After that, everything else has to be learned by association. Primitive man made drawings on cave walls. We call these Iconographs because they are literal representations of things, as we see them, translated into two dimensional drawings. The word 'icon' has, traditionally, a much deeper significance as it also describes a particular type of religious painting representing much more than its 'face value'. To understand an icon, we must first of all recognise it.
Recognition comes from matching the visual symbol with a memory, or experience, stored in our brain.
If the symbol is poorly represented because of inept draughtsmanship or if its significance is beyond the viewer's experience, then recognition fails. It can also fail even if the representation is good and the viewer knows what it is, if it is presented out of its usual context. The second type of symbol is the Ideograph . This is a graphic representation of an abstract idea - one that has no direct visual equivalent, because we can't see it. Love is often symbolised by a heart - because you can't draw love.