John M. Kennedy is Professor of Psychology in the Division of Life Sciences at the University of Toronto, Scarborough College. His main areas of interest are: I. Experimental Psychology; II. Psycholinguistics; III. Developmental Psychology; IV. Cognitive Science; V. Visual and Perceptual Semiotics. Since 1990, he has held the position of President and Vice-President of the Toronto Semiotic Circle several times, and in 1994-95 he was on the Governing Board of the International Summer Institute of Semiotics. Professor Kennedy is the editor of Metaphor and Symbol, and has served on the editorial board of several international journals such as the Journal of Visual Communication, Semiotic Review of Books, and the Journal of Applied Semiotics. Professor Kennedy published extensively  in learned journals and edited volumes, and is the author of several books, among which Pictures to touch (Yale Press, 1993), La percezione pittorica (Cortina, 1988) and A Psychology of Picture Perception (Jossey‑Bass, 1974).