Proceedings of the Annual Meeting of the Cognitive Science Society

The drawing process (how we draw), together with its outcome (what we draw), provides valuable insights into the cognitive mechanisms and motor control underlying symbolic representation. To depict developmental changes in the drawing process, this study examined the drawing sequences of Thai-speaking adults and 4- to 5-year-olds during an object copying task. After segmenting the drawing process into discrete strokes and annotating each stroke with its corresponding object part, we extracted patterns distinguishing adults' and children's drawing sequences. Results indicated that when drawing a quadrangle part that forms the overall structure of an object (e.g., a chair's backrest), Thai adults complete it with multiple strokes, while children typically use one stroke. Moreover, when drawing objects with hierarchical structures (e.g., a tournament), most adults group parts of the same level, while young children tend to draw parts in physical proximity sequentially. This study proposes a method for analyzing developmental changes in drawing sequences and highlights key questions for future developmental research on drawing, object recognition, and symbolic representation.