DIFFICULTIES IN PICTORIAL DEPTH PERCEPTION IN AFRICA

Abstract

Hudson's Pictorial Perception test and a construction test, in which subjects were asked to construct geometrical models shown on pictures, were administered to Central African schoolboys and domestic servants. It was found that a significant proportion of subjects who were judged to be two‐dimensional perceivers on Hudson's test built three‐dimensional models; the validity of Littlejohn's and Du Toit's explanation is therefore questioned. The models thus obtained were, however, often both distorted and oddly oriented. Domestic servants were found to be more often two‐dimensional perceivers than schoolboys; it appears therefore that passive exposure to pictorial material can play only a minor role in determining pictorial depth perception. It is suggested, on the basis of the results obtained, that the two‐dimensional responses on Hudson's test may be due, at least in part, to the subjects' inability to organize the material presented in the test pictures.