Eye tracking has been utilized for decades to study perceptual processes in a range of fields, and it has proven particularly useful for studying how the viewing behaviours of experts and novices within a field differ from one another. This article reports on a study that uses eye tracking to examine patterns in the ways that visual communication…

In this photo elicitation assignment, each student must take, select, and interpret a picture about a social issue that he/she has learned about in class. The student must then craft either a sensory poem, or answer the SHOWeD questions as designed by Shaffer and modified by Wang, which facilitates the student's interpretation of the picture. As a…

A conceptualization of visual proficiency is offered. A survey is described which asked college students (N = 358) to identify five photographs, five symbols, and five paintings that are generally recognized to be "famous". About 27% of all respondents claimed to recognize all the photographs, 23% recognized all the symbols, and 3%…

Activities involving photographs stimulate visual perceptual awareness. Children understand visual stimuli before having verbal capacity to deal with the world. Vision becomes the primary means for learning, understanding, and adjusting to the environment. Photography can provide an effective avenue to visual literacy. (Author)

Visual criticism is a major component of the new visual communication. Visual communication has changed through the advent of new technology which allows images to be combined and manipulated with relative ease. Visual criticism analyzes the forms and practices of image production and examines the roles of images in society creating a new dialogue…

This 535-page document includes more than 60 papers presented at the 20th Annual Conference of the Visual Literacy Association. Topics cover a wide range of visual literacy interests: computer generated graphics, message design, desktop publishing, photography, critical viewing skills, memory enhancement, and the development of visual…

In some contexts, a photograph may be worth a thousand words. Previous research revealed a dialectical character of photographs: they simultaneously lack determinacy and exhibit an excess of meaning. The purpose of this study was to understand how, under this condition, high school students interpret photographs that were accompanied by different…

A research project investigated the extent to which children's visual awareness and visual literacy were developed through photography. Thirty-four elementary school students were provided with Polaroid "Big Swinger" cameras; they were given one roll of film per day for eight weeks and allowed to photograph whatever they liked. After…

Discusses ten elements of visual or photographic language using examples from a photographer's handling of an assignment to photograph an Alice Cooper concert. (TO)

This study investigates the relationship of teaching strategies emphisizing visual problem solving through the medium of photography to increased visual perceptual levels in second and third grade students. Twenty-five subjects from three classroom groups were randomly assigned to one of three treatment groups labeled Perceptual Principles Group…

Discusses how use of photography in early childhood classrooms enhances visual literacy. Describes how to use photographs in the daily routine to involve parents, build children's identity, and enrich all areas of the curriculum. Also describes use of video cameras in the classroom. (HTH)

This listing of sources pertaining to various aspects of visual communication and their instructional implications contains dissertations, journal articles, books, papers and projects. Eighty-two entries through 1972 are organized in seven sections: (1) the process of communication, (2) research design, (3) screen education/ visual literacy:…

This brief survey of successful visual literacy programs designed for students at the elementary and secondary level outlines projects to teach visual communication skills in Ohio, Indiana (Project Visual Understanding in Education/VUE), Virginia, Iowa (Media NOW), California, Canada, England, and Australia (Visual Education Curriculum Project).…

The purpose of this study was to develop a rationale for and to organize sequences of visual education concepts and skills that could function as a part of a secondary language arts program embodying the approaches of James Moffett. The literature on visual education was studied to identify those factors related specifically to professional…

Visual literacy, as used here, refers to the skills which let a person understand and use visuals to communicate his messages and interpret the messages of others. Visual literacy should be important in the curriculum because: 1) children pay more attention to movies and television than they do to teachers; 2) the plethora of visual information…