ArticleScientific reports2021
New indices to characterize drawing behavior in humans (Homo sapiens) and chimpanzees (Pan troglodytes).
Article in Scientific reports, 2021. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 8 papers.
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The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
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Who cites it
8 citing papers in PubMed, 30 citations in OpenAlex.
- Filling, color, and shape: individuality in chimpanzee drawings.Primates; journal of primatology · 2026Article
- Traces of Intentionality: Balance, Complexity, and Organization in Artworks by Humans and Apes.Topics in cognitive science · 2026Article
- Beyond human perception: challenges in AI interpretability of orangutan artwork.Primates; journal of primatology · 2025Article
- From stones to sketches: investigating tracing behaviours in Japanese macaques.Primates; journal of primatology · 2025Article
- Deep learning for studying drawing behavior: A review.Frontiers in psychology · 2023Review
- Using Artificial Intelligence to Analyze Non-Human Drawings: A First Step with Orangutan Productions.Animals : an open access journal from MDPI · 2022Article
- Draw yourself: How culture influences drawings by children between the ages of two and fifteen.Frontiers in psychology · 2022Article
- I Wanna Draw Like You: Inter- and Intra-Individual Differences in Orang-Utan Drawings.Animals : an open access journal from MDPI · 2021Article
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
6 authors at 5 institutions in 2 countries.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
Techniques used in cave art suggest that drawing skills emerged long before the oldest known representative human productions (44,000 years BC). This study seeks to improve our knowledge of the evolutionary origins and the ontogenetic development of drawing behavior by studying drawings of humans (N = 178, 3- to 10-year-old children and adults) and chimpanzees (N = 5). Drawings were characterized with an innovative index based on spatial measures which provides the degree of efficiency for the lines that are drawn. Results showed that this index was lowest in chimpanzees, increased and reached its maximum between 5-year-old and 10-year-old children and decreased in adults, whose drawing efficiency was reduced by the addition of details. Drawings of chimpanzees are not random suggesting that their movements are constrained by cognitive or locomotor aspect and we cannot conclude to the absence of representativeness. We also used indices based on colors and time and asked children about what they drew. These indices can be considered relevant tools to improve our understanding of drawing development and evolution in hominids.
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Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.