How meaning modifies drawing behavior in children

Two hundred and nine children aged 6-10 years and 40 adults were asked to draw perceptually ambiguous drawings to which two different meanings could be attributed, each meaning inducing a particular parsing of the model. These models were presented with one meaning in a first phase and another meaning in a second phase. For each, we analyzed whether participants modified their movement sequences in ways that were determined by the model’s meaning. The results showed that the participants’ drawing was to some degree sensitive to meaning at all ages. However, sensitivity to meaning differed as a function of the model and, more precisely, of the type of parsing induced by meaning. Thus, the way information is segmented into representational units may account for the relation between the what and the how of drawing.