Symbolic immunity and flexibility in preschoolers' human figure drawings

Twenty-eight preschoolers (14 boys, 14 girls) ranging in age from 3 years 11 months to 5 years 8 months (M = 4 years 6 months) drew pictures of a person and then were randomly assigned to 1 of 2 conditions, to determine if they would change their human figure drawings after participating in tasks designed to make body parts more salient. Half of the children were given a snowman-shaped outline and were asked to draw nine body parts read by an experimenter. The other children heard the same list and pointed to the parts on themselves. Then the children were given more paper and were asked to draw a person again. Analyses indicated that, in both groups, there was no significant difference in the number of body parts in the two sets of drawings. Overall, the preschoolers displayed symbolic immunity to attempts to change their drawings of human figures. However, there was a curvilinear relationship between the children's artistic stage and addition of body parts: Tadpole-person drawers added body parts to second drawings more than did scribblers or conventional drawers. Findings are discussed in terms of theories of human figure drawings, symbolic flexibility, and the role of contextual support in artistic skill.