Tracking visual segmentation: connecting semiotic and cognitive perspectives

Abstract

This article introduces a new methodology for deriving the dynamics of visual segmentation in relation to the underlying cognitive processes involved. The method combines social semiotics approaches to visual segmentation with eye-tracking studies on authentic image viewing and simultaneous image description. The authors’ thesis is that visual segmentation suggested by the social semiotic approach is traceable in the behaviour of the viewers who perceive images while creating meaning. From this perspective, visual zooming is seen as both perceptually, cognitively, grammatically and analytically relevant. The interdisciplinary approach developed in the article presents new perspectives on the ways images are segmented and interpreted.