ABSTRACT
This chapter deals with all kinds puzzles that involve visual perception and visual logic, selectively, from the ancient geometrical conundrums and games, to rebuses and mazes. Visual puzzles bear implications for the nature of human perception and its relation to cognition, as well as for the origin of consciousness itself. Versions of the puzzle are found in different cultures throughout the world, implying that it is likely based on an archetype. The puzzle is an experiment in both imagination and reasoning—a blend that can be called, simply, “visual imaging.” The loculus prefigures one of the best-known manual puzzles of all time—the tangram. Its origin is obscure. Some believe that the word tangram is of American origin, derived from a Chinese word; others believe that it originated in ancient China as a kind of sacred artifact, much like the magic square.
