Motor control differentiates children's from adults' drawings for child and adult judges

In two exploratory studies, motor skill as a possible distinctive feature for differentiating drawings made by second-grade children and by college students was tested by having child and adult judges sort drawings made by children and by adults. Adults drew with their preferred (motorically skilled) or nonpreferred (nonmotorically skilled) hand. Children and adults were equally accurate in discriminating children's from adults' preferred-hand drawings, but child judges confused children's and adults' non-preferred-hand drawings. Child, but not adult, judges confused adults' preferred-hand and adults' non-preferred-hand drawings. Thus, children were sensitive to characteristics of drawings that depended on motor skill when it was an additional feature of difference but not when it was the only distinctive feature. Motor control effects in constructing drawings and evidence of motor control in responding to drawings warrant further study and perhaps greater emphasis in theories of drawing development.