scarcity
of paper in the early part of the century.
With this commodity in such short sup-
ply there was certainly not the oppor-
tunity for the child to spend innumer-
able hours engaged in the practice
and perfection of imperfect schemata
that we are able to witness with the
cheap and abundant resources avail-
able today in the form of notebook
paper, long computer print-out sheets
and even, as Gardner describes, galley
proofs (1980, p. 100). And even if such
paper had been available for these pur-
suits, there would have been few mod-
els. We can assume that adults were
exerting little or no influence on chil-
dren's drawings; furthermore, media
models in the way of periodicals, pic-
ture books or Sunday comics were
meager. Kerschensteiner's study pro-
vides us with some interesting data
in this regard. In addition to other
facts that he felt to be of some signifi-

M. Wilson, B. Wilson

Figure 5. Luquet's drawings of figures found on walls. Early twentieth century, France.

cance such as sex, age, and school
grade of each of his subjects, Ker-
schensteiner carefully made note of
whether or not the child had bilder-
buch or picture books in the home. We
have been led to wonder whether, by
presenting this information as he did,
he might have been, consciously or
unconsciously, reflecting a view of the
way in which picture books may have
influenced children's drawing. An ex-
amination of these data shows that
70% of the children who drew two-
eyed profiles had no picture books,
while only 34% of the others were
reported to have been without picture-
books.

Faced with the paucity of adult mod-
els, the children drawing on walls and
fences would have found their models
in the drawings with which they were
most familiar and which were avail-
able to them. Ricci described his por-
tico wall as displaying the drawings of
the older children in a higher position
while the works of the "youngest ar-
tists" appeared "lowest down on the
wall." We may assume that the younger
children modeled their drawings on
those higher up on the wall, those of
the older children. Cizek's Austrian
Tom Sawyers, too, would have in-
cluded older and younger children
drawing together on the fence. We
find that in some of our research with

the graphic dialogue, when adults
draw on the same page with children
as well as when children draw with
other children, there is a good deal
of emulating taking place, so much so,
that, at times, it becomes difficult to
separate one set of drawings from an-
other. Children, then, would appear
to have been mainly influenced by
other children, the younger by the
older, the older by their peers, lead-
ing to greater and greater degrees of
homogeneity until the drawings would
have become highly homogeneous,
this homogeneity bringing about the
proliferation of such spontaneously-
occurring images as the two-eyed pro-
file. '

If this explanation does, indeed, ac-
count for the appearance of the two-
eyed profile, then how can we account
for the fact that, by the 1920s its ap-
pearance had diminished until it has
now totally disappeared? Where has
it gone? We need to note one other
important fact. Each of the researchers
we have mentioned had concluded, as
had Dale Harris (1963) much later in
the century, that the two-eyed profile
preceded and was the result of a failed
attempt to draw — the profile. There-
fore, the profile proper appears to have
exerted a great deal of influence and
to have been modeled by the child as
the most characteristic view — from

Two-Eyed Profile: Influence 29

other art sources? from popular 19th
century media? we do not know for
sure — but surely the greater the in-
cidence of the profile, the greater the
incidence of the two-eyed profile.

If, then, the original problem that
we set for ourselves, What caused the
mysterious disappearance of the two-
eyed profile? can be answered by pre-
suming that the disappearance of the
two-eyed profile coincided with the
disappearance (or at least the decline)
(Table 1) of the profile, then we need
to ask, as well, What ever happened to
the profile? Assuming, as we have, that
cultural conditions — the lack of op-
portunity and encouragement to make
spontaneous drawings, the rigid art
lessons taught in schools, the lack of
easily available materials and the pro-
liferation of profile models — led to
the birth of the two-eyed profile, then,
surely cultural conditions would have
led to its demise as well. A first step
would be to chronicle the decline of
the profile model as the most charac-
teristic view. If, in the 1840's, Godey's
Ladies stood alone, clad decorously
in their lavish bonnets, gazing primly
only to the right or very nearly so, the
end of the century and the advent of
new printing technology supplied them
with a good deal of company. With the
rise of illustration in the popular media,
and following in the tradition of Chari-
vari, founded in Paris in 1838; Punch,
in London in 1841; Le Rire in Paris
and The Yellow Book in London in
1894; Simplicissimus in Germany, each
featuring cartoons by such notables
as Daumier, John Tenniel, Toulouse-
Lautrec, Aubrey Beardsley, Rowland-
son and George Grosz, the early 1900's
in America saw the appearance of the
daily comic strip (Robinson, 1974).

Not unlike the child of today, who,
Hulk-like, flexes his muscles, makes
growling noises and dreams of making
off with his mother's green food color-
ing, and the Superman-inspired child
of the 40's who, arrayed with nothing
but chutzpah and a bedsheet for a

cape, made more than one calamatous
jump from the roof, the child of 1903
and 1904 was presented with all man-
ner of models to emulate. And the
first and most popular strips featured
kids, outrageous kids — The Yellow
Kid, The Katzenjammer Kids, Buster
Brown and Little Nemo — a glorious
pastiche of fantasy and pranks and non-
sense to capture any child's fancy and
to satisfy his wildest dreams. The fore-
runner of the movie cartoon, these
kids were always in a state of anima-
tion; they ran, jumped, swam, flew and
somersaulted daily through their vari-
ous adventures, and one could not say
of them, as of earlier static illustra-
tions, that there was one character-
istic view. Like the compelling image
of the two-eyed profile before him, the
cartoon kid appealed to the graphic
spirit of the child. He was presented
with clarity, simplicity and charm; he
was humorous and outrageous and
appealing, and many were not terribly
far removed from the graphic forms of
which the child was already capable.
Today we have in this genre Snoopy
and Charlie Brown. Kids love them;
they are easy to reproduce even by
those with limited means, and although
art teachers abhor them, there is no
question that they are infinitely model-
able — as was Henry and Popeye and
The Yellow Kid.

What is truly amazing is the absolute
power of images such as these. It
would seem to us that if anything is to
be learned from the meteoric rise and
fall of the two-eyed profile, it is that,
in order to realize an adequate theory
of graphic development, we will need
to pay attention to both of the factors
that appear to be operating in that
sphere — the innate and the influence.
How do these two factors function in
the developmental scheme vis-a-vis
the two-eyed profile? We will offer
these three hypotheses: 1) When adult
influence is less extensive, then child
influence will be greater. These child in-
fluences, which are highly depen-

M. Wilson, B. Wilson

dent on the innate factor, are generally
narrower. 2) When the child influence
is greatest, options are fewest; thus
there is the greatest homogeneity of
figures in drawings. 3) When adult in-
fluence is greater, more options result
from the number of models available,
leading to greater variability in chil-
dren's drawings — and less modeling
of the innately derived images.

What may we conclude from all of
this? What does it mean? Why attach
any importance to the meteoric rise
and fall of so seemingly insignificant
a figure?

Conclusion

Since Ricci's early discovery of the
drawings of children, it has been the
popular view that children's drawings
are the same throughout the world;
all children everywhere initially draw
upon the same natural, creative and
generative resources for their images.
In charting the mysterious disappear-
ance of the two-eyed profile, we hope,
once and for all, to have dispensed
with the idea that little children are
graphic virgins.

The two-eyed profile was perhaps the
most striking anomaly to study. How-
ever, we could as easily have studied
the rise and fall of such features, in the
drawings of the children of the late
nineteenth and early twentieth cen-
turies, as ladder mouths, the two-
cheeked smile mouth, the astonishing
range of parentheses eyes, the profile
head very nearly filled with one heavily-
lashed front-view eye, the crossed arms
transparency, the arms from the neck
phenomenon, the garden-rake hands,
the urn-shaped, milk-bottle-shaped,
Christmas-tree-ornament-shaped bodies
and on and on. None of these appear
today with any more frequency than
does the two-eyed profile.

We might speculate that, one hun-
dred years from now, a group of in-
vestigators into the origins of chil-
dren's drawings will smile about green

creatures with bulging biceps and
caped men who appear to fly through
the air; and they will see yet another
influence in operation. Even more im-
portantly, at a time when it seems to
be acceptable in some quarters to
claim that older children are influ-
enced in their quest for graphic real-
ism (Gardner, 1980), we wish to place
the influence factor at the very genesis
of childhood graphic form — with the
four-year-olds and the three-year-olds
and perhaps even earlier — to say that
any theory of graphic development
must surely account for the effects of
influence from the beginning. The very
appearance of the two-eyed profile in
the drawings of the youngest children
provides evidence of the early exis-
tence of this influence. But in what
form do these factors exist, and how
do they function in the larger develop-
mental scheme? Let us answer these
questions in another paper. . . .

References

Barnes, E. A study on children's drawings.
The Pedagogical Seminary, 1892, II, 455-
466.

Burk, F. The genetic versus the logical order
in drawing. The Pedagogical Seminary,
1902, 9, 296-323.

Fein, S. Heidi's horse. Pleasant Hill, CA:
Exelrod Press, 1976.

Gardner, H. Artful scribbles: the signifi-
cance of children's drawings. N.Y.: Basic
Books, Inc., Publishers, 1980.

Golomb, C. Young children's sculpture and
drawing: a study in representational de-
velopment. Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard
University Press, 1974.

Goodnow, J. Children drawing. Cambridge,
Mass.: Harvard University Press, 1977.

Harris, D. B. Children's drawings as mea-
sures of intellectual maturity. N.Y.: Har-
court, Brace and World, Inc., 1963.

Kellogg, R. Analyzing children's art. Palo
Alto, California: Mayfield Publishing Co.,
1969.

Kerschensteiner, D. G. Die entwickelung der
zeichnerischen begabung. Munich: Ger-
ber, 1905.

Lark-Horovitz, B., Lewis, H. and Luca, M.
Understanding children's art for better

Two-Eyed Profile: Influence 31

teaching, 2nd Ed. Columbus, Ohio:
Charles E. Merrill Books, Inc., 1973.

Levinstein, Von S. Kinderzeichnunger bis
zum 14 lebensjahr. Leipzig: Voigtlander,
1905.

Lowenfeld, V. Creative and mental growth.
N.Y.: Macmillan Publishing Co., Inc., 1947.

Lowenfeld, V. The nature of creative activ-
ity. N.Y.: Harcourt, Brace and World, 1939.

Lowenfeld, V., and Brittain, W. L. Creative
and mental growth, 6th Ed. N.Y.: Macmil-
lan Publishing Co., Inc., 1975.

Luquet, G. H. L'Evolution du dessin enfantin.
Bull. Soc. Binet, 1929.

Mearns, H. Creative power: the education
of youth in the creative arts. 2nd Revised
Ed. N.Y.: Dover Publications, Inc., 1958.

O'Shea, M. V. A study of drawings of chil-
dren in the schools of Winnona, Minn., by
children from five to seventeen years. Pro-
ceedings of the National Education Asso-
ciation, 1894, 1015-1023.

Partridge, L. Children's drawings of men
and women. Studies in Education. Ed.
Earl Barnes, July 1, 1902.

Ricci, C. L'arfe dei bambini. Bologna: 1887
(Translated by Maitland in Pedagogical
Seminary, 1894, 3).

Robinson, J. The comics. N.Y.: G. P. Put-
nam's Sons, 1974.

Rouma, G. Le langage graphique de I'enfant.
Bruxelles: Misch et Thron, 1912.

Sully. Studies of childhood. (Revised Ed.)
New York: D. Appleton, 1903.

Thorndike, E. L. The measurement of
achievement in drawing. Teacher's College
Record, 1913, 14.

Viola, W. Child art and Franz Cizek. Vienna:
Austrian Jr. Red Cross, 1936.

Wilson, B. and Wilson, M. An iconoclastic
view of the imagery sources in the draw-
ings of young people. Art Education, Janu-
ary 1977, 30, 5-12.

Wilson, B. and Wilson, M. The persistence
of the perpendicular principle: why, when
and where innate factors determine the
nature of drawings. Proceedings of the
National Symposium for Research in Art,
1980.

Marjorie Wilson

Pennsylvania Furnace,
Pennsylvania 16865

Brent Wilson

School of Visual Arts
Pennsylvania State University
University Park, Pennsylvania 16802

32 M. Wilson, B. Wilson

CORRESPONDENCE BETWEEN IMPLIED POINTS OF VIEW AND SELECTED
POINTS OF VIEW IN CHILDREN'S DRAWINGS OF FAMILIAR AND UNFAMILIAR
OBJECTS

James Victoria
Michigan State University

Introduction to the Study

In this study, a random sample of 64
children in 4 age groups (6, 8, 10 and
12 years) made drawings from one fa-
miliar object and two unfamiliar ob-
jects. (Appendix A) The children were
free to manipulate the objects and to
select the viewpoint from which to
draw the objects. The position of the
viewpoint of the objects was recorded.
The viewpoint or direction of implied
view in each drawing was compared
with the viewpoint from which the sub-
ject had selected to view the stimulus
objects.

Data was collected in terms of the
following categories and classifica-
tions:

1. Age and Sex

2. Object drawn

3. Developmental stage according
to Transformation System evi-
denced

4. Drawing Class within a Transfor-
mation System

5. Selected viewpoint relative to
Face or Edge of object

6. Correspondence with viewpoint
or direction of view in each draw-
ing with the viewpoint from which
the subject had selected to view
the stimulus object.

Background of the Study

Willats (1979, 1980) has stated that
traditional accounts of the develop-
ment of drawing ability seem to make
drawing dependent upon some type
of copying or imitation. This is sup-
posed to take place in two main stages.

The imitation of stereotypes by younger
children during the period of so-called
intellectual realism and, the imitation
of appearance of the scene by older
children during the period of visual
realism. If children in the earlier stages
of development of drawing ability have
to depend on stereotypes, then we
might expect that when asked to draw
from an object with which they are
unfamiliar, and for which they have no
stereotype, they would be unable to
make a drawing or would produce the
nearest available stereotype.

Willats (1980) found that when chil-
dren were given both familiar and un-
familiar objects to draw, the younger
children were able to draw the unfa-
miliar objects as freely and easily, at
about the same age, and using the
same kind of drawing systems, as they
were able to draw the familiar ones.
This seems to show that young chil-
dren, although they may sometimes
use stereotypes, do not have to de-
pend on using them. If older children
draw by copying the appearance of the
scene, then they should be able to
draw unfamiliar objects by imitation
as easily as familiar ones. Willats found
that older children around the ages of
10 or 11 passed through a stage in
which they produced drawings which
contained "mistakes" — mistakes
which are clearly mistakes in the use
of drawing "rules" rather than mis-
takes in imitating the appearance of

Additional unpublished graphic materials
supporting this research are available from
the editorial office of the Review of Research
in Visual Arts Education.

Appendix A

the scene. This seems to show that for
older children, as well as for younger
children, imitation does not play an
important part in the acquisition of
drawing ability.

However, if learning to draw de-
pends on acquiring drawing rules,
what kind of rule systems are they?
The rule systems we are probably
most familiar with are those of projec-
tive geometry; systems like perspec-
tive, which map spatial relationships
in the scene into spatial relationships
in the picture. Besides perspective,
there are a variety of other projection
systems: orthographic projection
which is used by architects, engineers
and mapmakers, and other systems
such as oblique projection and its
variants, which have been common in
other periods and cultures, and which
appear in children's drawings. Willats
has labled these systems as "transfor-
mation systems" because they deal
with the transformation of spatial re-
lationships.

Transformation Systems and
Drawing Classes

In Willats' studies (1979, 1980) the
developmental sequence revealed in
these drawings could best be de-
scribed in terms of three main devel-
opmental stages corresponding to the
three main types of projective systems:
orthographic, horizontal and vertical
oblique and the various forms of
oblique projection.

In the 1st stage designated by Class
2 — Single Aspect drawings, the child
is able to use vertical directions on the
picture surface to stand for vertical
directions in the real scene, and hori-
zontal directions on the picture sur-
face to stand for horizontal directions
in the scene. Directions in the third
dimension cannot be represented in
this system and are simply omitted
from the drawing. Thus a cube in this
system would be represented by a
square.

The next main stage designated by
Class 4 — Horizontal and Vertical
Oblique drawings, directions in the
third dimension in the scene are rep-
resented by either horizontal or verti-
cal directions on the picture surface.
Since these directions already repre-
sent horizontal or vertical directions
in the scene, one direction across the
surface is made to stand for two direc-
tions in the scene, and the resulting
drawings are often ambiguous. In this
system a cube would be represented
by two squares, either side by side —
horizontal oblique — or one above the
other — vertical oblique.

In the third stage designated by Class
6 — Oblique drawings, directions in
the third dimension are represented by
oblique directions across the picture
surface. This resolves the ambiguity
in the previous system. Drawings in
various other systems — isometric
projection and perspective — may
be regarded as variants on oblique
projection.

James Victoria

The main framework of the develop-
mental sequence could be well de-
scribed in terms of these transforma-
tion systems based on projective
geometry; but many of the drawings
which preceded those in oblique pro-
jections (in terms of mean age of sub-
jects for the class) appeared to contain
"mistakes." One way of describing
these drawings was to say that they
were based on a mixture of different
transformation systems; i.e., based on
a mixture of isometric projection and
horizontal oblique projection. These
drawings are designated as Class 5 —
Near Oblique.

In between drawings in Class 2
(single aspect) and Class 4 (horizontal
and vertical oblique) appeared a large
number of drawings of a type which
have frequently been illustrated in the
literature. These drawings are desig-
nated as Class 3 — Multiple Aspect
drawings. Although this class cannot
be defined in terms of projective geom-
etry, it lies between two classes which
are defined in terms of projective
geometry.

Preceding the drawings in Class 2,
were drawings which consisted of
scribble or closed curved forms. Wil-
lats assigned these drawings to Class
1 — Pre Single Aspect.

Thus we have a developmental se-
quence consisting of six classes, in
which the sequence of classes corre-
sponds to the mean age of subjects in
each class. (Appendix B)

According to Marr and Nishihara
(1977) vision is a process that pro-
duces descriptions of the external
world which are useful to the viewer;
they argue that for the purposes of
recognition, the most useful kind of
description is object-centered rather
than viewer-centered. Object-centered
descriptions are defined relative to the
objects themselves, while viewer-cen-
tered descriptions are defined relative
to the viewer.

As we have seen, Willats has demon-

strated that children's drawings of rec-
tangular objects may be described in
the various systems of projective
geometry, and that as children get
older, they use systems of increasing
complexity in order to produce draw-
ings which are increasingly effective
as representations: drawings, that is,
in which spatial relationships between
parts of the object may more readily
be seen, so that the object depicted
may more readily be recognized. Draw-
ings in all common projection systems,
up to and including "naive perspec-
tive" may in theory be derived from
wholly object-centered representa-
tions. Nevertheless, since the transfor-
mations on which these drawings are
based may be described in terms of pro-
jective geometry, such drawings, in
fact, do imply a particular point or direc-
tion of view; it may be that, particularly
with older children, transformations
from viewer-centered representations,
as well as from object-centered repre-
sentations may play a part in the draw-
ing process. If this is so, then we might
expect as children get older they learn
to place objects in a position which is
useful for drawing, so that there is
correspondence between their selected
viewpoint, and the point of direction or
view implied in the drawing.

Procedures of the Study

In this study, a random sampling of 64
children (age 6, 8, 10 and 12 years) was
drawn from two school districts. Six-
teen children comprised each age
group. Mean ages for each group were:
6 years, 5 months; 8 years, 7 months;
10 years, 7 months; and 12 years, 7
months. Both the 6- and 10-year-old
samples were comprised of 75 per-
cent girls and 25 percent boys. The
8-year-old sample was comprised of
an equal number of boys and girls.
The 12-year-old sample consisted of
44 percent boys and 56 percent girls.

Implied and Selected Points of View 35

Appendix B

CLASS 1

PRE SINGLE ASPECT

Mean Age in Years

5.1

CLASS 2
SINGLE ASPECT

CLASS 3
MULTIPLE ASPECT

CLASS 4

HORIZONTAL AND
VERTICAL OBLIQUE

CLASS 5
NEAR OBLIQUE

CLASS 6
OBLIQUE

■ i ■

'■ ' ■

■ — - — i

i .I

6.6

6.5

7.9

9.6

10.5

11.6

8.7

10.7

12.7

36 James Victoria

The Experiment

A room outside the regular classroom
was used to conduct the experiment
in each of the schools from which the
sample population was drawn (two
elementary and two middle schools).
The room was equipped with a table,
chair and grid at the appropriate height
for each age level. In the elementary
schools, two tables were used: one at
a height of 20 inches, the other at 26
inches. A table height of 29 inches was
used at the middle schools. Children
were able to select the table which
provided the most suitable drawing
position. On the wall was placed a
grid measuring 36 x 35 inches. Each
grid was 5x7 inches. The grid was
four columns wide and seven columns
in height. The grid extended from the
front edge of the table 16 inches. The
drawing surface was a 12 x 18 inch
sheet of white drawing paper placed
at the front edge of the table. A one
inch tape line separated the drawing
paper from an 18 x 18 inch axis sheet,
used for placement of the stimulus
objects by the subject. Each subject
was photographed against the wall
grid to record angle of view and eye
point while drawing each object. One
hundred ninety-two drawings com-
prised the total sample.

Each subject was tested individu-
ally. Upon entering the room, the sub-
jects were told that they would be
given three objects to draw, one at a
time, and that a photograph would be
taken as they drew. They were in-
structed to look at each object and
handle it as long as they wished. After
studying the object, when they were
ready to draw, they were to place the
object on the axis paper in any posi-
tion they found most suitable for draw-
ing. They were instructed to select a
marker and make their drawing. The
subjects were given the stimulus ob-
jects in random order. The objects
were identified as a cube (C), cube with

cube added (C+) and cube with cube
extracted (C-).

After each subject completed each
drawing, the experimentor drew a line
around the stimulus object on the axis
sheet and recorded the faces of the
object relative to the subject's line of
sight.

Descriptive Analysis of the Study

Descriptive analysis of the data was
made for distribution of drawings by
Class and developmental sequence
characterized by three Transforma-
tion Systems, i.e., Orthographic Pro-
jection, Horizontal and Vertical Oblique
Projection and Oblique Projection; for
each age group (N = 48) and the total
sample (N = 192).

For all age levels, 30 percent of the
drawings were assigned to Class 2; 24
percent to Class 3; 11 percent to Class
4; 16 percent to Class 5 and 19 percent
to Class 6.

For categorization of transformation
systems, 53 percent of the drawings
occur in stage I — Orthographic Pro-
jection; 12 percent in stage II — Hori-
zontal and Vertical Oblique; and 35
percent in stage III — Oblique.

For distribution of drawings by Class
and Transformation Systems for each
age level (N = 48), the following results
were obtained:

Table 1 illustrates that for the six-
year-old sample, 33 drawings assigned
to Class 2 — Single Aspect; 15 to Class
3 — Multiple Aspect. All the drawings
in this sample were assigned to Trans-
formation System I — Orthographic
Projection.

The eight-year-old sample illustrated
in Table 2 was comprised of 18 draw-
ings in Class 2 — Single Aspect; 17
drawings in Class 3 — Multiple Aspect;
3 drawings in Class 4 — Horizontal
and Vertical Oblique; 7 drawings in
Class 5 — Near Oblique and 2 draw-
ings in Class 6 — Oblique. 36 drawings
were assigned to Transformation Sys-

Implied and Selected Points of View 37

TABLE 1

Distribution of Drawings by Class and

Transformation System for Six Year

Old Subjects

TRANSFORMATION SYSTEM

CLASS

III

33
15

TABLE 2

Distribution of Drawings by Class and

Transformation System for Eight Year

Old Subjects

TRANSFORMATION SYSTEM

CLASS

III

18
17

7
2

tern I — Orthographic Projection; 3
drawings to Transformation System II
— Horizontal and Vertical Oblique;
and 9 drawings to Transformation Sys-
tem III — Oblique. One drawing was
assigned to Class 1, System I; Pre
Single Aspect, Orthographic Projec-
tion.

Table 3 gives the distributions for
the ten-year-old sample. It shows that
5 drawings occurred in Class 2 — Single
Aspect; 11 in Class 3— Multiple As-
pect; 12 in Class 4— Horizontal and
Vertical Oblique; 13 in Class 5— Near
Oblique; and 7 in Class 6 — Oblique.
For categorization of Transformation
Systems in this sample, 16 drawings
occur in System I — Orthographic Pro-
jection; 12 in System II — Horizontal

and Vertical Oblique; and 20 in System
III — Oblique.

For twelve-year-old subjects, Table
4 shows 3 drawings assigned to Class
3 — Multiple Aspect; 7 to Class 4 —
Horizontal and Vertical Oblique; 11 to
Class 5 — Near Oblique; and 27 to
Class 6 — Oblique. Transformation
System I — Orthographic accounted for
3 drawings; System II — Horizontal and
Vertical Oblique, 7 drawings; and
System III — Oblique, accounted for 38
drawings.

For the category of orientation of
drawings by face and edge to viewer's
line of sight, the following distributions
were recorded. 69 percent of the draw-
ings were oriented by face of the ob-
ject to the viewer's line of sight; and

TABLE 3

Distribution of Drawings by Class and

Transformation System for Ten Year

Old Subjects

TRANSFORMATION SYSTEM

CLASS

III

5
11

13
7

5
11
12
13

16 12

TABLE 4

Distribution of Drawings by Class and

Transformation System for Twleve

Year Old Subjects

TRANSFORMATION SYSTEM

CLASS

III

James Victoria

31 percent of the drawings were ori-
ented by edge of the object to the
viewer's line of sight.

Percentage of drawings oriented to
stimulus objects by face and class to
viewer's line of sight, are the following
for all age groups: Class 2 — Single
Aspect, 38 percent; Class 3 — Multi-
ple Aspect, 35 percent; Class 4 — Hori-
zontal and Vertical Oblique, 16 per-
cent; Class 5 — Near Oblique, 7
percent; and Class 6 — Oblique, 16
percent.

The percentage of drawings oriented
to stimulus objects by edge and class
to viewer's line of sight is as follows:
Class 2 — Single Aspect accounts for
16 percent; Class 3 — Multiple Aspect
accounts for 18 percent; Class 4 —
Horizontal and Vertical Oblique, 0 per-
cent; Class 5— Near Oblique, 37 per-
cent; and Class 6 — Oblique, 29
percent.

Table 5, Distribution of Drawings by
Orientation to Face and Edge by Class
For Six-Year-Old Subjects, shows that
37 drawings were oriented by face,
and of these, 25 were assigned to Class
2 — Single Aspect and 12 to Class 3
— Multiple Aspect. Eleven drawings
were oriented to edge. Of these, 8 were
in Class 2 — Single Aspect and 3 were
in Class 3 — Multiple Aspect.

Table 6 reveals that for the eight-
year-old sample, 39 drawings oriented
to face and 9 to edge. Of those draw-
ings oriented to face, 17 were in Class
2 — Single Aspect; 14 in Class 3 —
Multiple Aspect; 4 in Class 4 — Hori-
zontal and Vertical Oblique; 2 in Class
5 — Near Oblique; and 1 each in Class
1 and 6, Presingle Aspect and Oblique.
Orientation to edge was evidenced in
9 drawings, 5 drawings in Class 5 —
Near Oblique; 1 drawing each in
Classes 1, 2, 3 and 6, Presingle As-
pect, Single Aspect, Multiple Aspect
and Oblique.

For the ten-year-old sample, Table
7 shows 32 drawings oriented to face
and 16 oriented to edge. 5 drawings
were assigned to Class 2 — Single

TABLE 5

Distribution of Drawings by

Orientation to Face and Edge by Class

for Six Year Old Subjects

CLASS

1 2

3 4

FACE
EDGE

25
8

12
3

37
11

TABLE 6

Distribution of Drawings by

Orientation to Face and Edge by Class

for Eight Year Old Subjects

CLASS

FACE
EDGE

2
5

1
1

39
9

TABLE 7

Distribution of Drawings by

Orientation to Face and Edge by Class

for Ten Year Old Subjects

CLASS

FACE
EDGE

7
4

5
8

4
3

Aspect; 7 to Class 3— Multiple As-
pect; 11 to Class 4— Horizontal and
Vertical Oblique; 5 to Class 5 — Near
Oblique and 4 to Class 6 — Oblique.
In drawings oriented to edge, there
were 4 in Class 3— Multiple Aspect;
1 to Class 4 — Horizontal and Vertical
Oblique; 8 to Class 5— Near Oblique;
and 3 to Class 6 — Oblique.

Table 8 shows that for the twelve-
year-old sample, 25 drawings oriented
to face and 23 drawings oriented to
edge of the stimulus objects. In orien-
tation to face, 2 drawings comprised
Glasses 3 and 5, Multiple Aspect and
Near Oblique; 7 in Class 4 — Horizon-

Implied and Selected Points of View 39

TABLE 8

Distribution of Drawings by

Orientation to Face and Edge by Class

for Twelve Year Old Subjects

CLASS

FACE
EDGE

2
9

14
13

25
23

tal and Vertical Oblique; and 14 to
Class 6 — Oblique. Orientation to edge
shows 1 drawing assigned to Class 3 —
Multiple Aspect; 9 to Class 5— Near
Oblique; and 13 to Class 6— Oblique.

Descriptive analysis of Correspon-
dence Between Selected Viewpoint
and Implied Viewpoint for Each Ob-
ject for each age group are illustrated
in Tables 9 through 12.

Distributions relative to correspon-
dence were analyzed relative to the
three stimulus objects — cube (C),
cube with cube added (C+) and cube
with cube extracted (C-) — for each
age group in the sample.

For the stimulus object C, 12 of the
drawings showed correspondence by
six-year-olds; 14 by eight-year-olds; 13
by ten-year-olds; and 16 by twelve-year-
olds.

There was no correspondence for
stimulus object C in 4 of the six-year-
old drawings; 3 of the eight-year-olds;
and 3 of the ten-year-olds.

For stimulus object C-, 13 of all
drawings by six-year-olds showed cor-
respondence; 13 of the eight-year-olds;
15 of the ten-year-olds; and 16 of the
twelve-year-olds.

No correspondence was evidenced
for C- in 3 drawings of the six-year-
old sample; 2 of the eight-year-old
sample; and 1 in the ten-year-old
sample.

For stimulus object C + , 11 of the
six-year-old drawings showed corre-
spondence; 15 of the eight-year-olds;
15 of the ten-year-olds; and 16 for the
twelve-year-olds.

TABLE 9

Correspondence Between Selected

Viewpoint and Implied Viewpoint for

Each Object for Six Year Old Subjects

CORRE-

NO CORRE-

OBJECT

SPONDENCE

C -

C +

TABLE 10

Correspondence Between Selected

Viewpoint and Implied Viewpoint for

Each Object for Eight Year Old

Subjects

CORRE-

NO CORRE-

OBJECT

SPONDENCE

C -

C +

TABLE 11

Correspondence Between Selected

Viewpoint and Implied Viewpoint for

Each Object for Ten Year Old Subjects

CORRE-

NO CORRE-

OBJECT

SPONDENCE

c -

c +

TABLE 12

Correspondence Between Selected

Viewpoint and Implied Viewpoint for

Each Object for Twelve Year Old

Subjects

OBJECT

CORRE-
SPONDENCE

NO CORRE-
SPONDENCE

C -

C +

16
16
16

16
16

James Victoria

No correspondence was evidenced
in 5 of the six-year-old drawings and
one each in both the eight- and ten-
year-old samples, for stimulus object
C + .

The total sample (N = 192) for all
three stimulus objects shows that a
total of 169 drawings evidenced corre-
spondence between selected viewpoint
and implied viewpoint and, that only
23 drawings in the sample evidenced
no correspondence.

Summary and Conclusions

The basic assumptions underlying
this study were that:

1. Drawing of rectangular objects
by children may be described in
the various systems of projective
geometry.

2. As children get older, they use
systems of increasing complexity
in order to produce drawings
which are increasingly effective
as representations.

3. The transformations on which
these drawings are based may be
described in terms of projective
geometry; such drawings imply
a particular point or direction of
view, so that there is correspon-
dence between selected orienta-
tion to face or edge primitives
and the transformations used in
drawing.

4. Children, as they get older, learn
to place objects in a position
which is useful for drawing, so
that there is correspondence be-
tween the selected viewpoint and
the point or direction of view im-
plied in the drawing.

The results of this study support
the assumption that when drawing
rectangular objects, children use repre-
sentations which can be described in
the various systems of projective
geometry, and as they get older, use
increasingly more complex systems.
53 percent of all drawings in the sample

(N = 192) were characterized as Ortho-
graphic Projections; 12 percent as Hori-
zontal and Vertical Oblique Projections;
and 35 percent as Oblique Projections.
Further, for the six- and eight-year-old
samples (N = 96) 87 percent of the draw-
ings were characterized as Ortho-
graphic Projections, the least complex
projection system. However, for the 10-
and 12-year-old samples (N = 96) 20
percent of the drawings were character-
ized as Horizontal and Vertical Oblique
Projections and 60 percent of the draw-
ings were characterized as Oblique Pro-
jections, the most complex projection
system.

The assumption that there is corre-
spondence between face or edge primi-
tives and implied view point as charac-
terized by the projection systems used
seems to be supported. For the total
sample (N = 192) 69 percent of the draw-
ings were oriented by face to the
viewer's line of sight and 31 percent
were oriented by edge to the viewer's
line of sight. Of those drawings oriented
by face to viewer's line of sight, 89 per-
cent were accounted for by transforma-
tions characterized as Orthographic
and Horizontal and Vertical Oblique
Projections. Transformations based on
Oblique Projections accounted for 66
percent of all drawings oriented by edge
to,the viewer's line of sight.

That 88 percent of all drawings in the
sample (N = 192) for all three stimulus
objects evidenced correspondence with
the selected direction or point of view
indicates that most children, when
given the opportunity to position the
objects, will place these objects in a way
that is useful to them in drawing. In ad-
dition, the data shows that by age level,
as the children get older, there is in-
creasing correspondence between
selected direction of view and implied
direction of view in the drawings for all
three stimulus objects. For six-year-
olds, 75 percent of the drawings show
correspondence; for eight-year-olds, 88
percent of the drawings show corre-
spondence; for the ten-year-olds, 90

Implied and Selected Points of View 41

percent of the drawings show corre-
spondence; and for twelve-year-olds,
100 percent of the drawings evidenced
correspondence.

Thus, the data indicates that chil-
dren, as they get older, learn to place
objects in a position useful for draw-
ing so that there is correspondence
between the selected viewpoint and
the point of direction or view implied
in the drawing.

Acknowledgments

I would like to acknowledge research
support for this study from Michigan
State University and to thank particu-
larly John Willats, Faculty of Art and
Design, Northeast London Polytech-
nic, for his helpful discussions and for
sharing with me his on-going research
findings in this area of investigation.

I would also like to express my appre-
ciation to Mr. Frank Philip, Director,
ARTS Project, Waverly Public Schools,
for his cooperation in facilitating vari-
ous aspects of the study; and also the
school administrators, parents and

children for their cooperation and par-
ticipation.

References

Marr, D. and Nishihara, H. K. Representation
and recognition of the spatial organiza-
tion or three-dimensional shapes. The
Artificial Intelligence Laboratory, Cam-
bridge, Massachusetts, 1977.

Willats, J. How children learn to draw realis-
tic pictures. Quarterly Journal of Experi-
mental Psychology, 1977, 29, 367-382.

Willats, J. Implicit rules: some of the truth
about children's drawings. Victoria, J.
and Sacca, E. J. Eds. Presentations on Art
Education Research, 1979, No. 3, 11-23.

Willats, J. What do the marks in the picture
stand for? The child's acquisition of sys-
tems of transformation and denotation.
National Art Education Association Con-
ference, 1980, Atlanta, Georgia.

James Victoria

Department of Art
Michigan State University
East Lansing, Michigan 48824

James Victoria

COMPOSITIONAL DESIGN AS A PERCEPTUAL DETERMINANT
OF AESTHETIC JUDGMENT1

Calvin F. Nodine
Temple University

There has been much speculation
from both artists and art connoisseurs
alike about how compositional design
affects the way paintings are viewed
and judge aesthetically. Typical of
such speculations is one by Dondis
(1973) stating that what holds true for
both complex shapes and complicated
compositions is ". . . the eye seeks out
the felt axis in any visual event in an
unending process of establishing rela-
tive balance" (p. 27). Yet, there is little
scientific evidence to support the claim
of Dondis, and others, who have em-
phasized the significant role that the
eye plays in the analysis of visual dis-
plays, and in particular the analysis of
paintings.

The purpose of my paper is to exam-
ine the relationship between composi-
tional design, visual scanning behavior
and aesthetic judgment. Compositional
design refers to the arrangement of
visual elements — lines, colors and
forms — which make up a painting.
This definition, which stresses design,
reflects the view of the Neotraditional-
ist artist, Maurice Dennis, who said that
a painting ". . . before it is a battle
horse, a nude woman, or some anec-
dote is essentially a plane surface cov-
ered with colors arranged in a certain
order" (Chipp, 1968, p. 94). Dennis'
definition can be applied to more tra-
ditional styles of art by re-emphasiz-
ing the very issue he was fighting
against, the representational signifi-
cance of the arrangement of visual
elements.

For the artists that I chose to study,
visual elements were combined into
forms denoting real-world objects and
events. Thus, emphasis shifts from the

perceptual arrangements of visual
forms to the logical arrangement of
visual content. There has been much
written about this relationship dating
back to the Greeks who thought that
compositional harmony could be ex-
pressed mathematically (Hambridge,
1920). From the Greeks came geo-
metric relationships derived from the
Golden Section (Boas and Wrenn,
1964). These geometric relationships
were integrated into formal composi-
tional rules by later artists, in particu-
lar, Renaissance painters.

Bouleau (1963) has referred to these
formal compositional rule systems as
"The Painter's Secret Geometry." He
has shown how this geometry influ-
enced not only Renaissance but mod-
ern painters as well.

Bouleau's analysis examines the
thesis that formally-derived geometric
relationships guided the arrangement
of visual content for many well-known
artists. Although his work focuses on
representational painting, he also
shows how the Golden Section has
been used by some nonrepresenta-
tional painters (e.g. Modrian).

Although Bouleau's thoughtful anal-
ysis of paintings provided me with a
scientific basis for testing the rela-
tionship between compositional de-
sign and looking behavior, the inspira-
tion for this paper really came from
Isabel Bishop, a well-known New York
figurative painter. It was she, through
her paintings, who first introduced me
to the significance of the golden sec-
tion. She believes that the diamond
formed when strings are stretched di-
agonally across her rectangular canvas
and the square within it reveals ". . .

an especially significant area in the
content of a picture." (Lunde, 1975,
p. 73). You will see one of her paintings
later.

There have been a number of scien-
tific studies of the way that people look
at paintings. Probably the best known
studies are those of Buswell (1935) and
Brandt (1945) who recorded eye move-
ments of subjects as they looked at a
variety of visual displays among which
were paintings. Buswell distinguished
two types of fixations as the eye ana-
lyzed a painting: survey fixations which
occurred early and were designed to
provide a general characterization of
the painting; examination fixations,
usually of longer duration, concen-
trated on visual features. More recent
evidence by Antes (1974) and my own
research (Nodien, Carmody & Kundel,
1978; Nodine, Carmody & Herman,
1979) suggest that survey fixations not
only serve to provide an overall char-
acterization of the painting but also
serve to define clusters of interrelated
visual elements which are then sub-
jected to a detailed analysis by longer-
duration examination fixations.

None of the above-mentioned studies
have actually manipulated the design
of a painting in order to see how it
affects the way the eye analyzes the
painting, or how this analysis is linked
to judgments as to which design is
more pleasing aesthetically. The pres-
ent study remedies this shortcoming
by focusing on the relationship be-
tween looking and judging. It asks first,
how the ordering of visual content in-
fluences the viewer's pattern of atten-
tion, and second, whether this pattern
of attention reflects an analysis of per-
ceptual relationships used in making
aesthetic judgments.

The present study, more specifically,
compares the visual scanning behavior
to two paintings having identical visual
elements but different compositional
arrangements. This was accomplished
by experimentally manipulating the
visual elements in a group of paintings

selected on the basis of Bouleau's
analyses. The manipulation consisted
of changing the relationship among
visual elements by cutting the paint-
ings apart, re-ordering the parts, and
pasting them back together. This ma-
nipulation had the effect of producing
a new composition having the same
visual elements as the original paint-
ing. The proportions of the painting
remained relatively unchanged. Only
the design changed. The effect, as you
will see, was to produce a set of paint-
ings in which new relationships among
visual elements changed the repre-
sentational significance of the com-
positions.

Method

It is the relationship between the de-
sign and content of visual elements —
the unique mapping of visual content
on to a formal geometric structure —
that unifies a painting compositionally
according to Bouleau's analysis. This
relationship is examined in his anal-
ysis of Seurat's painting, La Parade,
chosen for the study because of Seu-
rat's strict adherence to geometric
formalism in the design of his paint-
ings. I shudder to think what Seurat
would have said about my altered ver-
sion which destroys the balance among
visual elements so carefully worked
out in the original. The original and
altered versions of La Parade are
shown in Figure 1. For the moment,
ignor the broken vertical lines and
numbers. I shall return to them later
when I discuss the results. Two more
of Seurat's paintings were also used
in the study. One was The Models
shown in Figure 2 in the original and
altered version. The other pair con-
sisted of two sketches for La Grande
Jarre: an early sketch and a final sketch
shown in Figure 3. The alterations in
this case were done by the artist, of
course.

Two other paintings were altered.
One was Isabel Bishop's Five Women

Calvin Nodine

Fig. 1 — La Parade

-3 +4 -6 +9 -2 0

Fig. 2 — The Model

Fig. 3 — La Grande Jatte

Walking #2 shown in Figure 4 in the
original which displays the formal sym-
metry that her paintings are known for,
and my alteration which breaks up this
formal symmetry. The diagonal lines
to the square and rectangle reveal the
diamond which, according to Bishop,
plays a key role in the analysis of the
composition by the eye by virtue of its
likelihood of receiving the viewer's
early attention (Bishop, 1980).

The fifth painting, again chosen for
its expression of formal symmetry,
was Piero della Francesca's Flagella-
tion shown in the original form and
altered form in Figure 5. In this case
the alteration deletes a key composi-
tional element from a representational
standpoint, the Flagellant, without
which the narrative sense of the paint-
ing is lost. The formal symmetry is
also taken out of balance by the re-
moval of the space occupied by the
flagellant which changes the propor-
tions of the architectural structure

Composition as Perceptual Determinants 45

0.1 2 3.45

0 +6 -4 +8 -1 -5 -4

Fig. 4 — Five Women Walking #2

+1 -17 +9 +1 +8 -1

Fig. 5 — The Flagellation

housing the group of figures on the
left containing Christ.

The five pairs of paintings were
shown to eight adult subjects. All but
two of these subjects were either sci-
entists or engineers. An artist and art
educator completed the sample.

The two versions of each painting
were presented sequentially, the order
of the original and altered versions
being counterbalanced over subjects.
Subjects were given 5 seconds to veiw
each version of the pair. Following
presentation, subjects were instructed
to judge which of the two versions
represented a more harmonious ar-
rangement of visual elements and sub-
ject matter and to explain the reasons
for their choice.

As the subjects looked at the paint-
ings, their eye movements were re-
corded using a Biometrics eye-move-
ment monitor interfaced to a PDP 1 1/40
computer.

The eye movement monitor con-
sisted of two infrared sensors attached
to a pair of spectacles. The right sen-
sor measured horizontal movements
and the left sensor measured vertical
movements. The subject's head was
held stationary by a combination head-
holder and bite-board. Movements of
the eyes were sensed and translated
into voltage changes which were then
digitized and interpreted as changes
in fixation or attention within the field
of view. A more technical discussion
of the eye-movement system is pre-
sented in Carmody, Nodine & Kundel
(1980).

During the 5 seconds in which sub-
jects viewed each version of a paint-
ing, shifts in attention produced unique
fixation patterns. For analysis pur-
poses, these fixation patterns were
superimposed over the appropriate
version of a painting. Each version of
a painting was divided into seven col-
umns. The amount of attention in terms
of time spent fixating each column
was determined for each subject.

46 Calvin Nodine

All subjects were required to begin
scanning each picture in the lower
left corner of column 5. This insured
uniformity of starting location and pre-
vented the subject from fixating the
center of the display initially. This pro-
cedure resulted in a bias which in-
creased the amount of looking in col-
umn 5. The attention time in column 5
was corrected by subtracting out initial
fixations.

Results

All of the paintings described above
were designed using formal composi-
tional rules based on the golden sec-
tion. These rules specify potential sites
for the placement of key visual con-
tent, but not the form that this con-
tent will take, nor the order in which
it will be arranged. These decisions
are left to artistic intuition.

Arbitrarily re-arranging visual con-
tent effectively severs logical connec-
tions among visual forms carrying key
representational information. The ar-
rangement of visual content is lack-
ing, and, it is this logical issue that
should be the focus of the subject's
judgments of compositional harmony.

This hypothesis was tested by ask-
ing three questions of the eye move-
ment data. First, how do subjects
start looking at a painting? Is their
initial glance influenced by past experi-
ence, especially after having seen one
version of a painting? Second, how
do alterations in composition affect
the way the painting is viewed? What
shifts in attention occur? Third, how
do changes in the way the painting is
viewed affect judgments of composi-
tional harmony?

The first question asks how past ex-
perience affects the way that visual
scanning is initiated. Does the fact
that Western Painting, which tradi-
tionally arranges key content informa-
tion around the center of the composi-
tion, cause the eye to seek information

in the center of the painting as so many
artists believe?

To answer this question, I looked at
the first four fixations of all eight sub-
jects over all five pairs of pictures, a
total of 80 eye-movement records. The
results indicate that attention shifts
from the pre-determined starting point
in the lower right hand corner of col-
umn 5 (proportion of fixations in col-
umn 5 on fixation 1 was .88), which
all subjects were required to fixate
first, to the center of the display desig-
nated by columns 2, 3 & 4 by fixation

3 (proportion = .72), and to left center
columns 2 & 3 containing Bishop's dia-
mond by fixation 4 (proportion = .64).
Thus, in less than a second, most sub-
jects were fixating the center of the
painting. Although there was some
variability as to whether fixation 3 was
left, right or dead center, there is no
question that an initial looking bias
existed in my subjects for the center
of the painting. From a perceptual
viewpoint, moving the eyes to the cen-
ter would yield more effective use of
peripheral vision allowing an overall
glimpse of the painting which might
be useful in assessing over composi-
tional design.

Interestingly, the initial looking bias
was not altered by looking at first one
version of the painting and then the
otheV. The pattern of the first four fixa-
tions was almost identical for painting
in original-altered and altered-original
sequences.

Fixation data were analyzed by super-
imposing the same six column grid
over each version of the five paintings.
Each column represents a width of 7.2
cm or a 5 degree visual angle. Visual con-
tent in each of these columns was re-
lated to eye-fixation patterns.

Although the initial four fixations
focused on the center of the painting,
fixation patterns during the remaining

4 seconds of viewing differed signifi-
cantly for each version of a painting.
These fixation pattern differences were

Composition as Perceptual Determinants 47

examined by looking at shifts in atten-
tion among the six columns between
one version of the pair and the other.
As expected, shifts in attention were
unique for each pair of paintings. Let
me illustrate.

The first pair was Seurat's Models.
Subjects gave the standing model in
the center a great deal of attention in
the original version as illustrated by the
typical fixation pattern shown in Figure
6A. In the altered version, attention
shifted to the sitting model on the left.
This shift occurred, according to sub-
ject explanations, because of the un-
natural perspective of the room that,
unknown to them, resulted from my re-
versing right and left halves of the
painting so that the back wall on the
right side of the original became left
front wall of the altered version and
vice versa. All eight subjects who chose

the original remarked about this per-
spective problem, a representational
issue that detracted from the composi-
tional harmony of the altered. Their
shifts in attention from the original to
the altered version measured as per-
cent viewing time and percent change
in viewing time in columns 0-6 are
shown below the original and altered
versions of each painting in Figures 1-5.
The top row gives the percent of fixa-
tion time in each column for the origi-
nal. The bottom row gives the percent
change in fixation time from original
to altered version. Returning to Figure
2, the numbers below the altered ver-
sion indicate that both of the sitting
models received more attention in this
version than in the original version.
Another visual feature frequently men-
tioned was the painting within the
painting of La Grande Jatte which,

Fig. 6A — The Models (original)

Calvin Nodine

along with the standing model on the
right, received increased attention in
the altered version as shown in Figure
6B.

The relationship between shifts in
attention and choices for one composi-
tion over the other was expressed simi-
larly in all of the remaining pairs.

In Seurat's Parade all but one sub-
ject chose the original version in which
the visual elements, according to Bou-
leau's analysis, are carefully arranged
to balance attention among orchestra,
trombone player and conductor. The
percentages in Figure 1 indicate that
in the altered version, attention shifted
to the conductor on the left who is no
longer conducting, or to the orchestra
which, by being moved to right center,
steals the solo away from the trombone
player on the far right.

Turning to a more contemporary
painter, Isabel Bishop's painting pro-

duced more disagreement among
subjects about which version is more
harmonious compositionally, and, two
different patterns of looking at each ver-
sion. The altered version was preferred
4-3 with one undecided. Those that
chose the original stressed the geo-
metric balance of movement in the
composition. Those that chose the
altered version stressed the dynamic
feeling of movement associated with
the asymmetrical arrangement of fig-
ures. Attention was shifted between
the three women on the left and the
pair on the right whose walking direc-
tions produced varied patterns com-
pared with the synchronized walking
patterns depicted in the original. Dif-
ferences in choice produced differ-
ences in both patterns of attention,
and change, between original and al-
tered versions. Figure 4 indicates that
attention patterns for both choices

Fig. 6B — The Models (altered)

Composition as Perceptual Determinants 49

focus on the three women in the center
in the original.

The altered version produced dif-
ferences in attention patterns. The
original choice focused on the woman
in purple (second from right) moving
left, which presumably upset the bal-
ance of the composition according to
their preference. The altered choice
focused on the opposition between the
same woman in purple (third from right
row) moving left and the woman with
one black stocking (last on right) mov-
ing right, which created a dynamic
movement-countermovement. This is
reflected in the fixation pattern in Fig-
ure 7. You will also note in Figure 4
that attention within the diamond lo-
cated in column 3, which is a key area
for Bishop, increased with the shift of
the woman in purple to column 3 in
the altered version.

Moving back in time to the Renais-
sance, Piero della Francesca's Flagel-
lation was the most difficult painting
to alter, and, although the changes in
this picture were generally less notice-
able according to subject's reports,
the alterations nevertheless produced
significant changes in attention refer-
ring back to Figure 5. The original was
preferred over the altered version 6-2.
What is interesting about this painting
is how the artist balanced the three
visually dominant figures in the right
foreground with the group containing
the central action in the left back-
ground by framing the left group within
an architectural space. Many of the
subjects commented on this balance
issue which was noted in both ver-
sions but somewhat less so in the
altered version. The other significant
feature of the composition is the flagel-

Fig. 7 — Five Women Walking #2 (altered)

Calvin Nodine

lant, whose central placement and
raised arm singles him out visually
from Christ and the accompanying
figures. The action represented in the
composition and the recipient of it,
draws a great deal of attention in the
original as the typical fixation pattern
in Figure 8A shows. When the flagel-
lant is removed attention shifts to the
three figures on the right (Figure 8B).

The overall attention patterns shown
in Figure 5 confirm this point. Two sig-
nificant shifts show up when the al-
tered version is presented. First, at-
tention is drawn away from Christ to
the void left by the removal of the flag-
ellant. His removal affects the composi-
tion both visually and logically, since
the actor and action are no longer
present — only the recipient. Subject
attention shifts to column 3 regardless
of the order of the pictures, original-
altered or altered-original; so the ef-
fect is not due primarily to memory
but because of the unresolved action.

Second, the removal of the flagel-
lant changes the actor-action relation-

ship, shifting the bulk of attention to
the three figures on the right. Many
subjects remarked that these three
figures seemed more dominant in the
altered version even though they could
not point to a difference between the
two versions.

All of the pairs considered thus far
have compared carefully planned com-
positions against arbitrary composi-
tions made up of the same elements.
The final pair tested the effect of a
planned change by the artist from an
early sketch of La Grande Jarre to a
final sketch. The two sketches differ
compositionally as indicated in the
overlay shown in Figure 9. The final
sketch is brighter than the earlier one
both here and in the colored original.
More importantly from a compositional
standpoint, Seurat's final version is
more balanced than the earlier one.
He gained this balance by (a) removing
the standing figure and changing the
relationship of the dominant figure
grouping on the right (b) adding a dis-
tinctive form, the lady with the red

Fig. 8A — The Flagellation (original)

Composition as Perceptual Determinants 51

Fig. 8B — The Flagellation (altered)

unbrella, thus creating a central focal
point and (c) making minor changes in
the arrangement of the minor group-
ings in the right central and left fore-
ground.

Which version did my subjects
choose? The final version, 6-2. Atten-
tion patterns (Figure 3) are balanced
between left, right and center in the
final sketch (top), whereas the earlier
sketch (bottom) lacks focus so that
attention is overbalanced on the ends,
leaving a hole in the center.

The results, as far as Seurat is con-
cerned, support his theory of composi-
tion which applies the secret geometry
so systematically. Given his penchant
for science (Homer, 1964), I think he
would have forgiven my brutal treat-
ment of his compositions.

The findings generalize beyond
Seurat, however. The arrangement of
visual elements directly affects the
way the eye analyzes a composition.
Initial fixations (1-4) gravitate to the
left center of the painting due to a

looking bias that reflects a character-
istic of information patterns in pictures
generally. Whether the painter's secret
geometry, which stresses the impor-
tance of the left center of a picture, is
the cause or the effect of the looker's
bias is not clear. However, the left
center area plays a significant role in
establishing an overall impression of
the arrangement of visual information
in a picture.

The model that these finding suggest
is one in which visual structure, atten-
tion and judgments of compositional
design are intimately related.

First, visual structure resulting from
the artist's use of formal composi-
tional rules of the type suggested by
Bouleau, provides a framework for
arranging visual content. The center
of the picture is used as a major focal
point around which visual content is
arranged. Bishop says, ". . . one can
either give this area particular density
and clarification leading to it from the
ambiguous forms and spaces around

Calvin Nodine

Fig. 9 — The Grande Jatte (overlay)

it, or conversely, leave it empty with
clearer forms around it" (Lunde, 1975,
pp. 73-74).

Second, based on an overall char-
acterization of the composition derived
from initial survey fixations, visual
scanning seeks out logical relation-
ships between visual form and content
using long-duration examination fixa-
tions. The result is a unique fixation
pattern with multiple focal points re-
vealing detailed analysis of represen-
tational connections among visual
content.

Finally, from these attention pat-
terns, inferences can be drawn about
the importance assigned to the ar-
rangement of visual content in making
judgments about compositional de-
sign, which can to some extent be
corroborated by subject reports.

This model suggests a number of

interesting questions about other re-
lationships between visual structure
and perception. For example, what is
the nature of the visual-form relation-
ships expressed in non-representa-
tional paintings, and how does it differ
from representational paintings? (An
issue close to Maurice Dennis' heart.)
How does art education affect the
kinds of relationships that viewers fo-
cus on? Our findings suggest that art
training may influence attention strate-
gies.

Footnote

1. Based on a paper presented at the Na-
tional Symposium for Research in Art, Uni-
versity of Illinois, October 7-10, 1980. This
study was performed during a research and
study leave granted to me by Temple Uni-
versity, 1979-80. I wish to express my appre-
ciation to Isabel Bishop for her encourage-

Composition as Perceptual Determinants 53

ment and guidance in designing this study,
James J. McGinnis who helped with the data
analysis, and Barbara Nodine whose edi-
torial suggestions helped clarify my writing.

References

Antes, J. R. The time course of picture view-
ing. Journal of Experimental Psychology,
1974, 103, 62-70.

Bishop, I. Personal Communication, August
30, 1980.

Boas, G., & Wrenn, H. H. What is a picture?
New York: Shocken, 1964.

Bouleau, C. The painter's secret geometry.
New York: Harcourt, Brace & World, 1963.

Brandt, H. F. The psychology of seeing. New
York: Philosophical Library, 1935.

Buswell, G. T. How people look at pictures.
Chicago: University of Chicago Press,
1935.

Carmody, D. P., Kundel, H. L, & Nodine, C. F.
Performance of a computer system for
recording eye fixations using limbus re-
flection. Behavior Research Methods &
Instrumentation, 1980, 12, 63-66.

Chipp, H. B. Theories of modern art. Berke-
ley: University of California Press, 1968.

Dondis, D. A. A primer of visual literacy.
Cambridge: MIT Press, 1973.

Hambridge, J. Dynamic symmetry: the Greek
vase. New Haven: Yale University Press,
1920.

Homer, W. I. Seurat and the science of
color. Cambridge: MIT Press, 1964.

Lunde, K. Isabel Bishop. New York: Abrams,
1973.

Nodine, C. F., Carmody, D. P. & Kundel,
H. L. Searching for NINA. In J. W. Senders,
D. F. Fisher, & R. A. Monty (Eds.) Eye
Movements and the Higher Psychological
Functions. Hillsdale, N.J.: Erlbaum, 1978.

Nodine, C. F., Carmody, D. P. & Herman, E.
Eye movements during visual search for
artistically embedded targets. Bulletin
of the Psychonomic Society, 1979, 13,
371-374.

Calvin F. Nodine

Department of Educational Psychology

Temple University

Philadelphia, Pennsylvania 19122

Calvin Nodine

CHILDREN'S COMPREHENSION OF PHOTOGRAPHIC REPRESENTATION

Harry Beilin

City University of New York

In this paper I describe a program of
research devoted to an understanding
of photographic representation. This
program is motivated in part by the
recognition that in an industrialized
society photographs are so pervasive
as to significantly affect the conscious-
ness and understanding of both adults
and children. Despite the fact that mod-
ern photographic technology has been
with us for at least 150 years and an
estimated billion photographs, if not
more, are produced each year through-
out the world, it is surprising how little
is known of the processes by which
photographs come to represent mean-
ing, communicate information, act as
instruments of social control and ex-
change, and serve as aesthetic objects.
Nor is very much known about how
children acquire the competencies to
extract from or impose meaning upon
photographs, although photographs
are encountered very early in their
lives and are used extensively in their
education long before formal school-
ing begins.

Psychologists and others have for
the most part treated photographs,
either explicitly or implicitly, as though
they functioned in the same manner as
other pictures and bore the same rela-
tion to the objects of representation
and the viewer as other pictures.
Among psychologists, however, Ru-
dolf Arnheim is an exception. He says,
"The photograph has an authenticity
from which painting is barred (1974,
p. 154)," and, "All I have said derives
ultimately from the fundamental pecu-
liarity of the photographic medium. The
physical objects themselves print their
image by means of the optical and
chemical action of light." Thus, "(1)

The picture is coproduced by nature
and man and in some ways looks strik-
ingly like nature, and (2) the picture is
viewed as something made by nature
(p. 156)," and lastly, "(the) conviction
that the picture was generated by a
camera profoundly influences the way
he views and uses it (p. 156)."

To a social critic like Susan Sontag
(On Photography, 1977), there is no
question but that the photograph influ-
ences the manner in which the world
is reacted to; this is quite different
from the influence of other means of
communication, representation and
persuasion. Enough, in fact, to per-
suade her that photography is inher-
ently an evil force in the present social
order, an instrument of perpetuating
the status quo and a means of social
control that robs the individual of the
joy of direct experience, and the social
system of the opportunity for change.

To the art critics and artists of the
1800's, the photograph was suffi-
ciently different in kind so that on its
appearance it created terror in their
hearts and led to Beaudelaire's dra-
matic declaration, "Henceforth, paint-
ing is dead!", even if this reflected at
least a partial misunderstanding of
both painting and photography. From
the 1840's, when modern photography
was invented, until recently (the past
20 years) photography was considered
as only barely qualified to be consid-
ered a legitimate art form for reasons
related, interestingly enough, to dif-
ferences in theories of pictorial repre-

Presented at the National Symposium for
Research in Art conference, "Learning in
Art," at the University of Illinois, Urbana,
October, 1980.

sentation and the relations of such
forms to reality. To put it succinctly,
these questions concern the fidelity
of photographs to reality and their
authenticity as documentation of the
real. In one view, photographs capture
a trace of the object itself. In effect
the photographer and the camera
merely record what is perceived (a
position held by J. J. Gibson). In an-
other view, the photograph is the prod-
uct of the photographer's conception
of the objects of representation. The
photograph does not correspond to
reality but to the schemata (Gombrich)
that structure the picture makers' "dia-
logue with the world" (Worth, 1981).

This fundamental difference in con-
ception of the nature and function of
photographs divides social scientists,
humanists, art critics and others who
have given serious attention to the
nature of photography.

Do the presumed differences be-
tween photographs and other pictorial
forms have a basis in fact and does the
photographic process differ from nor-
mal vision? Photographic representa-
tion differs from seeing and other
modes of picturing in a number of
ways. Vision, for one, is not set in a
rectangular boundary as is the photo-
graph and related modes of depiction.
The photograph shows everything in
sharp focus from edge to edge, which
does not accord with foveal and periph-
eral vision. The black and white photo-
graph clearly differs from the world as
experienced in color, but even color
photographs differ from the experi-
enced color of the world (Snyder,
1980). Photographs differ significantly
from other forms of representation in
having a fixed station point, that is,
they are projections from a single view-
ing position; paintings and drawings
need not be. The photographic image
is inexhaustible in ways no other pic-
torial representation can be, to which
any enlargement of a photograph at-
tests. These differences certainly em-
phasize that the structural character-

istics of the camera (its shape, lens,
etc.) affect the ultimate character of
the photograph and the way it is com-
prehended. But that is not the entire
story, inasmuch as photographic con-
ventions clearly contribute to the crea-
tion and understanding of what the
photograph is intended to convey.
These conventions are evident in the
photographer's manipulation and use
of lighting to affect mood and attitude,
in the darkroom manipulations of mon-
tage, of pose and hundreds of details
upon which an entire industry of photo-
graphic manual publishing feeds. Not
only is the professional photographer's
expertise based on the exploitation of
such conventional knowledge, a good
portion of contemporary photographic
art is derived from experimentation
that leads to the creation of new con-
ventions (as for example in Jerry Uels-
mann's montages, or Steven Shore's
use of color).

Nevertheless, whether the theorist is
a realist or a conventionalist, the view
is shared that in ordinary circum-
stances the beholder views the photo-
graph as portraying a real event having
occurred. This is most striking in those
cases of political dirty tricks in which
photographs are faked for the pur-
pose of embarrassing a political figure
or statesman. There are memorable
examples from many political cam-
paigns. These darkroom manipula-
tions are based on the assumption
that viewers believe that what they
see in photographs is a true depiction
of reality.

Our research program has devoted
two studies to determining some fea-
tures of the child's belief in photo-
graphic fidelity. In the first of these
studies (O'Connor, Beilin & Kose, 1981),
we sought a test of this oft-observed
and commented on phenomenon, in
a condition that would stretch belief
in the authenticity of photographs to
the maximum. We reasoned that if
children could be shown to believe in
the fidelity of photographs when the

56 Harry Beilin

photographs were of an illogical event,
even though subjects at the same time
could view the actual event, it would
be very strong evidence for the exis-
tence of the belief in photographic
fidelity in children. For this purpose
we created an experimental condition
in which photographs depicted illogi-
cal events. We capitalized on the well-
known Piagetian conservation of liq-
uids task, in which liquid is poured
from a low wide container to a tall
narrow one. Children can be distin-
guished by whether they are able to
judge if the amount has been con-
served (i.e., if the amount of liquid is
the same or different after the pour-
ing). If they judge correctly they are
identified as operational conservers;
if not, they are considered preopera-
tional. They might also be transitional
between the two states, but we omitted
such children from our study. Conser-
vation is also manifest in other quan-
titative contexts, and we established
the cognitive level of our subjects in
a pretest by a conservation of number
task. We set up an experiment which
ultimately had four conditions, and
200 subjects approximately 6 years of
age. In the first condition, subjects
were presented with a series of color
photographic slides of a conservation
of liquid task that ended in an illogical
outcome. Either before or after this
viewing, they saw a standard conser-
vation of liquid task with the actual
materials that ended in the standard
(i.e., logical) fashion. After viewing
both they were asked first if they saw
a difference between the conditions
and then which was the way the task
"really" should be if they saw a differ-
ence, either the (logical) materials or
the (illogical) photographs. A sub-
stantial proportion of both concrete
operational (30%) and preoperational
children (90%) reported the illogical
photographic condition to reflect with
fidelity the true condition. The effect
was significantly influenced by the
order of presentation and the opera-

tional level of the child. That is, the
operational level children resisted the
influence of the illogical photograph,
particularly if the real materials condi-
tion was presented first.

There were three contrast or con-
trol conditions in the experiment. In
one, subjects were presented with an
illogical conservation outcome using
real materials contrasted with a logi-
cal-outcome photograph. In this case
fidelity judgments were also affected
by task presentation order and opera-
tional level. In the second, contrast
condition subjects were presented with
two standard materials conservation
conditions, one with an illogical out-
come, the other with a logical out-
come. In this case the choice between
alternatives was random. In the third
contrast, we sought to determine
whether children would have the same
belief in fidelity with drawings of the
conservation task as they did with
photographs. We found some evidence
of an effect, but the pattern of response
to the drawings was different. First,
with drawings no children reported
that they saw no difference between
the two conditions (whereas 30% of
the concrete operational did so in the
illogical photographic condition). Sec-
ondly, with drawings, substantially
more subjects chose the standard logi-
cal condition than was true for the
photographic condition. Thus, while
drawings elicited a belief that they
truly represented what they depict, the
effect with photographs was signifi-
cantly more compelling.

In a further study of photographic
fidelity (O'Connor, 1981; O'Connor,
Beilin & Kose, 1981), we took note that
our first study was based on conserva-
tion task judgments. Such judgments
are dependent to a significant extent,
or so it has been claimed, upon knowl-
edge of the physical properties en-
gaged by that task, such as knowledge
of the properties of continuous liquids
and discontinuous solids. Since such
knowledge could conceivably influ-

Photographic Representation 57

ence fidelity judgments, we wished to
provide a more stringent test of the
fidelity thesis by offering an experi-
mental context in which the task used
required judgments that were more
logically based than those of a conser-
vation experiment. For this purpose
O'Connor used a transitivity task (seri-
ated wooden blocks) in which logical
and illogical photographs of the task
were contrasted with actual physical
objects. (In a transitivity task blocks
of heights A and B are compared and
independently B and C heights are
compared; then a comparative judg-
ment of A and C is sought without the
blocks present.) This transitivity study
shows that, as one would expect, cog-
nitive level has a consistent effect
across both conservation and transi-
tivity tasks, indicating that on the whole
more cognitively advanced subjects
will resist the influence of illogical
photographs and preoperational chil-
dren will not. This result, however, is
affected by presentation order which
interacts with the logicality of the
tasks. To isolate one effect, we found
that when illogical outcome materials
are paired with a logical outcome
photo, subjects choose the illogical
materials as the reality to a striking
extent (up to 80% for the operational
children), irrespective of the task pre-
sented first. By contrast, the effect is
overwhelming in the conservation task,
when the illogical standard materials
appear first; otherwise choice between
the two conditions is random. We are
inclined to interpret this finding as
indicating that the materials them-
selves compel a judgment of reality,
even when the photograph is more logi-
cal and the materials are in fact illogi-
cal. That is, in a highly logically-loaded
task like transitivity, children are in-
clined to trust what is materially pres-
ent and distrust the photograph. When
the task entails more physical knowl-
edge, as in the case with conserva-
tion, they are relatively more likely to
believe in the fidelity of the photo-

graph, especially if the photo appears
first. Children's justifications support
this interpretation, as do some of the
other findings of the study.

A third study, which we consider a
pilot study and will be conducted more
extensively shortly (Pearlman and Bei-
lin), is concerned with what we identify
as "iconic realism." In this study we
were concerned with when and how
children come to an understanding of
the properties of the photographic sur-
face in contrast to the properties of the
object depicted on that surface. The
140 subjects tested were 3-, 4-, and
5-year-olds. They were presented with
photographs of objects, such as, an
ice cream cone, a glass of orange juice,
a lighted candle, etc. The photographs
varied in color (black/white vs. color)
and size (near life size vs. small). The
children first identified the objects and
were then asked whether the object or
its photograph would continue to exist
if its counterpart were destroyed (or
died). Lastly, they had to say whether
certain physical properties associated
with an object were shared by its
photographic counterpart. The ques-
tions were of the type "If you got very
close to this picture, could you smell the
rose?" "If it got very hot in here, would
the ice cream cone melt?" "If I touched
the picture here, would it feel cold?"
etc. The child's responses were rated for
indicated iconic realism by whether the
child attributed properties to the photo-
graph that only the object itself could
have. We see this phenomenon as par-
allel to that of Piaget's notion of nominal
realism in which the child believes that
names have properties of the objects
they label. The results showed that
80% of the 3-year-olds we tested gave
at least 3 iconic realism responses,
30% of the 4-year-olds and 11% of
the 5-year-olds. Neither color nor size
affected the results.

We interpret these findings as show-
ing that children only gradually dis-
cover that the photograph has proper-
ties of its own (i.e., it is made of paper,

58 Harry Beilin

it tears, etc.) and does not share criti-
cal properties with the object it depicts
(e.g., has an odor like a flower). At the
same time there appears to be a tenta-
tiveness about their understanding in-
dicated by the fact that only one child
who thought the ice cream cone pic-
ture would be wet and cold asked if
she could taste it.

A fourth study (Kose, Beilin & O'Con-
nor, 1980) was concerned with the
child's ability to respond to the depic-
tion of arrested action in photographs.
There were 80 subjects, 3 through 6
years of age, who were asked to imi-
tate the actions depicted in a set of
12 black and white photographs. They
were also asked to imitate the actions
of a live model and provided a verbal
description of the photographs. The
actions of the model that were depicted
were somewhat unusual but generally
within the capabilities of the child
(e.g., hands on hips; standing on one
foot). Their imitations were rated within
a range from 0 to 2. For photograph
imitations, 3-year-olds had a mean
score of .36, 6-year-olds, 1.86, a sig-
nificant difference. The live model imi-
tation scores were 1.29 for 3-year-olds
and the 6-year-old mean was 1.97, a
nonsignificant difference. In respect to
verbal descriptions, only 52% of the
3-year-olds could verbally identify ac-
tions in the photographs in contrast
to 94% of the 6-year-olds. Thus, sub-
jects were extracting more information
from the photographs than they could
physically imitate, but at 3 years the
ability to recognize and identify action
information in photographs was far
less than was the case at a later age.
We were interested to know, further,
whether the difficulty in extracting ac-
tion information from photographs was
characteristic of other representations.
To test this we asked another group
of 3- to 5-year-olds to imitate the ac-
tions depicted in line drawings and
dolls set in the same poses as the pho-
tographs. The imitation of both types
of representation (drawing and doll)

was superior to that of the photo-
graphs, with the imitation of the doll
approximating that of the live model.
The data of this study indicate that al-
though very young children (within
the first year) can recognize objects
in photographs, the depiction of action
is a more complex form of representa-
tion and is only progressively achieved.
The final study to be mentioned
(Pazer & Beilin, in preparation) bears
on the relation between photographs
and a person's developing self-image.
Seventy-five subjects at five age levels
were studied: 7, 17, 30, 50 and 75
years. Subjects within each age group
were acquainted with one another.
Five 4 in. by 5 in. black and white
photographs were taken of each sub-
ject in different profile views. Each sub-
ject, a week later, was shown 14 sets
of photographs from that person's age
cohort as well as those of him or her-
self and was asked to rank them within
sets from the most to least attractive.
Each subject was then questioned on
the relation of the photograph to his
or her own attractiveness. Coefficients
of concordance between each sub-
ject's ranking of his own photographs
and the group's ranking of the sub-
ject's photographs for attractiveness
ranged from .001 for the 7-year-olds to
thattof .59 for the 75-year-olds. These
data are interpreted as indicative of
increasing objective self awareness,
in that one's own judgments of attrac-
tiveness come into closer accord with
others' judgments with increasing age.
The reactions of subjects to their own
photographs are of particular interest.
They show that 93% of the 7-year-old
subjects (the youngest) thought their
photographs were attractive. Only 53%
of the 17-year-olds and 30-year-olds,
however, had the same opinions of
their photographs, probably indicating
greater discrimination in their judg-
ments. Only 13% of the 50-year-olds
thought their photographs were attrac-
tive, reflecting, it would appear, in-
creasing displeasure with how their

Photographic Representation 59

physical features are undergoing
change. Most subjects in the 75-year-
old group did not think of themselves
as attractive any longer; however, 87%
of them did think they looked as attrac-
tive in photographs as they did in
reality.

The studies I have described quite
briefly do not exhaust the number in
which we are engaged, but they give
a flavor of the variety of issues with
which we are concerned. Basically
our interests range from knowledge
of how photographs come to acquire
meaning for the developing child, how
the photograph enters into a system
of personal and social conventions,
and what I have not described, how
the photograph comes to serve an aes-
thetic function in the context of the
child's understanding.

photographs. Presented at the Sixth Bi-
ennial Southwestern Conference on
Human Development, Alexandria, Va.,
April, 1980.

O'Connor, J. Representation and transitiv-
ity. Unpublished doctoral dissertation,
City University of New York, 1981.

O'Connor, J., Beilin, H. & Kose, G. The effect
of media on logical operations. Presented
at the biennial meetings of the Society
for Research in Child Development, April,
1981.

Pazer, S. & Beilin, H. The photograph is
"me": Effect of photographs on objec-
tive self awareness. Submitted for pub-
lication.

Snyder, J. Picturing vision. Critical Inquiry,
1980, 6,499-526.

Sontag, S. On photography New York: Far-
rar, Straus & Giroux, 1977.

Worth, S. Pictures can't say "ain't." Versus
12, Proceedings of the International Con-
ference on Semiotics, Milan, 1981.

References

Arnheim, R. On the nature of photography.

Critical Inquiry, 1974, 1, 149-161.
Kose, G., Beilin, H. & O'Connor, J. Children's

comprehension of actions depicted in

Harry Beilin

Graduate School and University Center
City University of New York
33 West 42nd Street, New York, N.Y.
10036

60 Harry Beilin

PROJECT ZERO: THE EVOLUTION OF VISUAL ARTS
RESEARCH DURING THE SEVENTIES

Jessie Lovano-Kerr
Indiana University
Jean Rush
The University of Arizona

Introduction

Aesthetic Education

An artist is a person to whom society
often ascribes a certain freedom of
spirit, who explores and enjoys the
nuances of his or her world, who ex-
periences the satisfaction in creative
energy by expressing personal feelings
and ideas through the disciplined use
of words, paint, clay, music, or other
media. Young people who exercise
their creative and expressive skills will
demonstrate those qualities in all as-
pects of their adult lives, no matter
what their career choices may be. They
will recognize and appreciate unique-
ness and quality wherever they find it
and will become perceptive audiences
who enjoy the arts all of their lives.
Teaching children to respond aestheti-
cally in creating and appreciating art
is generally accepted as a major ob-
jective in art education.

Educators have had difficulty in
specifying the content necessary for
the aesthetic education of children
during their early years. The concept
of aesthetic education was first shaped
at the Whitney Museum Conference
in 1967, held jointly with the Rhode
Island School of Design and coordi-
nated by Harlan Hoffa and Manuel
Barkan. The conference was one of 17
developmental seminars funded be-
tween October, 1964 and November,
1966 by the Arts and Humanities Pro-
gram of the U.S. Office of Education,
under the direction of Kathryn Bloom.
The emphasis placed on research and

deveopment in aesthetic education by
Stanley Madeja at CEMREL, Inc., the
national education research labora-
tory in St. Louis; by Kathryn Bloom
through the Arts in Education Pro-
gram of the JDR 3rd Fund; and by
Howard Gardner at Harvard's Project
Zero are direct outgrowths of this con-
ference that have influenced art edu-
cation through their years of sustained
research, theorizing, and policy state-
ments pertaining to aesthetic educa-
tion. Their goal was making aesthetics
and the arts an essential part of every
child's formal education (Bloom, 1977).

Project Zero

One of the early Arts and Humanities
grants for research in aesthetic edu-
cation was awarded in 1966 to Nelson
Goodman (Languages of Art, 1968) of
the Harvard Graduate School of Edu-
cation. Goodman's final report, "Basic
Abilities Required for Understanding
and Creation in the Arts" (September,
1972), contained seven technical re-
ports on topics such as arts in alter-
native schools, the theory of symbols,
kinds of musical reference, and the
lecture-performance as an instrument
for audience education (Murphy &
Jones, 1976). Goodman's research
generated wide interest among arts
educators and began an investigation
that has continued throughout the de-
cade of the seventies under the name
of Project Zero.

Project Zero, in its fourteenth year,
is unique in art education for its focus,

funding, and tenure. When the project
began, arts education research was in
its infancy. The name was intention-
ally whimsical. According to the proj-
ect's codirectors, David N. Perkins
(The Arts and Cognition, 1977) and
Howard Gardner (The Arts and Human
Development, 1973; Artful Scribbles,
1980), "the zero reflected our starting
point, our pessimistic estimate of the
state of general, communicable knowl-
edge about arts education. The proj-
ect's aim was to attempt a rational
study of artistic activity; from such
understanding we hope to devise con-
crete recommendations for educating
keen ears and eyes, creative minds
and hands from kindergarten to col-
lege" (Perkins & Gardner, 1974, p. 5).

The focus of Project Zero has been
the developmental study of artistic
growth, central to which was "the
ability of persons to use and under-
stand various kinds of symbols. We
focused on symbol use not only be-
cause of its importance in general cog-
nition, nor even because of its often-
neglected role in artistic process; rather,
we held a conviction that, through an
intensive exploration of such symbol-
ization, fresh insights into the overall
educational process might be attained"
(Gardner, 1976b). Project Zero's stated
research goals were as follows:
(1) to analyze and classify the types of
symbol systems and symbolic refer-
ence characteristic of different art
forms; (2) to identify and study experi-
mentally the skills and abilities required
for the understanding and manipula-
tion of art symbols; and (3) to investi-
gate methods of nurturing and training
those abilities generally and as they
bear upon particular arts. Although the
ultimate goal is improvement in art edu-
cation, emphasis throughout is on long
term, basic research, aiming at clarifi-
cation of issues, identification of prob-
lems, and proposal of hypotheses for
testing (Howard, 1971, p. 64).

Project Zero has continued to re-
ceive more or less consistent federal
funding over the past 10 years from

the U.S. Office of Education, the Na-
tional Science Foundation, and the
National Institute of Education, either
directly or through subcontracts with
CEMREL, Inc. This extended assis-
tance has enabled Gardner and his
associates to conduct longitudinal,
developmental research as well as a
program of sequential, cross-sectional,
time-specific studies of such behaviors
as children's perception of painting
styles or children's understanding of
literary metaphor. Project Zero's con-
tinuity distinguishes it from its con-
temporaries in art research, most of
whom work on a small scale without
support from either the government
or their colleagues, an unfortunate sit-
uation that results in a generally low
and inconsistent output.

Gardner, Goodman, Perkins, and
their associates at Project Zero have
compiled and disseminated a rela-
tively broad body of work. Project
Zero from the beginning has been an
interdisciplinary facility. Its spokes-
men have constructed a thoughtful,
consistent philosophical and psycho-
logical framework integrating litera-
ture from diverse fields: cognitive,
gestalt, and developmental psychol-
ogy; semiotics; philosophy; education;
and the arts. Their mentors include
Nelson Goodman, Rudolf Arnheim,
Otto Rank, Claude Levi-Strauss, Jean
Piaget, and Sigmund Freud. Project
Zero's multidisciplinary teams of re-
searchers have asked questions rele-
vant to developmental and to educa-
tional processes in the arts, a welcome
and innovative effort in both fields.
Researchers have consulted the liter-
ature in these areas in depth and with
considerable insight. They have made
applications to the study at hand with
a sense of the broad dimensions under-
lying this new area and with a gift for
synthesizing fragments of knowledge
into a comprehensive and appealing
design for artistic growth.

The numerous publications from
Project Zero range in subject from

J. Lovano-Kerr, J. Rush

brain damage and aphasia through the
study of symbolic learning, metaphoric
behavior, and the perception of artistic
style. They constitute a coherent body
of material that has shaped the direc-
tion of research priorities and policy
in aesthetic (arts) education to a pro-
digious extent over the past 10 years.

The official list of publications from
Project Zero for the years 1970-1979
contains 150 articles that have ap-
peared in books and journals, six
books written, and three books edited
by the personnel associated with the
project in either single or multiple au-
thorship. Of the 150 articles, Gardner
et al. published 102; Perkins et al., 29;
Goodman, Perkins, and Gardner to-
gether, 3; and 16 were written by other
associates. Gardner alone wrote five
books during that period and edited
three more in multiple editorship;
Perkins edited a book with a col-
league. This is indeed an impressive
record of scholarly productivity.

Project Zero's own subject classifi-
cation of the 150 articles show that
they cluster around the following
topics: brain damage, 32; visual arts,
17; aesthetics, 13; visual perception,
13; metaphor, 12; literary arts, 10; early
symbolization, 8; developmental theory,
7; artistic development, 7; Project Zero,
7; arts education, 7; music, 6; miscel-
laneous theoretical research, 6; crea-
tive and problem-solving processes, 3;
and miscellaneous experimental re-
search, 3.

Project Zero and Visual
Arts Education

The education of visual artists tradi-
tionally has been undertaken by artists,
and this tradition outdates the investi-
gation of artistic learning by psychol-
ogists and educators from other disci-
plines. Empirical research in the visual
arts dates from the end of World War II.
All art researchers, including those at
Project Zero, have borrowed proce-
dures and philosophical models from

allied fields. Some of them have proved
appropriate and some cumbersome
when applied to the visual arts.

The primary spokesmen for Project
Zero hale from outside the profession
known as art education. It comes as no
surprise, therefore, to hear that their
research interests and those of art
educators have often overlapped but
have not always had the same focus.
Because of Project Zero's prominent
interest in the visual arts, its unique
governmental research support, and
its demonstrated influence on visual
art education policy during the past
10 years, a brief review of Project
Zero's publications that touch on the
visual arts may clarify the nature of its
contributions, as well as point up the
discrepancy between its interests and
those of some other art education re-
searchers. Such an examination has
not yet appeared in the art education
literature.

In this paper we review selected pub-
lications by Project Zero personnel.
The review will focus on literature re-
lated to children's artistic development
in four areas: (1) responding to art;
(2) making art; (3) symbol use; and
(4) cultural influences. We have based
our comments on a survey of the litera-
ture dealing primarily with normal pop-
ulations, that treat all of the arts and
the visual arts in particular, and on
evaluations of Project Zero's progress.
This is only about a third of the Proj-
ect's total publications. We have not
dealt extensively with the theoretical
or philosophical constructs underlying
Project Zero research nor, except in
certain particulars, with the careful
attempts to articulate broad models of
artistic development.

Although Project Zero grew from
the work of Nelson Goodman and his
philosophical contributions are evi-
dent, Howard Gardner has clearly set
the pace and direction of Project Zero
with his, his associates', and his stu-
dents' research and the conclusions
drawn from them. Gardner's particular

Project Zero: Evolution of Research 63

interest in the visual arts is evident by
the amount of his published work in
this area. The following remarks, there-
fore, will apply most directly to Gard-
ner's books and articles included in
the list of references.

Responding to Art

Thirteen of the surveyed journal arti-
cles examine children's responses to
viewing a work of art (Gardner, 1970a,
1970b, 1971, 1972a, 1972b, 1972c, 1974;
Gardner & Gardner, 1970, 1973; Gard-
ner, Winner, & Kircher, 1975; Rosen-
stiel, Morison, Silverman, & Gardner,
1978; Silverman, Winner, & Gardner,
1976; Silverman, Winner, Rosenstiel, &
Gardner, 1975). This is a sequential
series; six of the 13 are progressive
empirical research studies that docu-
ment children's sensitivity to painting
style, children's conceptions of the
arts, their development of critical judg-
ment, and the role of texture in picture
perception. This research has led Proj-
ect Zero researchers to construct a
cohesive view of children's develop-
ing visual capabilities when confront-
ing complex figures such as artworks
and to identify features of the pro-
cesses involved. Although the first
study simply attempted to ascertain
children's classificatory behavior and
degree of flexibility at varying develop-
mental levels, questions raised there
led to the formulation of subsequent
experimental tasks that explored the
effects of training on style sensitivity.
This depth of focus is unique in art
education research and deserves our
commendation for setting an example
of continuity, productivity, and contri-
bution to our knowledge of children's
artistic behavior.

Style Sensitivity

To assign a painting to an artist on the
basis of style, a viewer must recognize
certain properties or dimensions that
the works of one artist have in common.

Since each painting is an intricate
entity containing a distinct pattern
of relationships between its elements,
verbalization of style dimensions
often inadequately describes the
visual experience (cf. Arnheim, 1969;
Schapiro, 1972). Some researchers in-
dependent of Project Zero have sug-
gested that adults and children can
learn to make successful style judg-
ments (Bengston, Schoeller, & Cohen
1979; DePorter & Kavanaugh, 1979
Rush, 1979; Tighe, 1968; Walk, 1967
Walk, Karusaitis, Lebowitz, & Falbo,
1971), but most have studied adults
and none has pursued the matter so
consistently as Gardner and his asso-
ciates.

Gardner operationalized style sen-
sitivity as "the ability to group to-
gether works produced by one artist"
(1972c, p. 326). Most of the tasks re-
quired children to sort picture-post-
card-sized reproductions of paintings
or, on one occasion, to view slides
made from these reproductions. Sen-
sitivity was measured by children's
ability to choose an example of a
painter's work from an array of four
reproductions, one of which was by
the target artist and three by other
painters; or children were asked to
pair two pictures by one artist despite
misleading cues. Subjects were upper
to lower middle class children enrolled
in schools in the suburban Boston
area.

In his first study Gardner (1970a)
tested 20 first-graders (6-year-olds),
20 third-graders (8-year-olds), 20 sixth-
graders (11/12-year-olds), and 20 ninth-
graders (14-year-olds) to determine
their sensitivity to individual painting
style. Gardner trained the children to
observe two works by one artist and
then to choose one work by the same
artist contained in an array of four
reproductions. For testing, children
repeated this task 20 times, receiving
reinforcement or corrective feedback
on four of the early trials. By his choice
of reproductions Gardner attempted to

J. Lovano-Kerr, J. Rush

determine whether subject matter
would provide a miscue. Five arrays
contained no recognizable subject
matter (abstractions), five contained
homogeneous subject matter (portraits
of individuals), and 10 contained het-
erogeneous subject matter.

When subject matter was either con-
trolled (portraits) or absent (abstrac-
tions), children of all ages sorted by
style. However, the adolescent chil-
dren (ninth-graders) displayed signifi-
cantly more sensitivity than all of the
preadolescents on items containing a
variety of subjects; younger children
were misled by details of the subject
and mistook them for style cues. Gard-
ner observed that the ninth-graders
may have profited from prior exposure
to art and that the younger children
may have misinterpreted the task. He
acknowledged that the older children
performed better because they already
had a concept of style as features
unique to the work of one individual,
but initially he ascribed this to develop-
mental changes occurring between the
sixth and ninth grades.

Since first- and sixth-graders were
equally misled by various subject mat-
ter miscues in the beginning study,
Gardner modified the original task in
a subsequent experiment with first-
graders (6-year-olds) and sixth-grad-
ers (12-year-olds). To minimize the
misleading effects of subject matter,
Gardner added one test in which chil-
dren identified the original stimulus
cards turned upside down, and one in
which they used the original cards
from which he had removed mislead-
ing examples during training; chil-
dren viewed the more typical work of
each artist, instead of two works as
they had before. The younger and older
children again displayed similar diffi-
culty with subject miscues on the origi-
nal task. The sixth-graders, however,
demonstrated significantly more style
sensitivity than the first-graders in the
two modified conditions. Sixth-grade
girls outperformed boys, replicating a

finding seen in the first study with that
age group. Gardner concluded that the
modifications drew the children's at-
tention away from the subject matter
and improved their focus on features
germaine to style recognition such as
color, texture, and composition. Gard-
ner ascribed the superior performance
of the older children, especially the
girls, to developmental changes asso-
ciated with the start of adolescence.

Gardner and Gardner (1970) then re-
examined style sensitivity on a task
containing deliberate subject miscues.
Working with first-graders (6-year-
olds), sixth-graders (11-year-olds), and
college sophomores (19-year-olds),
they asked subjects to sort cards con-
taining four painting reproductions,
two by one artist and two by a second.
Each pair by each artist contained the
same subject matter. In the first task
subjects were to group together the
cards that they found most similar; in
the second they were to group the
cards according to artist (by style). Stu-
dents of all ages successfully grouped
by subject matter, a strategy that the
authors interpreted as the more natu-
ral tendency and the tendency more
reinforced by cultural factors. The
youngest children again were unable
to ignore subject matter when in-
structed to group according to artist
(painting style). The ability of older
subjects to sort by style was taken to
indicate
their felxibility, alertness to instructions,
and awareness that a person may leave
consistent traces throughout his works
even though manifest subjects matter
and figure are basically altered. Appar-
ently the youngest subjects are lacking
in one or more of these capacities. The
initial study did indicate that when sub-
ject matter was not available as a mis-
cue, young subjects responded much
like older ones. Thus it is conceivable
that younger subjects have the poten-
tial to perceive style but that they are
impeded by their proclivity toward not-
ing subject matter and deeming it a
sufficient (or even a necessary) basis

Project Zero: Evolution of Research 65

for classification. In addition, instruc-
tions referring to works by a painter
may well be devoid of meaning for
young children; in efforts currently
underway to train children to sort by
style rather than by dominant figure,
verbal instructions have been avoided
(p. 15).

No sex differences were noted at
any age level.

Gardner (1972a) then set out to deter-
mine whether second-graders (7-year-
olds) and fifth-graders (10-year-olds)
could learn to sort painting reproduc-
tions successfully according to style
despite misleading subject matter cues.
Gardner hypothesized that either
younger children performed less well
than older ones because of a deficit
in operational thinking, in which case
a training program would be ineffec-
tive, or younger children had diffi-
culty making use of information al-
ready at their disposal, in which case
training might reveal considerable
style sensitivity.

Children sorted sets of four painting
reproductions, two by one artist and
two by another. Each set of four con-
tained two pairs, each pair having one
painting by each artist that shared ob-
vious subject matter (figural prop-
erties). The sets were controlled to
minimize other cues based on color,
size, medium, etc. Children received,
at weekly intervals, a pretest, seven
sessions of unspecified length to prac-
tice sorting paintings either by sub-
ject or by style, a repetition of the pre-
test as a posttest, and then a repetition
of the posttest with instructions to sort
according to the alternate criterion.
The younger children also took four
of Piaget's tests of concrete opera-
tional thought.

Training produced a high level of
sensitivity in both age groups, al-
though the fifth-graders performed
significantly better than the second-
graders. Concrete operations ap-
peared unnecessary for stylistic sen-
sitivity among the younger children,

most of whom sorted well by style but
had not yet reached the stage of con-
crete operations. No performance
differences occurred that were re-
lated to the sex of the participants.
The criterion reversal test revealed
that older children who learned to sort
by subject matter also could sort by
style as well as those trained to do so,
but that the first-graders could not.

Gardner concluded that "style sen-
sitivity may be more closely related
to discrimination learning or to the
discovery of distinctive features than
to class inclusion or conservation"
(p. 613). He noted that "a training
paradigm can alter the basis on which
[children] group works of art" (p.
614), and he continued to surmise that
the superior performance of the older
children appeared due to "the devel-
opmental changes which occur dur-
ing the pre-adolescent period" (p.
614).

The training study allowed Gardner
to observe that the strategies used in
style sorting focused "on the material
within the picture, disregarded] the
most obvious figural aspects, and at-
tended] to corrections" (p. 613).
Global impressions seemed important,
and texture appeared to be a signifi-
cant style cue, a finding that Gardner
later confirmed experimentally (1972b).
Gardner hypothesized (after Lorenz,
1966) that "pre-adolescents can form
Gestalten for certain artists, styles, or
textures" (p. 613) by focusing on the
essential attributes of a class of stimuli.
Gardner distinguished in particular
between sensitivity to objects and sen-
sitivity to persons.
Until middle childhood, sensitivity to
objects appears to dominate over sen-
sitivity to persons, regardless of the
nature of the instructions or task. . . .
one can classify consistently by style
(rather than by subject matter or domi-
nant figure) only when one is, in some
sense, aware that a person can leave
traces of his own behavior in a variety
of places and ways. I also propose that
response to aesthetic objects rests in

J. Lovano-Kerr, J. Rush

part on the knowledge that they were
made by, and expressive of, individuals
(Gardner, 1971, pp. 519-520).

A subsequent training study by
Silverman, Winner, Rosenstiel, and
Gardner (1975) sought "to determine
the steps through which children pass
in learning to sort paintings by style"
(p. 373) and to examine the effect of
style learning on drawing. Assuming
that preadolescent children are char-
acteristically insensitive to stylistic
properties without training, the au-
thors confronted the question of how
style sensitivity might relate to other
cognitive, perceptual, and artistic ca-
pacities. A secondary investigation
concerned whether or not a concept
of style is best acquired by seeing a
broad range of periods and artists or
by seeing fewer periods and artists
but more examples of each.

After an initial pretest to determine
style sensitivity and drawing ability,
four groups of fifth-grade children (10-
year-olds) received the following treat-
ments: two groups learned to sort
painting reproductions according to
style of individual artist, one by look-
ing at a wide number of artists and
periods (extensive training) and one
by looking at a limited number (inten-
sive training); one group learned to
recognize pictures of closely related
animals; a control group received no
training at all. Following treatments,
all children took an extensive and an
intensive style-sensitivity posttest us-
ing Western painting reproductions
similar to those used in training; a
posttest classifying animal pictures; a
style-sensitivity posttest using non-
Western painting reproductions; and
a drawing test.

On the extensive posttest both the
intensive-trained and the extensive-
trained children recognized individual
painting styles significantly better than
the animal-trained and control-group
children, with girls performing better
than boys. There was no significant
performance difference between the

extensive and intensive training
groups, and members of the animal
training group performed only mini-
mally better than children used as con-
trols. On the intensive posttest, how-
ever, the intensive-trained children
were more sensitive to style than were
children in any of the other groups,
indicating that "intensive training with
a few salient painting styles emerges
as a more potent regimen than train-
ing with a wide variety of styles" (p.
378). Some changes were seen in post-
test drawings produced by children
who studied painting styles, chiefly in
more varied use of texture, color ef-
fects, and use of light and shadow, al-
though the results here were not par-
ticularly strong. One reason might be
the confusion reported among the chil-
dren concerning observed differences
between "the small untextured repro-
ductions used in the study and actual
paintings" (p. 380).

Responding to Art: Some
Critical Observations

Gardner's reports of these first four
style studies emphasize developmental
patterns, an interpretation of the data
that, we suggest, may profit from fur-
ther scrutiny. Certain effects ascribed
to developmental changes actually may
be due to the influence of research
methodology, such as the tasks or
training used, the kind and use of
visual stimuli, and method of eliciting
children's verbal responses; or to the
effects of environmental factors, such
as children's cultural backgrounds,
exposure to mass media, or formal
education.

Training. The first study on style
(Gardner, 1970a) suggested that young
children, but not older ones, charac-
teristically classify paintings accord-
ing to subject rather than style, a con-
clusion stated as an axiom in most of
Gardner's subsequent work. This age
group later overcame that tendency as
a result of training (Gardner, 1972a).

Project Zero: Evolution of Research 67

Since we know that untrained adults,
although capable of style distinctions,
recognize individual styles only after
training (Rush, 1979), and that subject
matter also poses misleading cues for
adolescents (Gardner, 1974), lack of
sensitivity to style seems consistent
in all untrained subjects despite age.
Concluding that young children's sort-
ing preferences for subject matter dif-
fer in any respect from adults' prefer-
ences, or that these preferences are a
developmental phenomenon, appears
unwarranted on the basis of Gardner's
own research. Despite evidence to the
contrary, the assumption that young
children are insensitive to style con-
tinues to figure conspicuously in Gard-
ner's recent work.

It seems likely that the so-called in-
sensitivity of the younger children in
Gardner's early studies, particularly
the first three, resulted from the fact
that they were operating without the
benefit of training. In the first study
(Gardner, 1970a), children examined
two examples of one artist's work be-
fore selecting a third on the basis of
style, and they received feedback dur-
ing the early part of the test. Given
later findings that young children per-
formed well with more adequate train-
ing, it might be said that the first study
used an inefficient training paradigm
that penalized younger, less experi-
enced subjects by allowing the prior
education of older children, whether
formal or informal, to influence the
results. Style concepts are learned by
seeing examples, and, as Silverman
and her associates (1975) suggested,
learned best by exposure to many ex-
amples of the same style (intensive
training). Style training in the initial
study was ineffective also in the sense
that, as Gardner observed, the younger
children did not possess the concept
of style as features unique to one
individual.

All of the first three studies (Gardner,
1 970a, 1 970b; Gardner & Gardner, 1 970)
are deficient in these same areas. In

Gardner's 1972a training experiment,
on the other hand, young children
learned both the concept of style and
concepts of individual painting styles.
The criterion reversal test suggested
that the experience of older children
remained an advantage in this condi-
tion, since training in the alternative
way of sorting was minimal.

Given this evidence of the variable
effects of training, developmental in-
terpretation of these data seems ill
advised until training paradigms have
been refined so that their influence
may be identified and sifted out. Gard-
ner, however, has constructed later
experiments around developmental
hypotheses derived from these four
studies, apparently with little critical
evaluation of his research design even
when confronted by his own data. Sub-
sequent work has failed to come to
grips with this essential defect.

Visual Stimuli. The visual stimuli
used in all of the style studies, with
the possible exception of those in the
study on children's conceptions of the
arts (Gardner et al., 1975), have been
3x5-inch color reproductions of paint-
ings. Their limitations also may have
affected children's performance on
style recognition tasks. Calling these
reproductions paintings, for example,
may have caused some misunderstand-
ing on the part of the children to whom
they were shown. Silverman et al.
(1975) reported that many children
"seemed confused about the differ-
ence between the small untextured
reproductions used in the study and
actual paintings" (p. 30), but that their
confusion subsided as training pro-
gressed. Although this issue is not
discussed anywhere in the Project Zero
literature reviewed, in reporting the
results of all of the studies the authors
frequently refer to the stimuli as paint-
ings, an inaccurate use of the word
confusing to their readers as well as
to their experimental subjects. It is
conceivable that children in all of the
studies from 1970 on, expecially the

J. Lovano-Kerr, J. Rush

younger ones, misunderstood this mis-
leading term. Older children could be
expected to know that the painting to
which the experimenter referred was
a much larger real object represented
by the 3x5 reproduction used in the
identification task. Younger children
apparently had difficulty making the
distinction. In Project Zero's recent
study of critical judgment (Rosenstiel,
Morrison, Silverman, & Gardner, 1978)
a third-grader, observing the 3x5 pic-
ture, remarked "it's hard to paint
things so small" (p. 100).

An example of the ambiguity that
these mislabeled reproductions caused
occurs in the later study of children's
conceptions of the arts. Gardner, Win-
ner, and Kircher (1975) reported that
the youngest group, "When presented
with a painting and asked to explain
where it came from" (p. 65), answered
"the factory, ... a store, a book, a
school, a camera" (p. 65). All of these
responses describe reproductions. The
authors, however, considered them to
be immature and concluded that "the
human origin of a painting was not
apparent to these children" (p. 65),
and that they had "fundamental mis-
conceptions about art" (p. 64). Whether
the children viewed reproductions or
actual paintings is unclear, since the
authors cited prior studies in which
the term painting had been used con-
sistently to refer to reproductions. The
authors stated that young children
have "succeeded in . . . grouping paint-
ings by style" (p. 60) and that a "young
child who can look closely at two Im-
pressionist paintings and detect fine
textural differences between a Renoir
and a Bonnard [a reference to post-
card-sized-reproductions] may reveal,
when questioned, startling misconcep-
tions about what a work of art is, how
it is made, or what distinguishes it
from a machine-made or a natural ob-
ject" (p. 60). If Gardner et al. used re-
productions, they misinterpreted the
children's answers; if they used real

paintings, their inaccurate use of lan-
guage obscured that important infor-
mation.

In addition one must question the
meaning of children's responses to
reproductions as small as 3x5 inches
and the validity of generalizing from
them to responses that would be gen-
erated by a real artwork. Visual quality
suffers in any small reproduction, and
the size disparity between Gardner's
stimuli and most real paintings is large.
Evidence of these visual misinterpreta-
tions suggests a weakness in the early
works needing further interpretation
and correction. Children's responses
on future tasks assessing aesthetic qual-
ities might differ if investigators were
to employ real paintings or, at least,
high quality color slides projected
close to actual size.

The study comparing intensive and
extensive training (Silverman et al.,
1975) touched on yet another facet of
style recognition and stimulus use
without identifying it as such. Some
paintings are more typical of a style
than others, that is, they contain more
style information. Paintings from one
artist (Picasso) vary along this dimen-
sion as well as paintings from one cul-
tural style (Cubism). Adults have
greater difficulty in recognizing some
works that others (Rush & Sabers, Note
1), which suggests that the examples
selected can facilitate or hinder style
learning. Project Zero researchers
mentioned this variable but neither
attempted to control it nor discussed
it as a possible source of error.

Prior Experience. Project Zero re-
searchers seldom mention either the
educational environment of its sub-
jects or the findings of other research
on the efficacy of teaching in the visual
arts. The study of children's concep-
tions of the arts (Gardner et al., 1975)
is such a case. Gardner and his asso-
ciates showed children a work of visual
art (whether real or reproduced is un-
clear), read them a poem, or played

Project Zero: Evolution of Research

them recorded music. Interviewers
then asked the children questions de-
signed to elicit unbiased answers, such
as "Where did it come from? What else
might you call it? Did you like it?" (p.
62) and stressed to the children that
there were no right or wrong re-
sponses.

By questioning 121 children ranging
from 4 to 16 years of age, the authors
identified broad patterns or stages of
thought at three age levels. "There was
a set of 'immature' responses found
among 54 four- to seven-year-olds, an-
other set of 'intermediate' or 'transi-
tional' responses found among the 58
eight- to twelve-year-olds, and a final
set of 'mature' responses found among
the 16 fourteen- to sixteen-year-olds.
The authors view[ed] each set of re-
sponses as representing a certain cog-
nitive stage and as having certain basic
characteristics or properties" (Rosario,
1977, p. 93). Gardner et al. identified
these stages of thought as neither
taught nor imitated, but considered
them spontaneous constructions at
certain developmental levels. Because
of the consistency of subject responses
to specific questions, they concluded
that there is a "substantial universal
component in children's artistic con-
ception" (p. 75).

This conclusion ignores possible
effects of the children's experience
(or lack of it). Gardner and his asso-
ciates recognized that children's con-
ceptions of the arts may not reflect
"the way in which they think about
the world in general" (p. 74) because
the arts "pose problems which seem
to be non-generalizable ones" (p. 74),
such as diverse media, each with its
own characteristics; the contrast be-
tween children's lack of direct fine
arts experiences and their greater fa-
miliarity with the physical and moral
universe; art experiences mediated by
mass technology; parental prejudices
about art as either elitist or recrea-
tional; and the prevalent bias among
untrained adults that the arts are too

sophisticated and therefore beyond
understanding. Nowhere do the au-
thors address these issues.

Formal education is bound to influ-
ence children's responses in research
situations. Unlike academic subjects,
art as a course of study is inconsistent.
Recognition of this fluctuation of prior
art experiences is crucial to interpret
any data on artistic development. Older
children, for example, gave responses
that implied personal acquaintance
with art concepts and skills that could
reflect training under an art specialist,
a typical learning situation in junior
and senior high schools. At the ele-
mentary level, however, most art ex-
periences are designed and taught by
classroom teachers who have limited
art background. Since few art text-
books or mandated curricula are used
in the elementary school, there is little
content or pedagogical consistency
across elementary school populations.
The youngest subjects in this study,
therefore, may have had less exposure
to art than the older children. Artistic
development should be considered in
terms of the opportunities a child has
to learn.

Rosario (1977) critiqued the study
on children's conceptions of the arts
from an ethnomethodological point of
view. Rosario also doubted that the
data allowed Gardner et al. to infer the
existence of congitive stages, let alone
whether they are spontaneous con-
structions. He pointed out that the
study was designed not to collect data
on how children acquire knowledge
of the arts but, rather, to investigate
what children think about the arts.
Rosario examined the questions used
in the interviewing process from the
perspective of how the children might
have interpreted them. He noted that
Gardner's questions "Where do you
think it came from?" and "How do you
think it was made?" implied
possible locations and processes of re-
production. Thus, if the children in Gard-
ner's youngest group gave responses

J. Lovano-Kerr, J. Rush

such as 'factory,' store,' 'school,' or
'you pick up a crayon and draw,' it is a
questionable claim that these children
exhibited misconceptions' as to the
identity and production of works of art.
The children's responses fall within a
range of conceivable answers, and if
we take into account what is implicit
in the questions, they do make sense
... To conclude, on the basis of the
responses alone, that the selections are
functions of a cognitive stage of devel-
opment is unwarranted, to say the least
(p. 98).

Rosario suggested that Project Zero
investigators assumed children were
correctly interpreting their questions,
and as a result they expected them to
demonstrate the same kind of re-
sponses adults would give; when they
didn't, their answers were labeled mis-
conceptions.

The final Project Zero documenta-
tion of children's responses to art de-
scribes the development of critical
judgment in the visual arts (Rosenstiel,
Morrison, Silverman, & Gardner, 1978).
Interviewers questioned first-, third-,
sixth-, and tenth-graders to determine
the extent to which children of different
ages can distinguish among standards
of personal preference, community
values, and technical competence
applied to painting reproductions.
This study exhibits most of the
characteristics of the study on chil-
dren's conceptions of the arts and,
therefore, contains defects similar to
those we have already described re-
garding the nature of the questions
and stimuli used, their interpretations
by various age groups, and the leap
from data to developmental inferences
and pedagogical recommendations.
First-graders, for example, had diffi-
culty discriminating differences among
the three kinds of questions, which
suggests some misunderstanding.

Most art criticism models stress a
broader range of analyses and a more
objective approach than that used by
Project Zero. They begin with observ-
ing surface qualities of artworks and

proceed to analyzing and interpreting
formal aspects and, finally, to evalu-
ating or making critical judgments.
Hickey (Note 2) used Feldman's model
to determine whether children aged
five to fourteen had the perceptual
and conceptual abilities necessary to
respond appropriately within each cat-
egory (Description, Formal Analysis,
Interpretation, and Evaluation). Hickey
derived her list of perceptual and cog-
nitive abilities from the research of
Piaget, Bruner, Arnheim, and Werner.
She found that children with no prior
training in art appreciation or art criti-
cism possessed these abilities in vary-
ing degrees at different developmental
levels. Hickey also found that levels of
development were independent of age.
These results and conclusions con-
trast with those of Rosenstiel et al.,
who suggest a developmental pattern
and who believe that their study pro-
vides normative developmental infor-
mation with educational implications.
Answering the questions on personal
preference, community values, and
technical competence is different from
making critical judgments; yet Rosen-
stiel et al. generalize from the former
to the latter. Their rationale here seems
tenuous when compared to other seri-
ous efforts in the same area.

Making Art

Several of the Project Zero publica-
tions reviewed dealt with the artistic
process in the sense of creating visual
art (Carothers & Gardner, 1979; Gard-
ner, 1980; Rosenstiel & Gardner, 1977;
Silverman, Winner, Rosenstiel, & Gard-
ner, 1975; Wolf & Gardner, Note 3).
Proect Zero's investigation into the
creative process is more recent and
the research literature therefore less
comprehensive than that on style sen-
sitivity.

The focus of Project Zero on chil-
dren's creative growth reflects Gard-
ner's developmental orientation. In
Artful Scribbles (1980), for example,

Project Zero: Evolution of Research 71

Gardner offers a picture of graphic
development similar to others' obser-
vations of children's drawing (e.g.,
Golomb, 1977; Goodnow, 1977; Kel-
logg, 1969; Lowenfeld, 1947), i.e., pro-
ceeding from scribbles, through man-
dalas, to the systematic depiction of
entities (tadpole figures) and the sub-
sequent increase of expressiveness
and complexity that may continue, in
some cases, throughout adolescence
into adulthood. Gardner believes that
this pattern is common to children of
all cultures and that intervention can
speed up or slow down the develop-
mental process, but cannot qualita-
tively alter the basic developmental
sequence.

Although Gardner's work is signifi-
cant within the context of aesthetic
education as well as artistic develop-
ment, these two areas are not synony-
mous. Gardner prefers basic research
(Gardner, 1977) leading to "a definition
of the 'end state' of artistic competence
[and] an outline of developmental
stages culminating in such compe-
tence" (p. 31).

Art education researchers, on the
other hand, are apt to value the effects
on the developing child wrought by
experience, especially in the percep-
tual and motor skills peculiar to the
creative process in the visual arts. Edu-
cators strive to implement the aesthetic
development of individuals of all ages.
In their view, understanding develop-
mental patterns may prevent inappro-
priate intervention, but does not obvi-
ate the need to organize effective
experiential patterns to implement, en-
hance, or perhaps even alter growth.
Gardner's education goal in not "to
speed up' attainment of competency,
but rather to make available to an indi-
vidual the fullest set of examples, prob-
lems, and themes for which he will be
searching at a particular stage in de-
velopment" (Gardner, 1977, p. 34). If
a person without language instruction
may develop into an illiterate, a person
without visual arts instruction may

grow into a visual illiterate. Both
camps apparently believe that without
opportunities to exercise creativity, a
child may become an adult whose de-
velopmental potential is unrealized (cf.
McFee, 1970).

In Artful Scribbles Gardner has ver-
bally and visually examined the char-
acteristic graphic images that children
make, from their first manipulation of
marking tools through adolescence.
He relates these manifestations to
other developmental traits, thereby
elucidating visual artistic expression
as representative childhood behavior.
Gardner's studies overlap both edu-
cation and psychology, and the suc-
cess of his publication indicates that
many practitioners in each field are
unread in the basic literature of the
other. Gardner correctly sees this mu-
tual ignorance as a stumbling block
for both art and psychology re-
searchers.

Gardner seldom cites the art educa-
tion literature on either creating or re-
sponding to art, although a consider-
able amount exists that is related to
his work, some of it quite sophisti-
cated. As a result Gardner appears
either unaware of or disinterested in
many contemporary issues in the pro-
fession. Children's artistic growth has
been discussed frequently during the
past 10 years in art education litera-
ture. Studies documenting the positive
effects of instruction on the art per-
formance of children as young as two
years (Douglas & Schwartz, 1967; Du-
bin, 1946; Kannegieter, 1971) present
a different viewpoint from Gardner,
who regards the natural unfolding of
artistic development as inviolable
(Gardner, 1976b) and who implies that
intervention is a negative influence.

Gardner and his colleagues (Silver-
man et al., 1975), in fact, have noted
positive effects of style learning on
children's drawings in such formal
aspects as color and texture use.
Rosenstiel and Gardner (1977) studied
first-, third-, sixth-, and tenth-graders'

72 J. Lovano-Kerr, J. Rush

performance on a drawing task to
ascertain whether an observed decline
in artistic skills during childhood might
be due to the advent of formal mental
operations in adolescents, specifically
the increase in their critical capabili-
ties. Rosenstiel and Gardner found
that older children who viewed more
proficient drawings upon completion
of their own first drawing took more
care on their second. Older children
often evaluated their own drawings in
a negative way, even though their com-
petency (skill level) increased with age.
The authors suggested that preadoles-
cents "do not receive sufficient intro-
duction to the practice of constructive
criticism, and that the 'sudden out-
break' of critical awareness cripples
their productive output. Should this
be so, it would seem advisable to de-
velop exercises which would introduce
subjects gently to the practice of criti-
cism" (p. 42). Yet, because of the
judged decline in flavorfulness during
adolescence, observed also in two ear-
lier studies of children's sensitivity to
musical styles and children's literary
skills (Gardner, 1973b; Gardner & Gard-
ner, 1971), the authors hypothesized
that "artistic sensitivity may attain a
high point in our society in the pre-
adolescent years" (p. 42). This con-
clusion may be premature given the
arbitrary nature of the criterion (flavor-
fulness), the training effects observed
in the study, and the little evidence to
demonstrate that behaviors character-
istic of one art form will generalize to
another.

Making Art: Some Critical
Observations

Studies on artistic process are of
great interest to art educators, who
are above all committed to the process
they teach. The core of visual arts edu-
cation is art. Most adults in our so-
ciety, uneducated in the visual arts,
remain visually insensitive to some de-
gree to the formal relationships in a

work of art. This visual illiteracy ap-
parently has no relation to their intel-
ligence or educational level, although
it often affects their preferences for
certain art objects. Many psychologists
who have studied the visual arts have
displayed a lack of sensitivity to the
visual material with which they dealt;
this impairment has affected the de-
sign of their experiments and the con-
clusions drawn from them. The study
published recently in Developmental
Psychology by Carothers and Gardner
entitled "When Children's Drawings
Become Art: The Emergence of Aes-
thetic Production and Perception"
(1979) has certain weaknesses in this
respect.

In this experiment children com-
pleted drawings that varied along two
dimensions, syntactic repleteness and
expression (metaphorical exemplifica-
tion), two of four characteristics iden-
tified by Goodman (1968) as observ-
able in aesthetic works. The children
later identified correct completions
of the same drawings provided by the
experimenter. Carothers and Gardner
measured repleteness according to
the quality of line used to indicate the
contour of a form within a picture
(thick vs. thin lines, termed brightness;
varied thickness vs. uniform thickness
of lines), and the kind of lines used to
indicate shading of a form within a
picture (horizontal bars vs. cross-
hatching). They measured expression
according to whether an entire picture
expressed (as contrasted to repre-
sented) either the emotion of happi-
ness or sadness.

Carothers and Gardner pointed out
in their introduction that "although
all drawing occurs in an artistic me-
dium, not all drawings make use of
the fundamental aesthetic character-
istics of the medium and, therefore,
not all drawings are necessarily works
of art" (p. 570). They graphically de-
scribed a replete line as one providing
"the outline of Mount Fujiyama, with
every variation in thickness, bright-

Project Zero: Evolution of Research 73

ness, and shading relevant to its inter-
pretation" (p. 571), and they recognized
that a drawing of a person who looks
sad "need not express sadness; such
an expression may instead be con-
veyed by the use of certain colors
(often dark), properties of line (droop-
ing), and the like" (p. 571).

Unfortunately, Carothers and Gard-
ner used visual materials in their ex-
periment that exemplified few of their
verbal observations. They elicited chil-
dren's production or perception of
repleteness by using drawings in which
the lines were not replete. The lines
did not vary in thickness or thinness
in response to the contour that they
depicted, but were merely thick or
thin, varied or uniform, with no con-
cern for requirements of the visual
statement. The examples of shading
exhibited the same mistakes, and in
addition provided other misleading
cues, e.g., not all bars in the pictures
modeling horizontal bars were hori-
zontal; some were vertical and some,
oblique. The drawings that modeled
expression actually represented an
emotion of happiness or sadness
through what may be called the literary
or symbolic aspect, so that the sun
shone in a cloudless sky in the happy
picture, but in the sad picture the sky
was filled with dark clouds. Neither
the happy nor the sad picture ex-
pressed an emotional content through
any of the formal elements such as line,
color, compositional variety, or so on.

All of the drawings used in Caroth-
ers's and Gardner's experiment em-
ployed obvious visual stereotypes. None
was a work of adult art and none was
an authentic child's drawing. All were
noticeably lacking in aesthetic qual-
ity. If repleteness and expression were
present in these drawings, as indicated
by the authors, they cannot be sympto-
matic of aesthetic quality. On the other
hand, if repleteness and expression
were not present, the drawings were
inappropriate stimuli for the experi-
ment described.

Symbol Use

Symbol development and use by the
young child has been a central inter-
est of Project Zero from the onset; the
three visual arts studies on this sub-
ject have been undertaken fairly re-
cently, however. Whereas the earlier
series of cross-sectional studies on
style sensitivity progressively changed
experimental treatments, the studies
on symbol formation used the same
experimental tasks for different pop-
ulations (infancy to fifth grade) within
both cross-sectional and longitudinal
structures. The first, a longitudinal
study of five first-born infants, is still
in progress and results are unavailable
(Gardner, Wolf, & Smith, 1975). The
second is a cross-sectional study of
nursery school children aged 21/2 to 5
(Gardner, 1976a). The third is a com-
bined cross-sectional, longitudinal
study of children initially aged 5 to 8,
who were subsequently retested for
two more years (Ives, Silverman, Kelly,
& Gardner, 1979).

The common core of inquiry in the
two completed symbol-development
studies consists of five related issues:
simultaneity of symbol system emer-
gence; the order of emergence and
the differences and factors involved;
the universality of stages in symbol
system mastery; the factors involved
in observed wide differences in sym-
bol skill and preferences; and method-
ological issues regarding the identifi-
cation of specific process behaviors
(Gardner, 1976a).

Each child performed four tasks for
each of three symbol media (language,
drawing, and clay), with the addition
of a symbolic play task for children
aged 21/2 to 5. Each child produced a
spontaneous product, completed a
work left incomplete by the experi-
menter, assembled a work from several
parts, and produced "as faithfully as
possible a work or performance ex-
hibited by the experimenter" (Gard-
ner et al., 1975, p. 15). The spontane-

74 J. Lovano-Kerr, J. Rush

ous tasks were repeated for two more
years with children who were initially
tested in kindergarten, first, and third
grades (Ives et al., 1979).

There were five general findings for
the nursery school (2V2- to 5-year-old)
children (Gardner, 1976a): (1) tremen-
dous individual differences within age
groups; (2) sex differences in media
and symbol use; (3) an improvement
with age in overall flexibility; (4) an
understanding of media, task situa-
tion, and the capacity to elaborate;
and (5) a characteristic approach to
tasks. The copying task produced the
most anxiety, while the assembly task
produced the least. Fixed themes in
children's drawings also were noted,
such as Batman, the Yellow Subma-
rine, and Oscar the Grouch. Specula-
tion regarding this phenomenon was
two-pronged: on the one hand, the re-
turn to a familiar theme could repre-
sent a necessary element in artistic
growth, since variations could be ex-
plored; on the other hand, fixed themes
could be inhibiting for some children,
preventing further explorations and
changes. The origins of the fixed
themes were not discussed by the
authors. Perhaps the strong influence
of popular culture on children at very
early ages is a given and, therefore,
assumed to be implicit in artistic per-
formance.

Gardner (1976a) drew implications
from the study of nursery school chil-
dren in relation to the five focal issues
previously identified. He found that a
child's symbol system often did not
develop simultaneously. Moreover,
each level of symbol use seemed to
be contingent on certain prerequisites,
which, once fulfilled, generalized
across a variety of media. No fixed
order of symbol emergence was evi-
dent, and mastery of individual sym-
bol systems appeared to differ notice-
ably among children. Some showed
very advanced verbal abilities while
others of the same age seemed to pre-
fer the visual and design features of

media such as drawing. These striking
differences were found among chil-
dren as young as two and three years
old.

Patterns of consistent behavior
among individual children, however,
were noted across tasks. Assessment
of commonalities and individual differ-
ences found in this study required the
combining of two divergent psycho-
logical constructs, the cognitive and
the affective. Accordingly, children's
products, evaluated for technical com-
petence, were categorized on the basis
of developmental level or mental age,
reflecting the view of the cognitivist.
The affective approach was used to
assess the distinctive qualities of chil-
dren's products and performance.

Gardner (1976a) proposed the con-
cept of cognitive style to account for
"the particular way in which each
child realizes the universal properties
of symbolization at his level of devel-
opment" (p. 18). Specifically, cognitive
style referred to patterns of symbol-
ization behavior of children described
in somewhat dichotomous terms. Chil-
dren identified as verbalizers tended
to talk more than to produce art works;
their counterparts, visualizers, were
active producers and were reluctant to
talk. Self-starters approached tasks
effortlessly; completers exhibited anxi-
ety when first starting a task, but not
when the task required completion
only. The person-centered child was
more socially oriented and focused on
communication and used figures in
graphic expression; the object-cen-
tered child was more private and
tended to draw objects (physical ele-
ments, machines). Gardner used the
concept of cognitive style to reconcile
differences between universal devel-
opment stages and individual behav-
iors when confronted with evidence
from the nursery school study that
revealed strikingly individual uses of
symbol and media by young children
at the same age and level of skill. The
examination of the relation between cog-

Project Zero: Evolution of Research 75

nitive style and symbol formation and
use, if extended longitudinally from
preschool through the elementary and
secondary levels, could be a major
contribution to the literature on artistic
development and a valuable extension
of Gardner's developmental model.

A move in this direction seems to
appear in the third study on symbol
development of 45 children from kin-
dergarten, first, and third grades (Ives
et al., 1979). The content and format
of these experimental tasks were iden-
tical to those administered to pre-
schoolers, except for the elimination
of symbolic play and the addition of
a retest situation in which the same
subjects completed the spontaneous
product tasks for two more years.
Each product was assessed on the
basis of competence (skill level), flavor-
fulness (elaborative and expressive use
of elements) and uniqueness (unusual
arrangements and embellishments).

Symbolic competence increased witn
age; the rate was not the same for all
ages, however. Different developmen-
tal patterns appeared in each art form.
Competence, uniqueness, and flavor-
fulness in storytelling increased stead-
ily from kindergarten to fourth grade,
showing a slight decline at fifth grade.
This pattern was not found in drawing
and clay, where competence, unique-
ness, and flavorfulness increased from
kindergarten to first grade and then
declined in third, fourth, and fifth
grades with the exception of drawing
flavorfulness, which rose slightly
again at the fifth grade level. As might
be expected, the level of self-confi-
dence was consistent with these pat-
terns. Initially more enthusiasm was
exhibited on nonlinguistic tasks, but
the level of enthusiasm for linguistic
tasks rose steadily from kindergarten
to third grade, where children were
more enthused with storytelling than
with drawing and clay. Storytelling
competence correlated significantly
with the children's Stanford achieve-
ment scores; no correlation appeared

between achievement scores and com-
petence in drawing and clay. The au-
thors rejected the notion of a unified
semiotic function and concluded that
"development in drawing and clay
reaches a peak around first grade and
then begins to decline as children pro-
ceed through elementary school and
acquire concrete operational think-
ing" (p. 11).

Symbol Use: Some Critical
Observations

In the symbol-development studies,
mention is made of the general reli-
ance on language for communication
at the elementary level in contrast to
the limited use of visual art forms as
vehicles for communication, although
this observation is not reflected in the
conclusions drawn by Gardner and his
associates. Yet, these and other ef-
fects of educational experiences per-
meate every experimental task. The
development of language skills is an
important aspect of formal educa-
tion; language skills and, hence, con-
fidence are expected to increase with
age and grade. This expectation has
been verified in Gardner's studies of
symbol development.

Conversely, the development of art
skills is not a major goal in general
education. Curriculum development
lags far behind that of other subject
areas. Results of Gardner's symbol-
development studies reflect this dis-
continuity, where the lack of progres-
sive development in art skills contrasts
greatly with the progressive skill de-
velopment in language. Any analysis
of artistic development should ac-
count for major effects of education
and prior experiences. Experimental
results will always vary in accordance
to the opportunity children have to
develop art skills, as indicated in a
number of studies on this topic
(Brouch, 1971; Gilliatt, 1980; Gross-
man, 1970; Seefeldt, 1979; Wilson,
1966). In the absence of a standard-

J. Lovano-Kerr, J. Rush

ized curriculum, even junior and senior
high school art programs are uniquely
and individually designed. Without
such continuity and sequence as ap-
pears in academic subjects, caution is
called for when making inferences
about developmental levels of artistic
growth.

Also absent from the studies on
symbol development, as well as from
earlier studies on aspects of artistic
development, is reference to related
theories and research in art education.
In particular, no mention is made of
June King McFee's Perception-Deline-
ation (P-D) Theory (1970; McFee &
Degge, 1977), well-known in art edu-
cation and used frequently as the basis
for inquiry into variables influencing
children's artistic development. This
organismic theory synthesizes ele-
ments of many disciplines, among
them Gestalt psychology, association
theory, and cultural anthropology. This
integrative aspect and, in particular,
some of the postulates accounting for
individual differences in McFee's P-D
Theory, are also found in the writings
of Gardner (i.e., cognitive styles). Mc-
Fee, however, includes variables in-
volved in the effects of prior experi-
ences and education on creating
artistic symbols and responding to
the aesthetic properties of art objects.

Cultural Influences

As the sphere of Gardner's research
widens, so does his perspective on
factors influencing artistic develop-
ment. Since the standard developmen-
tal framework assumes culture to be
a relatively fixed variable, a recent
manuscript by Ives and Gardner (Note
4) departs from the traditional stance
by viewing culture as a dynamic and
constantly changing set of influences
that effect children of diverse ages in
different ways. They also differ in their
sensitivity "to the particular symbolic
medium in which knowledge is cap-
tured and conveyed" (p. 5). Their re-

search has verified that "the use of
different media and their underlying
systems involved different mental op-
erations" (p. 5).

Ives and Gardner have attempted to
identify developmental trends of artistic
symbolization common to all children.
Universal patterns in drawings are
ascribed to the very young. Character-
istic schemes are identified at each
age level from two to four with a con-
tinuation through the fifth year. Ac-
cording to the authors, cultural in-
fluences become increasingly more
evident in drawings after age five,
peaking between seven and 12 years
of age. Although older children are
fluent in symbolic capacity, there is a
"latency stage" as they come to draw
less, or not at all. Ives and Gardner
identify the probable cause as a move
toward visual realism and the frustra-
tion children experience when their
renderings fall short of their expecta-
tions. They noted a continual decline
in artistry, especially during the ado-
lescent years, apparently associated
with the rise in critical faculties of the
adolescent.

The authors recognized the limita-
tions of their overview, since much
of the survey was "speculative and
programmatic rather than summative
and conclusive" (p. 24). They are con-
fident "that individual predispositions,
genetic potentials, and cultural influ-
ences should interact in ways which
can in principle be specified" (p. 24),
although we are still far from knowing
what these will be. This is a welcome
departure from a methodological limi-
tation of most of the Project Zero re-
search, their lack of heterogeneous
experimental samples. The great ma-
jority of the children studied over the
past 10 years were drawn from middle
class suburban schools, a selective
population that in no way reflects the
cultural mix prevalent in many of our
public schools. Since the theoretical
model that has grown from Gardner's
research may be applied in other cul-

Project Zero: Evolution of Research 77

tures, its underlying limitations could
lead users to believe that differences
among children who are culturally di-
verse are deviations from the norm.

The recognition of cultural influences
on artistic development is another issue
being addressed and evident in the
recent cross-cultural literature in art
education (Anderson, 1979; Eisner,
1979; Wilson & Wilson, 1979). The miss-
ing links in many of the earlier cross-
cultural studies and in the Ives and
Gardner overview are the contextual
factors and the effect of prior experi-
ences and education on the drawings of
children. Ives and Gardner presented a
glimpse of possible educational effects
by citing a study that showed high per-
formance of Japanese students on a
visual intelligence test, which they "at-
tributed to the overall emphasis within
the culture on visual expression" (p.
21).

Cultural Influences: Some
Critical Observations

A major concern we have with regard
to all of the literature reviewed is the
pervasive exclusion of prior experi-
ences, the role of instruction, and
environmental factors as variables in
determining developmental stages.
Environmental factors can modify,
accelerate, impede, or atrophy growth,
yet culture seldom appears as a vari-
able in the studies we examined. Cul-
turally diverse children as subjects
for comparative analysis are noticeably
absent. Cross-cultural perspectives in
determining the universality of devel-
opmental stages in artistic growth are
taken from existing and scattered
sources, a weakness noted by Gardner
and his associates also.

Conclusion

Project Zero and, in particular, Gard-
ner, have made a major contribution to
art education in the theoretical realm.

Gardner's focus on the integration and
extension of theories to explain the
developmental process of artistic
growth, central to which is the use
and understanding of symbols, has
received increasing attention in the
field of art education. This body of
work has an internal, logical consis-
tency; Gardner articulates it into a
masterfully integrated whole.

The potential of this theoretical base
for illuminating some basic issues con-
cerning artistic growth in children
holds great promise. The testing of
theory is the basis of research. The
strength of this inquiry rests on the
appropriateness of the means em-
ployed to test the experimental hy-
potheses. In our examination of the
Project Zero literature, we have found
consistent gaps and weaknesses in
Gardner's translation of his theory into
his experimental tasks, which has led
us to question the validity of some of
his results.

Project Zero offers a model of ten
years' continuous and focused work
to the rest of a profession whose chief
research characteristic is a scattering
of energy. We are inspired by Project
Zero's productivity; we encourage
them to continue just as energetically
in the future. Whatever imperfections
we can observe in Project Zero in no
way diminish, in our view, their unique
contributions to the theoretical and
philosophical bases for inquiry in art
education; they only point up the fact
that Project Zero has identified and
confronted difficult questions.

Our critique of Project Zero has
raised certain issues that are common
to all visual arts research. Let us now
specify 10 goals toward which we all,
as researchers, may work.

1. We must be truly multidisciplinary
when we design our research and se-
lect methodology, drawing ideas and
resources from wherever we can. First,
let us read widely; perhaps publishing
integrated literature reviews pertain-

J. Lovano-Kerr, J. Rush

ing to basic areas would be valuable.
Second, let us follow Project Zero's
teamwork example and undertake co-
operative research. We need the kind
of broad-ranging, long-term, sequen-
tial research that only many people
working together can provide. Let us
stop thinking of research as an indi-
vidual activity occurring at isolated
universities. Research teams could con-
tain people from a number of schools
and laboratories all across the country.

2. We must pay more attention to
art and artists. We should work with
people who have sophisticated art
skills if we do not have them ourselves.
How can we identify the artistically
unique without expertise? Only the
connoisseur can distinguish the excep-
tional from the common.

3. We must improve our research
designs and data manipulations. The
visual arts offer special problems in
this regard because of the complexity
of the stimuli and nature of the tasks
involved.

4. We must account for the features
of our subject populations. We should
distinguish the effects of culture and
education from developmental charac-
teristics. In this process let us examine
people from diverse walks of life.

5. We must scrutinize our experi-
mental results critically and interpret
them cautiously.

6. We must replicate our experi-
ments and those of others to verify
our results. We must sequence our
experiments toward long-range objec-
tives. Both may be done by more than
one person through cooperative re-
search.

7. We must study children's per-
ceptual abilities that relate to the
visual arts. We should learn to recog-
nize visual concepts and how they
form. We should look at what all of
the arts have in common and how they
differ.

8. We must ask the same questions
of adults that we do of children. We

need to establish parameters of adult
behavior in the arts if we wish to under-
stand children's artistic development.

9. We must study learning and teach-
ing, and, in the process, perhaps reex-
amine the concepts of basic and ap-
plied research. We need to know how
instruction affects artistic behavior.
We need to improve the efficiency of
teaching. We need to understand how
education interacts with development;
let us select subjects for developmen-
tal research who have participated in
ongoing art programs.

10. We must support research in
the visual arts. We can support it
with our money, with research appoint-
ments in our universities, with time
released from teaching, and with our
recognition that research is a legiti-
mate occupation for artists and edu-
cators.

This is a time of promise in our ma-
turing profession, when challenges
are great and so, therefore, are the
opportunities for creative and satisfy-
ing work. Good research raises ques-
tions; defining problems, as Project
Zero has done over the last decade,
has given us many directions for imagi-
native study. The future, moreover,
remains for all of us to shape.

Reference Notes

1. Rush, J. C. & Sabers, D. L. The percep-
tion of artistic style. Studies in Art Edu-
cation, in press.

2. Hickey, D. The development and testing
of a matrix of perceptual and cognitive
abilities in art appreciation and criticism
among children and adolescents. Unpub-
lished doctoral dissertation, Indiana Uni-
versity, 1975.

3. Wolf, D. & Gardner, H. Beyond playing or
polishing: A developmental view of ar-
tistry. Unpublished manuscript.

4. Ives, S. W. & Gardner, H. Cultural influ-
ences on children's drawings: A develop-
mental perspective. In A. Hurwitz (Ed.),
Art education international. Pennsylvania
State University, in press.

Project Zero: Evolution of Research 79

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Jessie Lovano-Kerr

School of Education
Indiana University
Bloomington, Indiana 47405

Jean Rush

Department of Art
University of Arizona
Tucson, Arizona 85721

Project Zero: Evolution of Research

RESPONSE TO COMMENT ON PROJECT ZERO BY JESSIE LOVANO-KERR
AND JEAN RUSH

Howard Gardner
Harvard Project Zero

I am grateful to Professors Jessie
Lovano-Kerr and Jean Rush for the
care they have taken in examining
some of the work undertaken at Project
Zero over the last decade. It is not pos-
sible, and possibly not appropriate, to
respond to every point which they
raise. Accordingly, in these notes, I
will limit myself to some points of clari-
fication about efforts being undertaken
at Project Zero and to some correc-
tions of errors of fact.

While it is flattering to be the center
of attention of such a lengthy review,
and to read the favorable comments
dispensed by the authors, I must point
out that Project Zero is in no sense
synonymous with the work of myself
and my immediate colleagues. The Proj-
ect was founded by Nelson Goodman, a
philosopher, is currently co-directed by
David Perkins, a mathematician trained
in artificial intelligence, and houses at
any one time between 20 and 35 full-
time and part-time researchers and stu-
dents. We are not a monolith and no two
members of the Project would respond
to the present critique in the same
manner. Moreover, starting from that
whimsical Zero, we have in fact changed
our thinking on nearly all points, some-
times slightly, sometimes dramatically.
We ourselves have questioned nearly
all of the results discussed here by
our critics. What has not changed,
however, are our beliefs in the utility
of the developmental paradigm and in
the ways in which experimental studies
in aesthetics should be framed and
executed.

Following the example of Piaget,
we have always proceeded by outlin-
ing an "end-state" of competence

within a particular artistic realm, de-
vising tasks which make it possible to
examine the development of the requi-
site operations across a range of ages,
and then examining how this ability
emerges in a sample of American chil-
dren. We have sought to use stimuli
which are as close to "real" works of
art as possible, and to devise ques-
tions and procedures which are as
natural and non-invasive as possible,
while at the same time employing
proper scientific procedures and con-
trols. While we have not worked in
elite private schools or in urban ghet-
tos, our sampling has been quite
broad and representative within the
American context.

This policy has yielded a program of
research, including certain areas of
stress and certain points of relative
neglect. We have deliberately sampled
a wide range of artistic abilities, rather
than focussing just on one or two. We
have steered away from tasks in which
one set of subjects might be much
better trained or informed than an-
other. We have noted sex differences
and social class differences, when
appropriate, but have not for the most
part made such differences the center
of our concern. Nor have we under-
taken the enormously difficult task of
trying to determine the exact back-
ground and training of our particular
subjects. (However, following standard
experimental practice, we have sam-
pled a broad range of subjects so that
any individual differences in training
should, in the end, "average out.")
Finally, again following Piaget's exam-
ple, we have employed tasks which
pose genuine difficulties for younger

subjects, tasks on which there is a rea-
sonable chance that they will fail,
thereby in the process revealing their
presuppositions, strategies, and world-
views.

What we hope will emerge eventually
from this program is an overview of
how a certain set of artistic skills de-
velops within the American context,
in the absence of specific training regi-
mens. In other words, much as Piaget,
Lawrence Kohlberg, and William Da-
mon have provided baseline develop-
mental portraits in other seminal areas
of human growth, we seek a first-order
approximation to the natural develop-
mental history of key artistic capaci-
ties. Against this background, it should
then be possible to ascertain the flexi-
bility of this portrait, the differences
which background and training can
make, the effects of intervention or of
a highly unusual home or school set-
ting, the role of individual differences,
and the like. In other words, first, the
approximation: then refinements, al-
terations or possibly even the scut-
tling of the initial model.

It is, or course, possible to follow
other research strategies in the areas
of artistic development and art edu-
cation. My critics seem to favor an
alternate approach, though they do
not spell it out. They obviously feel
that contexts and training are impor-
tant. I agree. But I must question
whether our scientific understanding,
or even our non-scientific understand-
ing, would be much enhanced by the
kind of experimental program which
they appear to espouse.

To be specific: We know, without
doing any more studies, that training
will help children. Indeed, if it does
not, we simply draw the conclusion
that the training program was no good.
By the same token, we know that con-
text influences a child's behavior; oft-
times, in fact, context is the name of
the game in educational psychology.
To document these truisms once again
is a waste of time. What seems worth-

while, however, is to take a coherent
model of the child, one based, for
example, on developmental studies,
and to determine the effects of train-
ing and context under the rubric of
such a model: to ascertain, for in-
stance, which contexts work best at
various ages and stages, which ones
have relatively little effect, which yield
the best short-term, long-term, me-
dium-term gains, and the like. At the
risk of seeming self-serving, then, I
suggest that the kind of research ap-
proach apparently favored by my critics
makes sense when undertaken in the
wake of a theory or a model of artistic
development, but not before and not
otherwise.

So much for philosophy of research.
Most of Professors Lovano-Kerr and
Rush's paper consists of a set of criti-
cisms, some quibbles, some more ex-
tensive, of research undertaken by the
developmental group at Project Zero.
Any study has flaws and ours certainly
are no exception. Indeed, we under-
take further studies in an effort to com-
pensate for flaws, and we hope that
our more recent research (and that of
others) is more sophisticated due to
our recognition of earlier mistakes and
insufficiencies. Similarly, it should be
noted that we have followed our own
precepts, conducting training studies
after our initial baseline studies have
been carried out, and that our views
have changed as a result of the train-
ing studies. This seems somewhat dis-
concerting to our critics, who seem to
prefer that we not dirty our hands or
our publications with training studies
or with changes of mind, but I am
afraid I cannot apologize for either
practice.

Of the various criticisms, the one
about the use of reproductions in our
study of children's conceptions of arts
seems most valid to me. Certainly the re-
lation between responses based upon
"real art works" and responses based
upon reproductions deserves study,
and I hope that someone will undertake

Response to Lovano-Kerr and Rush 83

the study (although it is not as easy to do
as it might at first seem). I would only
add that the fact that we obtained es-
sentially the same results whether we
used reproductions or slides, and
whether we questioned children about
"paintings," poems, or songs, makes
it unlikely that the use of reproductions
has had a major impact on our results.

At a few points, I felt that my critics
were being disingenuous. Thus, when
they say that "lack of sensitivity to style
seems consistent in all untrained sub-
jects despite age," they ignore the
obvious points of difference between
lacking the concept of style altogether
(as do young children) and having the
concept but being unskilled in applying
it and being able to overlook the subject
matter of the artist (as do the older sub-
jects). By the same token, when they
criticize the stimuli in the Carothers and
Gardner study for lack of artistic quality,
they deliberately overlook the fact that it
was necessary to use drawings which
would not intimidate the children who
had to complete them, and which had
to be controlled on all variables save
the ones being examined — replete-
ness and expressivity.

There were a few times in the paper
where I felt that I was the intended
victim of a hatchet job, and here I
must strongly protest. It is claimed that
"(this pattern of artistic development) is
common to children of all cultures." On
pages 159-160 of Artful Scribbles, I dis-
cuss the cross-cultural work of Alex-
ander Alland and explicitly consider the
possibility that "our developmental
norms" are limited to children in a West-
ern context who have had the oppor-
tunity to draw from an early age. It is
claimed that our studies document
"lack of progressive development in art
skills," whereas in truth, nearly all of our

studies document some growth in artis-
tic skills and some of them actually
document the effects of training.
Finally, and most annoyingly, it is
asserted that I regard "the natural un-
folding of artistic development as invio-
lable" and that "intervention is a nega-
tive influence." In the very article in
which I am alleged to hold this point of
view, I take exactly the opposite posi-
tion: namely, that intervention is helpful
and necessary after the pre-school
years. I have taken this position in the
numerous articles I have written on the
educational aspects of artistic develop-
ment, and in my chapter on the subject
in Artful Scribbles. I find it astonishing
that my critics could attribute this posi-
tion to me, unless they simply find it
convenient to do so.

With respect to the charge that I
ignore art educators and am "either
unaware of or disinterested (sic) in
many contemporary issues in the pro-
fession," I plead innocent. I am in favor
of interdisciplinary exchange, and have
sought to realize this orientation at
Project Zero. To this ecumenical end,
let me affirm that I have read Professor
Lovano-Kerr's and Rush's Ten Com-
mandments of Visual Arts Research,
and I say, Amen.

I am grateful to the Spencer Foun-
dation, the Carnegie Corporation, the
Markle Foundation, the National Sci-
ence Foundation, and the National
Institute of Education for their gener-
ous support of the work undertaken
at Project Zero.

Howard Gardner

Harvard Project Zero

Harvard University

Cambridge, Massachusetts 02138

84 Howard Gardner

Instructions for Authors

Manuscripts submitted to the Review
of Research in Visual Arts Education

should include an original and three
copies. All manuscripts should follow
policies outlined in the Publication
Manual of the American Psychological
Association. 2nd edition. Please send
all manuscripts to:

Editorial Office
143 Art and Design Building
4th Street and Peabody Drive
University of Illinois
Champaign. Illinois 61820

Art Sinsabaugh, Photograph
Galena, Illinois, 1959

Courtesy of the Art Sinsabaugh Archive, Indiana University Art Museum

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