Copying in Drawing: The Importance of Adequate Visual Analysis versus the Ability to Utilize Drawing Rules

Copying in drawing requires many skills. 2 theoretically important abilities are visual analysis and drawing-rule utilization. In this experiment, training methods designed to improve preschool children's ability to analyze figures and to utilize drawing rules were compared in terms of their effects on figure discrimination and copying accuracy. Drawing-rule utilization resulted in improved copying accuracy but did not improve discrimination ability, while training in visual analysis resulted in improved discrimination ability but not improved copies. Further, increased improvement in figure discrimination was related to decreased copying accuracy. It was concluded that drawing rules are essential and that adequate visual analysis is a necessary but not sufficient prerequisite to the production of accurate copies.