Artists as experts in visual cognition

This study addressed the question of how artists differ from non-artists in visual cognition. Four perception and twelve drawing tasks were used. Arti sts outperformed non-artists on both kinds of tasks. Regression analyses re vealed common visual processes in the two kinds of tasks and unique varianc e in the drawing tasks. The advantage of artists over non-artists was appar ently in the way they perceptually analysed as well as in how they drew. Th e perceptual advantage seems to be closely linked to the activity of drawin g and is discussed with reference to artists' extensive experience in visua l interaction with objects and images during drawing. Artists appear to be more proficient at using visual analytic procedures that are qualitatively similar to those of novices, unlike experts in many other domains.