Child Development, xxxx 2014, Volume 00, Number 0, Pages 1–15 The Origin of Representational Drawing: A Comparison of Human Children and Chimpanzees Aya Saito Misato Hayashi Chubu Gakuin University Kyoto University Hideko Takeshita Tetsuro Matsuzawa The University of Shiga Prefecture Kyoto University To examine the evolutional origin of representational drawing, two experiments directly compared the draw- ing behavior of human children and chimpanzees. The first experiment observed free drawing after model presentation, using imitation task. From longitudinal observation of humans (N = 32, 11–31 months), the developmental process of drawing until the emergence of shape imitation was clarified. Adult chimpanzees showed the ability to trace a model, which was difficult for humans who had just started imitation. The sec- ond experiment, free drawing on incomplete facial stimuli, revealed the remarkable difference between two species. Humans (N = 57, 6–38 months) tend to complete the missing parts even with immature motor con- trol, whereas chimpanzees never completed the missing parts and instead marked the existing parts or traced the outlines. Cognitive characteristics may affect the emergence of representational drawings. The oldest representational drawings in existence are examining the drawing behavior of chimpanzees the upper Paleolithic cave drawings of Homo sapiens, (Pan troglodytes), humans’ closest living relatives. who drew animals with a variety of materials and Chimpanzees and humans share about 98.8% of the refined techniques (Beltran, 2000; Chauvet, Des- genome (Chimpanzee Sequencing and Analysis champs, & Hillaire, 1996). A recent study using Consortium, 2005) and share a common ancestor uranium-thorium dating methods estimated that that existed until about 6 Ma. Chimpanzees show some of these drawings are more than 40,000 years marked similarities with humans in some aspect of old (Pike et al., 2012). Since that time, humans have tool using and social behavior. By comparing created art by drawing or painting in every period in behavior between the two species, we can infer every culture. Archeological findings, such as older cognitive traits shared with our common engraved pieces of ochre and shell beads, indicate that ancestor, and differences, the divergent newer our use of symbols emerged at least 100,000 years ago traits, achieved separately by humans and chimpan- (Henshilwood, d’Errico, & Watts, 2009; Henshilwood zees following evolutionary separation. Although et al., 2011). Thus, it is reasonable to suggest that there are no reports of drawing behavior in wild humans had the cognitive capacity for producing chimpanzees, it is common for captive chimpanzees representational drawing when Homo sapiens emerged to learn to draw or paint by manipulating a pen or in Africa about 200,000 years ago. At the very least, a brush on paper. In the early attempts at studying it is likely that they had this capacity when they chimpanzee drawing, Kellogg and Kellogg (1933) spread out of Africa approximately 100,000 years ago. and Ladygina-Kohts (1935/2002) individually cared However, the underlying cognitive mechanisms for for chimpanzees along with their human children drawing behavior are yet unknown. and compared the two species’ development of many behaviors, including drawing. Kellogg and Kellogg reported that a chimpanzee scribbled after Drawing Behavior in Chimpanzees observing a model drawing, but she did not imitate The present study aimed to assess the cognitive the human’s drawing. In contrast, human children capacity that led humans to begin drawing by Correspondence concerning this article should be addressed to © 2014 The Authors Aya Saito, Faculty of Child Studies, Chubu Gakuin University, Child Development © 2014 Society for Research in Child Development, Inc. 30-1 Nakaoida-cho, Kakamigahara, Gifu, 504-0837, Japan. Elec- All rights reserved. 0009-3920/2014/xxxx-xxxx tronic mail may be sent to [email protected]. DOI: 10.1111/cdev.12319 2 Saito, Hayashi, Takeshita, and Matsuzawa preferred imitation. Ladygina-Kohts described stages Premack (1975) verified a likely cognitive factor. In of scribbling in a chimpanzee, but not representa- a composition task with fractured facial photo stim- tional drawings. uli that reduced motor demands, only a 12-year-old The first systematic study on chimpanzee repre- chimpanzee named Sarah succeeded in completing sentational drawing was conducted by Schiller an accurate configuration of the face; 3 other partic- (1951), who presented geometric figures to a chim- ipants did not succeed. panzee, Alpha. Alpha changed her scribbling pat- The ability to manipulate tools by relating one tern depending on the stimuli. For example, she object to another develops in chimpanzees just as it marked on the relatively large figures drawn in the does in human children (Hayashi & Matsuzawa, center of the sheet and scribbled in blank space 2003; Takeshita, 2001). Generally, as chimpanzees when presented with relatively small figures drawn gain experience drawing, they become better at in the periphery. She scribbled on the fractured controlling their pens and are able to produce a piece of a Pacman-like figure or arranged circles. variety of smooth lines (Gardner & Gardner, 1978; Schiller discussed those responses as balancing the Kellogg & Kellogg, 1933; Ladygina-Kohts, 1935/ composition, ascertaining that Alpha was capable 2002; Morris, 1962; Tanaka et al., 2003). However, of intuiting a human-like sense of order. Schiller’s most previous reports concern only infant or juve- studies were followed by Morris (1962), Smith nile chimpanzees as participants, as it is difficult to (1973), and later, Boysen, Berntson, and Prentice control adult chimpanzees safely in face-to-face (1987). Like Schiller, these researchers reported that situations in order to conduct standardized experi- their chimpanzees marked on the figures or scrib- ments. In this study, we conducted experiments bled on blank space; however, they did not observe with two juveniles and four adult chimpanzees, all the balancing behavior observed by Schiller, and of whom had considerable experience participating thus it appears problematic to claim that chimpan- in face-to-face experiments due to their long-term zees possess a sense of order akin to what is likely relationships with a human tester (Matsuzawa, the origin of human aesthetic sense (Lenain, 1995, 2009). 1997). In order to test our hypotheses with chimpanzee In most cases, drawing occurs spontaneously, participants who had considerable drawing experi- that is, without food rewards or special training, ence, we devised two experiments: free drawing and apes will draw or paint as self-gratifying play after presentation of a model (Experiment 1) and (Boysen et al., 1987; Lenain, 1997; Matsuzawa, 1995; free drawing on illustrations of a chimpanzee face Morris, 1962; Schiller, 1951; Smith, 1973; Tanaka, (Experiment 2). In general, after human children Tomonaga, & Matsuzawa, 2003). For this reason, begin scribbling at around 1 year of age, their scrib- drawing opportunities are sometimes proposed as bling develops from accidental markings to con- environmental enrichment for great apes in captiv- trolled lines, and it gains variation as their motor ity. Despite decades of such experiences, however, skills develop. They finally begin to draw represen- chimpanzees’ drawings have consistently been tational figures when they are around 3 years of regarded as scribbles, without clear evidence for age (Cox, 1992; Saito, Hayashi, Ueno, & Takeshita, representational figures. Gardner and Gardner 2011). Although many studies have been conducted (1978) reported that chimpanzee Moja, who learned on child drawing, the majority of systematic studies American Sign Language (ASL), signed on her focused on representational drawing of children drawings “bird” when they asked what it was. This older than 3 or 4 years of age (e.g., Arnheim, 1954; kind of labeling was also observed in other ASL- Freeman, 1972; Golomb, 1973; Goodnow, 1977). The trained chimpanzees or gorillas (Patterson, 1986). studies conducted on scribbling stages have been Nevertheless, to human eyes their works appeared limited to longitudinal observation studies of one to be no more than scribbles and it is difficult to or a few children (Eng, 1954; Luquet, 1927) or a recognize what, if anything, was represented on the cross-sectional study by collecting the drawn fig- page. ures of a large number of children (Kellog, 1969). Why is it that chimpanzees do not draw repre- We carried out the same experiments in chimpan- sentational figures? Certain mechanisms must zees and human children to establish a comparative underlie the human capacity for representational scale of development. Based on the results of the drawing. For example, we must have motor skills two experiments, we discussed potential explana- to control the lines, some cognitive function to tions for the scale of development and to thus translate perception into action, as well as the moti- explore the cognitive basis of representational vation to pick up a writing utensil and draw. drawing. The Origin of Representational Drawing 3 Experiment 1 Table 1 Chimpanzee Participants in Experiments 1 and 2 In order to evaluate the motor skills necessary for figure drawing, a prerequisite for the emergence of Name Age in years Sex representational drawing, we used imitation- of-model drawing. Although the imitation task is a Akira 29 Adult Male Ai 28 Adult Female commonly used developmental