A cognitive psychological study of communication with visual symbols.

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This investigation aimed to develop some useful tools for communication which are convenient not only for handicapped people but also any other people including the aged or young children. In order to achieve this goal, several psychological researches have been conducted to investigate the differences of comprehension between static and animated visual symbols both in preschoolers and in aged people.It is indicated in the psychological researches that participants reported more appropriate names for animated ideograms than they did so for static symbols. Especially, the concepts that represent explicit motions were considered to be better expressed with animated ideograms. It was also suggested that the meaning of the arrow, which was used to show a movement in static ideograms was not easily understood both by preschoolers and aged participants. The performances for these corresponding animated ideograms turned to be improved for many participants as in the case of young children. Two groups showed impressive discrepancy in their naming tasks for some visual symbols.The findings are reflected in the publication of two communication tools. One is an album-like book named "PICBOOK" that incorporated visual symbols and the other is software named "PICDIC" that could be used with animated symbols.