Abstract

WECHSLER, Solange Muglia et al. Assessing children’s cognitive development through human figure drawing: Psychometric evidence and temporal comparison. Aval. psicol. [online]. 2024, vol.23, n.1, pp.45-55.  Epub Dec 02, 2024. ISSN 1677-0471.  https://doi.org/10.15689/ap.2024.2301.23212.05.

The human figure drawing (HFD) test is one of the measures most used to assess children’s cognitive development. However, it is necessary to analyze whether HFD still has psychometric qualities in the current times using Wechsler’s scoring system and whether there have been gains in HFD after 15 years, indicating the Flynn effect, which constitutes the aims of this study. Two samples of children were compared regarding HFD. The 2018 sample consisted of 3,126 children (51% girls), and the 2003 sample consisted of 3,340 children (51% girls), ages 5-12. The analysis by IRT, MANOVA, and ANOVA indicated high reliability (.88) as well as validity evidence by age gains (ηp2=0.32). The comparison of the samples, using Cohen’s d and Student’s t-test, showed that the results were very similar. In conclusion, HFD demonstrated good psychometric qualities and did not present the Flynn effect over a 15-year period.

Keywords : Draw-a-Person Test; Cognitive assessment; Intelligence; Children’s drawing; Flynn effect.

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