This study examined the role of visual imagery in the centripetal execution principle (CEP), a graphic rule that is related to the drawing of complex figures that are composed of embedded geometric shapes. Sighted blindfolded children and children with early-onset low vision and early-onset blindness copied raised-line drawings (using only the haptic modality). The results revealed the dominance of the CEP in the sighted and blind groups, but not in the group with low vision. They suggest that the CEP is not determined by visual imagery, but by a more general mechanism that is based on children's perceptual experience.
Get full access to this article
View all access options for this article.
References
1.
BladesM., LippaY., GolledgeR. G., Jacob-sonR. D., & KitchinR. M. (2002). The effect of spatial tasks on visually impaired peoples’ wayfinding abilities. Journal of Visual Impairment & Blindness, 96, 407–419.
2.
BouazizS., & MagnanA. (submitted). Holistic and analytic processing in the copying of complex figures among drawing context: A developmental approach. Cognitive Development.
3.
CornoldiC., CortesiA., & PretiD. (1991). Individual differences in the capacity limitations of visuospatial short-term memory: Research on sighted and totally congenitally blind people. Memory & Cognition, 19, 459–468.
4.
CornoldiC., & VecchiT. (2000). Cécité précoce et images mentales spatiales. [Early blindness and spatial mental images.] In HatwellY., StreriA., & GentazE. (Eds.), Toucher pour connaître: Psychologie cognitive de la perception tactile manuelle. [Touching for knowing: Cognitive psychology of tactual manual perception.] (pp. 175–189). Paris: PUF.
5.
GentazE., & RossettiY. (1999). Is haptic perception continuous with cognition?Behavioral and Brain Sciences, 22, 378–379.
6.
GolledgeR. G., JacobsonD., KitchinR., & BladesM. (2000). Cognitive maps, spatial abilities and human wayfinding. Geographical Review of Japan, 73(Series B), 93–104.
7.
GoodnowJ. J., & LevineR. A. (1973). The grammar of action: Sequence and syntax in children's drawing. Cognitive Psychology, 4, 82–98.
8.
HauertC. A., MounoudP., & MayerE. (1981). Approche du développement cognitif des enfants de 2 à 5 ans à travers l'étude des caractéristiques physiques de leurs actions. [Approach of the cognitive development of 2- to 5-year-old children through the study of the physical characteristics of their actions.]Current Psychology of Cognition, 1, 33–54.
9.
HellerM. A. (2002). Tactile picture perception in sighted and blind people. Behavioural Brain Research, 135, 65–68.
10.
HellerM. A., BrackettD. D., & ScroggsE. (2002). Tangible picture matching by people who are visually impaired. Journal of Visual Impairment & Blindness, 96, 349–353.
11.
HellerM. A., BrackettD. D., ScroggsE., AllenA. C., & GreenS. (2001). Haptic perception of the horizontal by blind and low-vision individuals. Perception, 30, 601–610.
12.
HellerM. A., BrackettD. D., ScroggsE., SteffenH., HeatherlyK., & SalikS. (2002). Tangible pictures: Viewpoint effects and linear perspective in visually impaired people. Perception, 31, 747–769.
13.
HellerM. A., BrackettD. D., WilsonK., YoneyamaK., BoyerA., & SteffenH. (2002). The haptic Müller-Lyer illusion in sighted and blind people. Perception, 31, 1263–1274.
14.
HellerM. A., CalcaterraJ., TylerL. A., & BursonL. L. (1996). Production and interpretation of perspective drawings by blind and sighted people. Perception, 25, 321–334.
15.
KaskiD. (2002). Revision: Is visual perception a requisite for visual imagery?Perception, 31, 717–731.
16.
KennedyJ. M. (1993). Drawing and the blind.New Haven, CT: Yale University Press.
17.
KennedyJ. M. (1997). Comment les aveugles dessinent. [How blind individuals draw.]Pour la Science, 233, 76–81.
18.
KennedyJ. M., & MerkasC. (2000). Depictions of motion devised by a blind person. Psychonomic Bulletin & Review, 7, 700–706.
19.
KlatzkyR. L., & LedermanS. J. (1987). The intelligent hand. In BowerG. (Ed.), Psychology of learning and motivation: Advances in research and theory (pp. 121–151). New York: Academic Press.
20.
LedermanS. J., & KlatzkyR. L. (1993). Extracting object properties through haptic exploration. Acta Psychologica, 84, 29–40.
21.
LoomisJ., KlatzkyR., & LedermanS. J. (1991). Similarity of tactual and visual picture recognition with limited field of view. Perception, 20, 167–177.
22.
MagnanA., AimarJ.-B., & BaldyR. (2000). Représentation et exécution d'un dessinmodèle composé de figures géométriques élémentaires chez l'enfant de cinq à huit ans: Effet de la tâche et de l'ordre de présentation des figures élémentaires. [Representation and execution of a drawing composed of elementary geometric shapes in 5- to 8-year-old children: Effect of task and order of presentation of the elementary shapes.]Archives de Psychologie, 68, 199–212.
23.
MagnanA., BaldyR., & ChatillonJ-F. (1999). Organizing principle in 4- to 8-year-old children's drawings of embedded geometric shapes. Swiss Review of Psychology, 1, 3–11.
24.
OchaitaE., & HuertasJ. A. (1993). Spatial representation by persons who are blind: A study of the effects of learning and development. Journal of Visual Impairment & Blindness, 87, 37–41.
25.
OsterriethP. H. (1945). Le test de copie d'une figure complexe, contribution à l'étude de la perception et de la mémoire. [Test of the copy of a complex figure, contribution to the study of perception and memory.]Archives de Psychologie, 30, 205–253.
26.
SymmonsM., & RichardsonB. (2000). Raised line drawings are spontaneously explored with a single finger. Perception, 29, 621–626.
27.
Van SommersP. (1984). Drawing and cognition: Descriptive and experimental studies on graphic production processes.Cambridge, England: Cambridge University Press.
