Four experiments involving 367 college students and 259 sixth graders demonstrate that children and adults, when asked to represent vision schematically, have a bias to draw arrows pointing away from the eye and toward a visual efferent. The role of this type of representation in learning is discussed. (SLD)

Ancient philosophers, such as Plato and Euclid, believed in an extramission theory of visual perception, which held that there are emissions from the eyes during the act of vision. Three studies, comparing college and elementary school students, found a decrease over age in the belief in extramission and an increase in the belief that vision…