DEVELOPMENT OF ABILITY TO PERCEIVE AND PRODUCE PICTORIAL DEPTH CUE OF OVERLAPPING

The perception of the pictorial depth cue of overlapping was studied in 3, 5 and 7 yr old children. Both a sequential and a simultaneous picture/object-matching task were used to test sensitivity. All age groups successfully perceived the depth relation information provided by pictorial overlapping. Height on the picture plane which projectively covaries with overlapping, was not consistently used as a depth cue by any age group. Children''s drawings were analyzed for the presence of distance information. The drawings of the 3 and 5 yr old children contained no overlapping cues and indicated a general lack of understanding of the third dimension behind the picture plane. Seven year old children showed the beginnings of this understanding through their use of size perspective and height on the picture plane as depth cues. For all the ages the production of the overlapping cue lags behind its perception.