Abstract: Research on eye movements during reading and scene perception is briefly reviewed. It is quite clear that cognitive variables influence how long readers look at words and where they look next. There are also clearly some differences in eye movements between Chinese and Western readers. However, for the most part it appears that there are more similarities than differences and that what differences do occur are due more to differences in the nature of the written orthography than due to cultural differences. There are also clearly cognitive influences on eye movements during scene viewing. Research from my lab is reviewed which challenges the view that culture influences eye movements during scene viewing. While we do not deny that there are cultural influences on cognition and thinking, it seems to be the case that cultural differences do not influence properties of the oculomotor system resulting in differences in where subjects look early in scenes.