We frequently encounter groups of similar objects in our visual environment: a bed of flowers, a basket of oranges, a crowd of people. How does the visual system process such redundancy? Research shows that rather than code every element in a texture, the visual system favors a summary statistical representation of all the elements. The authors…

This paper reviews the literature on visual literacy over the past 25 years. The following areas of visual literacy are reviewed: theoretical foundations of visual literacy; establishing a research agenda; visual vocabulary; visual learning/visual teaching; visual thinking; visual-verbal relationship; and visible language. (Contains 158…