The role of inhibitory control in the development of human figure drawing in young children

We investigated the role of inhibitory control in young children’s human figure drawing. We used the Bear–Dragon task as a measure of inhibitory control and used the classification system devised by Cox and Parkin to measure the development of human figure drawing. We tested 50 children aged between 40 and 64 months. Regression analysis showed that inhibitory control predicted development in human figure drawing even after the effect of age was excluded. These data suggest that inhibitory control plays a role in the development of children’s drawing and imply a relation between the executive functions and representational change.

► Children aged 3 to 5 years were tested on well established drawing and inhibitory control (IC) tasks.
► IC is predictive of developments in ability to draw a human figure.
► IC predicts the transition from scribbles to figurative drawing, as well as drawing complexity.
► Conceptual accounts of drawing development should recognise quantitative changes in processing.