Canonical perspective and typical features in children's drawings: A neuroscientific appraisal

Abstract

Neuroscientific theories of visual perception and recognition, usually with reference to the accounts of either Gibson (1973, 1979) or Marr (1982), are often referred to by psychologists who seek to understand children's drawing strategies. This type of approach has led to some interesting speculations as to why children draw in particular ways. Notwithstanding these endeavours, there has been a considerable amount of recent progress in the neurophysiology of the visual brain which goes considerably beyond the purview of these theories. This paper seeks to demonstrate how a greater understanding of children's depictive strategies can be gained through an assessment of such neuroscientific studies.