Structural Equivalences Are Essential, Pictorial Conventions Are Not: Evidence From Haptic Drawing Development in Children Born Completely Blind.

Arnheim hypothesized that as children develop they invent increasingly more structural equivalents. Thus, in their drawings children should increase the number and complexity of both representational concepts (e.g., object edges) and associated object shape features (e.g., line junctions). The authors tested whether a framework derived from this hypothesis could describe the progression of raised-line (haptic) drawings made during nine months by three children born totally blind. With no drawing tuition, these children made drawings of objects such as cars, human figures, trees, and flowers. Later drawings had more features than earlier ones and could be mapped onto more complex, predicted representational concepts, supporting Arnheim's conjecture. Because this applied even if children did not have visible models, the increase in features occurred not because children learned to copy ornate pictures (or increasingly more conventions) but because they developed increasingly complex concepts to describe the many features of objects. Our findings and reframing of structural equivalences suggest a view of children's drawing as expression of "everyday aesthetics" through the development of personal creativity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]