Abstract

Determining the creativity of drawings is challenging, and a definitive measure has eluded researchers. Two typical routes are ratings from participants and expert judgments. We wondered if there is another way to evaluate the creativity of drawings: by applying artificial intelligence (AI) heat maps. For the exploratory study reported here, we used an online AI heatmap generator to visualize eighteen drawings (nine high- and nine low-creative drawings). We coded the heatmaps for the number of embedded figures highlighted, the total number of embedded figures in the drawings, and the number of heatmap hotspots. Despite no differences in the average number of figures between high and low drawings, the results showed more hotspots and more highlighting of embedded figures in the low-creativity drawings. The AI heatmaps essentially detected the “hidden figures.” These results support using AI software to discriminate creativity levels in drawings.