Research literature concerning children's comprehension of pictures was compiled in order to clarify the role of textbook-type pictures in primary school children's learning of mathematics. The review is presented in eight sections: (1) psychological studies which investigated the role of imagery, comparing pictures with words, including (a) paired-associate tasks and (b) recall and/or recognition tasks; (2) sequence of studies investigating children's interpretation of progressively changing pictures; (3) characteristics of pictures; (4) children's picture perception; (5) children's picture preference; (6) children's ability to perceive depth in pictures; (7) relationship between pictures and reading skills of children from preschool through intermediate grades; and (8) the influence of pictures on the perception of mathematical relationships in primary school mathematics and on the solution of algebra word problems. In addition to a summary for each section, abstracts are provided for each study. (MS)