The problem of art quality in the use of human figure drawing tests

Sixteen clinicians evaluated figure drawings and attempted to determine which were done by psychiatric patients (N = 32) and which were done by matched normal Ss (N = 32). Half of the clinicians received a warning with regard to the error of assessing art ability. Despite the warning, the informed judges relied on art quality in evaluating the drawings, as did the naive judges. The judges achieved a hit rate of 58% (p less than .05). These findings indicate that both the proponents and the critics of figure drawing tests are correct. These tests do have some validity, although limited. At the same time, drawing tests do mistakenly assess art ability. Further, the failure of the effort to decrease the use of art quality indicates that this shortcoming is very difficult to control.