Abstract
The effect of age, handedness and sex on directionality of drawing in both hands was studied in 138 right- and left-handed children aged 5-10 and a younger adult sample aged 18-25. The experiment focused on biomechanical versus environmental aspects of directionality. Previous research has suggested that right-handed drawers are more likely to be influenced by biomechanical constraints whereas left-handed drawers are more influenced by environmental constraints (Braswell & Rosengren, 2002). Directionality was examined using several drawing tasks including: one object drawing task, two stroke direction tasks and three circle-drawing tasks. Each task was completed with both the preferred and non-preferred hands. The direction of drawing was recorded. Overall, results indicated that right-handers produce more left-directed profiles than left-handers. With respect to differences between age groups, it was found that adult right-handers were more likely to draw more left-directed profiles, draw more lines from left-to-right and draw more circles in a counter-clockwise direction. Right-handed children performed directly opposite to adults. Therefore, children aged 5-8 performed directly opposite from adults until the age of 9 where adult-like patterns of directionality occur. An effect of handedness was also found, where left-handers were more variable in terms of the age at which adherence to preferred stroke direction occurs. Finally, sex also played a role, as overall females were more likely to draw left-directed pictures than males. The results will be discussed in terms of the factors that affect directionality (i.e., environmental versus biomechanical) in drawing and how this changes with respect to age.Acknowledgments: NSERC