How does arnheim explain the "Tadpole Man" painted by children?

Arnheim explained the "Tadpole Man" painted by children as follows:

Arnheim explained the reason why children draw tadpoles from his theory of "perceptual differentiation": the painting style of early children is very simplified, because their perception has not been differentiated. As children grow up, their perceptual ability is constantly differentiated, and their painting style is becoming more and more complicated.

In the early days, children not only used circles to represent people's heads, but also used circles to represent the whole human body. With the growth of children, some parts and organs of the human body will be pointed out according to the requirements of adults, but the style of children's painting is still subject to the level of perceptual differentiation, and all parts of the human body are represented by circles and the simplest graphics.

Arnheim experience:

1939 went to England and settled in the United States the following year. 194 1 and 1942 were funded by Rockefeller Foundation and Guggenheim Foundation respectively. 1943 to 1968, teaching art psychology at Sarah Lawrence College.

During this period, she was supported by 1959 Fulbright project and went to Imperial Tea Women's University of Japan for exchange. 1968, he became a professor of art psychology in the Department of Visual and Environmental Studies at Harvard University. 1974 retired and was awarded the title of honorary professor. Since then, he has been a visiting professor of art history at the University of Michigan. He died in Ann Arbor, Michigan on June 9th, 2007.

Arnheim's gestalt psychological aesthetics is based on modern psychological experiments. He believes that perception is the basis of artistic thinking. Therefore, the "tension" theory is put forward, which holds that the structure of force is the basis of artistic expression and "isomorphism" is the essence of art.