ABSTRACT
This introduction presents an overview of the key concepts discussed in the subsequent chapters of this book. The book deals with the perception of pattern and structure and presents perception of meaning. It considers reading to be the extraction of meaning from the text and suggests that the processes of perception and comprehension are similar for reading aloud and reading silently. The book discusses the acquisition of meaning by infant perceivers, and the course of their development as their perception of meaning becomes more detailed and precise. It highlights the relevance of the perceiver’s own knowledge in guiding the perceptual exploration of events that results in the acquisition of new knowledge. The book is concerned explicitly with how knowledge of the structure of a visible event guides one’s continued tracking of it. It outlines the development during infancy of the perception of events that are both seen and heard.
