Do symbols affect our experience of the object that is represented?

Incomprehensible question time! Sorry.

Children go through a symbolic drawing phase. they will draw a “person” – usually a head with lines for arms and legs coming off it. When they need to represent a person, they draw that symbol. They continually come back to the symbol (“How do I draw a person again?”), rather than make an attempt to draw what they are really seeing.

When they get a bit older, they will make attempts at more realistic drawing (or more realistic drawing). Those that enjoy this and/or are talented will continue to expand their ability to draw what they are actually seeing. But many people just stop and give up, maintaining more sophisticated symbols to represent objects.

We use words as symbols in order to communicate. And we think in language (I believe? At least I do much of the time.). Are our symbols a way of describing what we see/feel/hear/taste/etc, or are they a representation of a generalization or model? If the latter, does our perpetual experience of objects and experience through symbolic understanding affect our experience?

I was out walking the dog when I got home from work, and I noticed that everywhere I looked, my mind named “bush”, “cat”, “tree”, “house”, “path”, “street”, “flower smell”, “lawnmower sound”, etc. Of course, right? But the concepts felt crude and simple, like a child’s symbolic drawing. Was I really seeing? What was I missing by my immediate labeling of everything that came into my consciousness?

I warned you. Sorry, again.