Children's Understanding and Production of Pictures, Drawings, and Art

About the Editors

Contributors

Table of Contents

Preface

Part I Introduction

1 Children’s Knowledge About Pictures, Drawing, and Art

Introduction

Cognition and drawing

Metacognition, theory of mind, and children’s understanding and production of pictures, drawing and art

The contents of this book

Part II General Foundations

2 The Origins and Development of Pictorial Symbol Functioning

Introduction

Outline of the model

Foundations for symbolic understanding

Achieving representational insight

Conceptualizing the symbolic function

Conclusions

3 Pictorial Competence Generated from Crosstalk Between Core Domains

Four ingredients of pictorial competence

Pictorial expertise considered as mastery over a domain of knowledge

What is the reason for engaging with the pictorial domain?

Where children’s minds come into the picture

Evidence on cross-domain components of young children’s grasp of depiction

Taking a perspective and drawing the threads together

4 Memory Components and Control Processes in Children’s Drawing

Domain-specific and general components of cognition

The emergence of drawing

Graphic schemes

How children's limited processing capacity affects drawing

The mystery of narrative drawing

Conclusion

Part III Understanding and Developing Pictorial Competence

5 Size and Contour as Crucial Parameters in Children Drawing Images

Conceptualizing empty space and apparent dissolving of the object

Drawing systems

Drawing contours

Drawing size

The power balance of objects and space

6 Children’s Choice of Color to Depict Metaphorical and Affective Information

Introduction

Children’s color use in relation to affect- eliciting topics

Future research questions

Conclusions

7 Children’s Drawing of Friendship and Family Relationships in Different Cultures

Introduction

The importance of interpersonal relationships

Why and how to assess the representation of interpersonal relationships

Theoretical perspectives on the drawings of relationships

What of a social relationship can we see in a drawing?

Drawing and children’s relationships across cultures

Conclusions

8 Developing Children’s Appreciation of Photographs as Informative and Aesthetic Artifacts

Photographs: What and why?

Seeing the photographic surface

Illustrative empirical work

Concluding comments

Part IV Developing a Theory of Pictures and Aesthetic Preferences

9 Children’s Understanding of Artist- Picture Relations: Implications for Their Theories of Pictures

Introduction

Infants: action-based knowledge of intentions

Toddlers: perceptually-based knowledge of symbol- referent links

School age children: conceptually-based understanding of the symbolic function

Conclusions

10 The Relationship Between Production and Comprehension of Representational Drawing

Introduction

Development of children’s production and comprehension of pictures

Children’s understanding of what develops and why in children’s drawings

Interpretations and future directions

Summary

11 Children’s Developing Understanding and Evaluation of Aesthetic Properties of Drawings and Art Work

Models of aesthetic development

Properties of drawings and paintings used for classification and evaluation

Concluding remarks

12 Developmental Preferences and Strategies for Visual Balance in Aesthetic Compositions

Visual balance and the development of perceptual capacities

Children’s aesthetic appreciation of pictures

Children’s ability to produce aesthetic pictures

The composition studies

Conclusions

13 Drawing and Aesthetic Judgments Across Cultures: Diverse Pathways to Graphic Development

Background

Models of graphic development

Previous studies that examine the U-curve claim

The three-country study (Kindler, Pariser, and van den Berg, 2000)

Conclusions

Part V Conclusion

14 Future Directions in Studying Children’s Understanding and Production of Pictures, Drawings, and Art

Theories of children’s understanding of pictures and the relation between picture, artist, viewer, and world

Children’s competence and their production of pictures

Children’s comprehension of pictures and its relationship to production

Children’s evaluation of aesthetic and expressive properties of pictures

Universal and cultural influences on children’s drawings

Concluding remarks

Subject Index