The Draw-a-Person task in persons with mental retardation: what does it measure?

As a widely used, easy-to-administer, and nonthreatening task, the Draw-a-Person (DAP) holds particular promise as a nonverbal index of intelligence in persons with mental retardation. The DAPs of 108 adolescents and adults with mental retardation were reliably scored using Naglieri's cognitive and emotional disturbance scoring systems. Contrary to expectations, visual-motor skills emerged as the best predictor of DAP cognitive scores. Intelligence was correlated with DAP scores, but had considerably less predictive value than visual-motor skills. DAP emotional indicator scores were only modestly associated with social adaptation; even less support was found linking DAP emotional indicators to psychopathology. Findings point to considerable caution in using the DAP as an index of intelligence or as a screen for adjustment problems or specific psychopathology. Although related to intelligence, this popular task seems predominantly to measure visual-motor development in adults with mental retardation.