Developmental and Geographic Analyses of Spatial Biases in Face Drawings Produced by Children

Abstract

A recent study of a large sample of children living in London demonstrated that their imagination-based self-portraits exhibited systematic drawing biases such as depicting the head too round and the eyes too far up the head. The present study aimed to replicate and extend on these findings in a sample of self-portraits produced by children from all around the world to determine if these drawing biases are universal or culturally specific to children living in Western Europe. Developmentally, children ranging in age from 3 to 11 years old were observed to draw the head too round and the eyes too high up the head. Children ranging in age from 3 to 8 years old, but not children ranging in age from 9 to 11 years old, were observed to draw the mouth too high up the head. As the children grew in age from 3 to 11 years old, these biases persisted, but there were linear trends for the biases of drawing the eyes and mouth too high up the head to become less exaggerated with increasing age. Geographically, children living in Africa, Asia, Europe, and South/Central America were all observed to exhibit these three systematic biases, indicating that these are universal drawing biases not affected by the geographic location the children were raised in.