Visual communication of object concepts at different levels of abstraction

TL;DR

This study investigates how drawing object concepts at various abstraction levels depends on sensory input and goals, revealing that task context influences the level of detail and recognizability in drawings.

Contribution

It demonstrates that drawing specificity and recognizability are affected by cue type and task goal, emphasizing the role of context in visual communication of concepts.

Findings

Label-cued category drawings are most recognizable at the basic level.

Photo-cued exemplar drawings are the least recognizable.

Task context significantly influences drawing detail and recognition.

Abstract

People can produce drawings of specific entities (e.g., Garfield), as well as general categories (e.g., "cat"). What explains this ability to produce such varied drawings of even highly familiar object concepts? We hypothesized that drawing objects at different levels of abstraction depends on both sensory information and representational goals, such that drawings intended to portray a recently seen object preserve more detail than those intended to represent a category. Participants drew objects cued either with a photo or a category label. For each cue type, half the participants aimed to draw a specific exemplar; the other half aimed to draw the category. We found that label-cued category drawings were the most recognizable at the basic level, whereas photo-cued exemplar drawings were the least recognizable. Together, these findings highlight the importance of task context for explaining how people use drawings to communicate visual concepts in different ways.