Concerning image, it might be significant to clarify the characteristics of image in comparison with language in the capacity of "Media". In dealing with this subject experimentally, there are various possibilities to draw out the "Response". In this process attention should be paid to the fact that from the image only the parts possible to be expressed with language are extracted and we are apt to think that they are all, leaving behind the most characteristic parts of the image which, in general, are beyond the possibility of verbalization. So, it is very important to decide that we draw out the "Response" by which method and on what level of mental activity. To record and analyze the eye movements is to be the effective ways of studying image as it cears out some aspects. 1) Eye movements occur for the purpose of seeing things more clearly, stimulated by the image in the retina. Then the movements themselves come unconsciously, so they are classified among the voluntary movements and considered as reflexive movements. 2) Eye movements coincide with the act of "seeing" and they are mutually related. 3) As there are already considerable number of researches on the eye movements in reading, the comparative study between those data and the studies of the eye movements through the images might be useful. Some data of eye movements in seeing language and image are a) eye-movements in seeing inverted letters and pictures, and b) eye-movements in seeing a letter and a picture of same meaning. a) It was examinted by means of Ophthalmograph that how eye-movements of 25 school chidren used as subjects changed, when a Chinese compound word (Fig.1) and a simple picture (Fig.2) were each presented in a different condition (directed-inverted). As the result, 1) the characteristic patterns of eye movements, which can be found in no case of directed Chinese compound words, were found in some cases of inverted ones. (Fig.3-7) 2) Neither the characteristic patterns in case of inverted pictures nor the standard patterns in directed ones were found. It results from the facts that the minimum unit of meaning is not so definite in pictures as in letters and there is no rule concerning the order to see. b) Four stimulus (Fig.8), each of which, on both sides, there is a picture and a Chinese character standing for same animal, and six stimulus (Fig.9), each of which is full of a picture or a Chinese character standing for the part of body were presented one afer another and the eye-movements of school children were simultaneously recorded by Ophthalmograph. As the result, 1) "picture first and letter afterwards" was examined and there were more fixation points in picture than in letter. 2) As to the distribution of fixation points, in the case of letter most of all were in the center part, and there was only one small saccadic movement found, but on the other in the case of picture there could be often found saccadic movements along the outline (Fig.10, 11). The pictures are not bound by certain forms socially promised and can be expressed variously. So it may be necessary to examine this problem closely in the more and the wider parts.

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This experiment was based on the assumption that tachistoscopically presented non sense syllables were scanned from their persisting sensory trace or iconic memory, and then verbally rehearsed. In an experiment using the Sperling-type post-stimulus cueing procedure, three variables were manipulated: (a) accoustic similarity of the material, (b) time interval from stimulus offset to the recall cue, and (c) number of syllables presented together. The results showed linear increase in response time as well as linear decrease in recall performance, only with the increase in number of accoustically similar syllables presented. It was suggested that these results are explicable in terms of serial scanning from iconic memory and subsequent verbal rehearsal.

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The author has been engaged in the study of the development of scientific thinking for the past several years. He has found that scientific thinking can be divided into 13 elements. Each element has its own step of development which are shown in a diagram of students from the 1st year in primary school to the 3rd year in lower secondary school. The author conducted research concerning the relationships between the elements of those developing steps with students of primary and lower secondary schools. Then he did the same diagnoses with students in schools for the blind and the deaf, then compared the results with those from the first investigation. In summary, the following facts were observed. In one group of elements both blind and deaf students were behind ordinary students, in another group of elements either blind or deaf were behind, and in the other group, both were almost equal to ordinary students. The causes for these facts were sought. It was recognized that they resulted from defects of the senses of sight or hearing which influence the elements of development of scientific thinking. In the future, on the basis of the above results the author will pursue his research in the application of audiovisual methods to the development of scientific thinking.

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