The
Effect of Background Context on Children's Understanding of the
Spatial Depth Arrangement of Objects in a Drawing
J. Perara & M. V. Cox |
A
total of 226 children aged 4, 5, 7 and 9 years aged years and a group
of 52 adults participated in a study of pictorial depth sensitivity.
Stimuli comprised four pictures of two apples, one above the other.
The relative sizes of the apples were manipulated across the four
pictures. In one condition the apples were depicted on a blank page;
in a second condition they were depicted resting on a table. Approximately
half the participants were allocated to each condition. For each
stimulus the participant was asked to identify the nearer (and farther)
apple. The inclusion of a background context (condition 2) significantly
affected participants' identification of between-object depth relations,
enabling them to identify the lower apple as the nearer and the upper
as the farther. Without this context (condition 1) participants tended
to use the size of the objects as a cue to their distance from the
viewer. Evidence of an age-related component to pictorial depth perception
was found: 4-year-olds had difficulty with their responses even when
a context was depicted, perhaps reflecting their relative lack of
experience with pictures compared with older participants. Key words: spatial depth cues, 2D drawings, context effects |