  Figurative drawing is a skill that takes time to learn, and evolves during
different childhood phases that begin with scribbling and end with
representational drawing. Between these phases, it is difficult to assess when
and how children demonstrate intentions and representativeness in their
drawings. The marks produced are increasingly goal-oriented and efficient as
the child's skills progress from scribbles to figurative drawings.
Pre-figurative activities provide an opportunity to focus on drawing processes.
We applied fourteen metrics to two different datasets (N=65 and N=345) to
better understand the intentional and representational processes behind
drawing, and combined these metrics using principal component analysis (PCA) in
different biologically significant dimensions. Three dimensions were
identified: efficiency based on spatial metrics, diversity with colour metrics,
and temporal sequentiality. The metrics at play in each dimension are similar
for both datasets, and PCA explains 77% of the variance in both datasets. These
analyses differentiate scribbles by children from those drawn by adults. The
three dimensions highlighted by this study provide a better understanding of
the emergence of intentions and representativeness in drawings. We have already
discussed the perspectives of such findings in Comparative Psychology and
Evolutionary Anthropology.
