Perception of Depth in Photographs: A Study of Young Malawians

Abstract

The ability of young Malaw'ians to make judgements of the relative sizes and spatial locations of objects in photographic scenes with restricted cues to depth was investigated. The scenes were composed in such a way that no horizon was visible. 7-and 13-year-old children and young adults constructed three-dimensional models of the scenes on a horizontal surface. All groups of subjects responded with an accuracy that was significantly above chance with regard to both the size of the objects and their spatial location. Adults were significantly more accurate than children, and adult spatial scores were maximum for the task.

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