During the last few years we have undertaken a series of experiments and studies concerning interpretation of image content. Subjects were asked to name image contents, to describe image contents, to index image contents, to write legends, to asses image contents, to create images, to complete a story, to illustrate a story, and to produce informative materials. Results from these experiments, based on more than 62,800 verbal and visual statements from 3,100 subjects, confirm the theory of a dual stage perception process. It is suggested that different assignments cause perception and image interpretation on different cognitive levels.