ABSTRACT
This chapter introduces human development in relation to visual cognition, starting with primate-specific adaptations of the fovea centralis, and ending with eye movement tracking as a means to understand how readers uptake information. We discuss important background topics for later chapters in the volume, such as the human cognitive tendency to order visual information in terms of figure and ground, gestalt perception, optics, and the perception of moving images. We then further distinguish vision from visuality in cases where neurodiversity and visual medical conditions affect individual experience, as well as provide case studies on color and perception. A closing discussion looks at cognitive influences on interpretation at the level of community (moving from flat earth to round earth beliefs), discussing vision and visuality as related to perceptual changes in culture through the development of navigational maps.
