Abstract
The Piagetian description of the stages of development of children's drawings is reviewed. It is argued that recent studies have shown that the particular stage of development which is exhibited by any given drawing is itself dependent upon the task demands which are imposed upon the child in the drawing situation, a finding which indicates the necessity for an alternative theoretical framework for the analysis of children's drawings. An alternative framework which draws upon the notions of task demands and cue-dependency rather than upon the notion of general stages of development is discussed, and it is pointed out that this alternative framework entails a shift towards the employment of an experimental methodology for the investigation of children's drawings. The paper concludes by reviewing the results of some experiments which illustrate this recent shift in theory and methodology.