The relationships among art education experience, drawing skills, spatial abilities, and figural reasoning abilities

The purpose of this study was to examine the relationships among artistic training, drawing skills, spatial abilities, and figural reasoning abilities. The multidimensional nature of drawing, spatial, and figural reasoning abilities required that each construct be measured in multiple ways. Most importantly, drawing skills were estimated using an array of drawing tasks that varied in their similarity to skills taught in art classes. Patterns of correlations between performance on these drawing tasks and reference spatial and figural reasoning abilities showed that artistic abilities are both influenced by and can influence spatial abilities. This study also documented the effect deficits in art education have on drawing performance and suggested that such deficits may impede the development of spatial abilities and figural reasoning abilities.