Drawing a Close to the Use of Human Figure Drawings as a Projective Measure of Intelligence

Kana Imuta,Damian Scarf,Harlene Hayne,Henry Pharo,Oscar García

doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0058991

Abstract

The practice of using children's human figure drawings (HFDs) to assess their intellectual ability is pervasive among psychologists and therapists in many countries. Since the first systematic scoring system for HFDs was published in 1926, their continued popularity has led to the development of several revised versions of the test. Most recently, the Draw-A-Person Intellectual Ability Test for children, adolescents, and adults (DAP:IQ) was published. It is the most up-to-date form of HFD test designed to assess intellectual functioning across a wide age range. In the present study, we assessed the validity of the DAP:IQ as a screening measure of intelligence in both children and adults. In Experiment 1, 100 4- to 5-year-old children completed the DAP:IQ and the Wechsler Preschool and Primary Scale of Intelligence-Third Edition. In Experiment 2, 100 adults completed the DAP:IQ and the Wechsler Abbreviated Scale of Intelligence. In both experiments, we found only weak to modest correlations between scores on the DAP:IQ and the Wechsler tests. Furthermore, when we compared individual's scores on the two tests, the DAP:IQ yielded high false positive and false negative rates when screening for borderline and superior intellectual functioning. Based on these findings, and based on the lack of validity of previous HFD tests, we conclude that practitioners should not rely on HFD tests as a projective measure of intelligence.

Highlights

Children’s drawings have captured the interest of scientists since the late 19th century
When the analysis was conducted without controlling for sex, r = 0.30, p = 0.002. The magnitude of this partial correlation is slightly lower than the correlations between 6to 11-year-old children’s scores on the Draw-A-Person: A Quantitative Scoring System (DAP):IQ and the WISC-III that are reported in the DAP:IQ manual [11], but it is consistent with previous studies which have typically found modest to moderate correlations between children’s standard scores on earlier versions of human figure drawings (HFDs) tests of intelligence (e.g., DAP:QSS) and the Wechsler tests [10,26,27,28,29,31,32,33,34,45]
Of the five adults who obtained standard scores of 120 or above on the Wechsler Abbreviated Scale of Intelligence (WASI), none of them were identified as having superior intellectual functioning using the DAP:IQ (i.e., 100% false negative rate; for individual scores, see Dataset S2)

Summary

Introduction

Children’s drawings have captured the interest of scientists since the late 19th century. When tracing the developmental progression of children’s drawings, early researchers found that children’s drawings become increasingly more detailed and realistic as they grow older [1,2]. Between 7 and 11 years of age, children begin to pay more attention to the details of the drawing such as clothing, accessories, and hair styles, typically producing realistic human figure drawings (HFDs) by the time they reach 10 to 12 years of age [3,4,5]. Researchers who proposed this idea used children’s school work [6] or teacher ratings [7] as measures of cognitive ability and they found positive correlations between these measures and children’s drawings. Goodenough [8] claimed that her scoring system, based on conceptual elements, allows for the DAMT to be a surrogate measure of children’s intelligence rather than a measure of aesthetic or manual skill

Methods

Results

Conclusion