Exploring artificial intelligence approach to art therapy assessment: A case study on the classification and the estimation of psychological state based on a drawing

The art therapy assessment involves the classification of the psychological state of the drawer into several groups (e.g., normal or abnormal) and the estimation of it in numeric (e.g., psychological examination score) based on the interpretation of his or her drawing. Based on a qualitative approach to these tasks, a statistical approach relying various quantitative features of drawings has broadened the scope and methods in the analysis of the psychological states through drawings. In this paper, we explore an artificial intelligence approach and discuss its superiority over the statistical approach and also identify its limitations. The synergistic effects of the interdisciplinary framework combining qualitative, statistical, and artificial intelligence approaches is expected to make a critical contribution to the development of art therapy assessment. •AI approach yields better performance, additional information, and new inspiration.•Statistical approach explains the process clearly how it obtained the results.•Cooperation among the fields of art therapy, statistics, and AI is essential.