Sculpture: The Development of Three-Dimensional Representation in Clay

Abstract

The development of three-dimensional rep resentation in clay was examined in a study that involved 109 children, ranging in age from 4 to 13 years, and 18 college students. The study was designed to test two alternative hypotheses of the order in which three-di mensional concepts develop in sculpture. The linear-graphic hypothesis specifies a se quence from one- to two- to three-dimensional representation; the global-modeling hypothe sis predicts an early, albeit primitive three dimensional conception. Subjects modeled 8 different tasks: Cup, Table, Man, Woman, Per son Bending, Dog, Cow, and Turtle. Results indicate significant task and age effects on scales that assess dimensionality, figurai dif ferentiation, construction style, and type of representational model. These findings sug gest that three-dimensional conceptions of uprightness and multiple sides emerge early on in the developmental sequence and doc ument a previously unsuspected early com petence in this domain. Within this medium, differentiation of dimensions proceeds from a basic, albeit primitive three-dimensional con cept. The data do not support the hypothe sized developmental sequence from one- to two- to three-dimensional representational conceptions in clay.

Cite this work

No public copy is stored for this record, so only the metadata is cited.

Stored only when both papers are in the corpus — 7 citations exist upstream.

Papers that cite the same references — the relational fallback while embeddings are still backfilling.