R eview of the Psychology of Graphic Images

The hegemony of positivist thinking has shown text. They are still considered as illustrations, literalsome signs of decline in the psychological sciences ly. However, Massironi’s ‘The psychology of in recent times. Lakoff’s (1986) critique of objectivgraphic images’ is an open invitation to study ist categories and Edelman’s (1992) emphatic apgraphic images on its own terms and not as an praisal of embodied mind are some of the outstandappendage to the word. This book presents a coming contributions echoing this sentiment in the last prehensive taxonomy of graphic images – both decade among several others. Since early seventies representational and non-representational, art and when the study of mental imagery made a resoundnon-art. For a student of perceptual psychology ing return in the mainstream cognitive psychology it nothing could be a better offering than to study and became apparent that the traditional mental understand the principles underlying the construction categories are not going to be abandoned altogether of the very stimulus material he or she uses in the after all. Mental imagery as a respectable domain of experimental laboratory. The exercises given in the investigation continues to flourish despite the longtext are really instructive in this sense. standing controversies surrounding it. Now it is the The schema presented herein has an evolutionary turn of the non-verbal or pictorial aspects of text that flavor without losing sight of its functional signifiis coming to the fore to hold a place along with cance. aspects of language. Manfredo Massironi, who is Now it is widely accepted that the Homo sapiens both an artist and a practicing psychologist has made appeared in Europe about 60,000 years after brancha significant attempt to develop a taxonomy of the ing off from the African origins about 40,000 BCE. graphic forms used in communication and repreAvailable evidence attest to the existence of sentation along with an analysis to delineate the Paleolithic cave art at least in the case of European significant perceptual principles underlying varied cave art as old as 30,000 years before present forms of graphics. The author attempts to capture the (Valladas et al., 2001). Early signs were made in the flavor of graphics from European cave art to modern form of etchings, carvings or marks, using pigments day graphics. like charcoal and other material on rocks, sticks and For a long time drawings, paintings, sketches and other available panels. Even in these earliest begineven photographs were considered an aid to the main nings one can observe the remarkable distinction