A visual depiction of various topological features like T-junctions, crosses, and holes.

Note that L-junctions are a relevant contrast class but are not considered a topological feature. Forms with various topological structures are depicted. In the bottom panel, various examples of topological structure in ‘real world’ objects are shown.

Consequences of topology.

Topological structure influences various psychological processes from attention to number perception to memory.

A simple depiction of the drawing paradigm, as well as depictions of the three key distortions measured in this paper.

Representative examples of each distortion, drawn from real adult drawings, are shown.

Results from Experiments 1-3.

(A) The proportion of angles biased towards 90 degrees for each participant. (B) The average magnitude of angular bias in each participant, in degrees. Positive values indicate bias in the direction of 90 degrees. (C) The average distortion of the relative line lengths for each participant. Negative values indicate that the lines were drawn as closer in length. (D) Relative preservation of L-junctions versus T-junctions in Experiment 1. (E) Relative preservation of L-junctions versus T-junctions in Experiment 2. (F) Relative preservation of L-junctions versus T-junctions in Experiment 3. Note that in this final case, we plot the number of added/omitted features across the entire sequence. Thus, the axis in this panel is effectively flipped relative to the previous two panels.

A depiction of the serial reproduction paradigm, as well as examples of partial and complete ‘chains’ of drawings.

As is evident from these drawings: Length and angle information were robustly distorted throughout the chain, while topological structure was largely preserved. Note that each one of the ten unique stimuli is depicted exactly once.

Leo the lion and the results from Experiment 4.

(A) The proportion of angles biased towards 90 degrees for each participant, broken down by age. Adult data from Experiment 1 are plotted as a comparison. (B) The average magnitude of angular bias in each participant, in degrees, broken down by age. Positive values indicate bias in the direction of 90 degrees. Adult data from Experiment 1 are plotted as a comparison. (C) Relative preservation of L-junctions versus T-junctions. Adult data from Experiment 1 are plotted as a comparison.