Evaluation Using Polar Coordinate of the Representation of Movement in the Drawings of Children Aged 5 to 8 Years

Oct 29, 2026

The progressive complexity of mental representation underpins changes in human cognitive development. By evaluating external manifestations of mental representation through children’s graphic productions, the study examines how children display and use indicators when depicting moving figures. Its goal is to assess the appearance and role of these indicators across ages, reconstructing the continuum from non-manifestation to full expression via vectorial interrelationships. Analysis of 240 drawings using polar coordinate techniques reveals an increasing continuum of graphical complexity and roles attributed to moving figures, and supports educational transfer to optimize representational complexity and cognitive development.

LanguageEnglish

CategoryResearch & Report

FormatPDF

Pages16

Reading Time40 min

AccessFree to download

Introduction

Neuroconstructivism and cognitive development

External representations through drawing

Movement representation in children’s drawings

Methods

Polar coordinate technique

Results

Interrelations among movement indicators

Discussion

Educational implications

Conclusion

Article Evaluation Using Polar Coordinate of the Representation of Movement in the Drawings of Children Aged 5 to 8 Years Maria Luz Urraca-Mart½nez 1,*, Maria Teresa Anguera 2 and Sylvia Sastre-Riba 1 􀀁􀀂􀀃􀀁􀀄 􀀆􀀇􀀈 􀀁􀀂􀀃􀀄􀀅􀀆􀀇 Citation: Urraca-Martínez, M.L.; Anguera, M.T.; Sastre-Riba, S. Evaluation Using Polar Coordinate of the Representation of Movement in the Drawings of Children Aged 5 to 8 Years. Int. J. Environ. Res. Public Health 2022, 19, 2844. [https://](https://)[ ](https://)[doi.org/10.3390/ijerph19052844](doi.org/10.3390/ijerph19052844) Academic Editor: Fraser Carson Received: 7 December 2021 Accepted: 23 February 2022 Published: 1 March 2022 Publisher's Note: MDPI stays neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional afﬁliations. Copyright: © 2022 by the authors. Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license ([https://](https://)[ ](https://)[creativecommons.org/licenses/by/](creativecommons.org/licenses/by/)[ ](creativecommons.org/licenses/by/)[4.0/](4.0/)) . 1 Department of Educational Sciences, University of La Rioja, 26006 Logroño, Spain; [silvia.sastre@unirioja.es](silvia.sastre@unirioja.es) 2 Faculty of Psychology, Institute of Neurosciences, University of Barcelona, 08035 Barcelona, Spain; [tanguera@ub.edu](tanguera@ub.edu) * Correspondence: maria-luz.urraca@unirioja.es Abstract: The progressive complexity of mental representation is the basis for changes in human cognitive development. Evaluation of its external manifestations as graphic representation in drawings could be an instrument to understand changes in cognitive development and representational complexity. The aim of this study is to evaluate the appearance and role of the indicators used by children to represent moving ﬁgures in their drawings. This allows us to know the continuum from its non-manifestation to full expression through the vectorial interrelationships of the graphic indicators in each of the ages studied. Participants were n = 240 children from 5 to 8 years old; their drawings of two moving ﬁgures were analyzed, applying the polar coordinate technique. Results show a map of interrelations among the graphical movement indicators and changes in the drawing elements in an increasing continuum of complexity and the roles conferred to ﬁgures sketched. The conclusion is that changes evaluated in drawings can interactively reﬂect mental representation, and they could promote its transformation. The applied transfer of the results to education is discussed, in order to optimize the representational complexity and cognitive development. Keywords: evaluation; mental representation; neuroconstructivism; movement drawing; infancy; polar coordinates 1. Introduction Understanding human development and the successive emergence of competencies is exciting, because it allows us to grasp the complexity of the processes involved in the organic base (the brain), from which the human mind progressively emerges, along with the progressive knowledge of the world, the resolution of tasks, language and decision making, among other skills. One of the most promising current interdisciplinary approaches to investigate and understand cognitive development is neuroconstructivism [1], a framework that uniﬁes different disciplines such as neuroscience, computational models, Piagetian constructivism and epigenetics to describe how the brain is transformed and specializes throughout the development trajectory. Development is understood as a set of continuous changes resulting from the covariation between biological and environmental constraints, through which increasingly complex representations of reality are constructed, along an individual probabilistic epigenesis during which the human mind emerges, originating from the brainin transformation [2] . The internal representation

FAQs

What is the main aim of evaluating children’s drawings in this study?

To evaluate how children depict moving figures and to identify the appearance and role of indicators used in their drawings across ages.

How were the children’s drawings analyzed?

The study applied the polar coordinate technique to analyze drawings of two moving figures from 240 children aged 5 to 8.

What do the results suggest about mental representation?

Changes observed in drawings can interactively reflect mental representation and may support its transformation, with educational transfer discussed to optimize representational complexity and cognitive development.

Oct 29, 2026

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