Training preschool children to use visual imagining as a problem-solving strategy for complex categorization tasks.

It has been suggested that verbally sophisticated individuals engage in a series of precurrent behaviors (e.g., covert intraverbal behavior, grouping stimuli, visual imagining) to solve problems such as answering questions (Palmer, 1991; Skinner, 1953). We examined the effects of one problem solving strategy--visual imagining--on increasing responses to intraverbal categorization questions. Participants were 4 typically developing preschoolers between the ages of 4 and 5 years. Visual imagining training was insufficient to produce a substantial increase in target responses. It was not until the children were prompted to use the visual imagining strategy that a large and immediate increase in the number of target responses was observed. The number of prompts did not decrease until the children were given a rule describing the use of the visual imagining strategy. Within-session response patterns indicated that none of the children used visual imagining prior to being prompted to do so and that use of the strategy continued after introduction of the rule. These results were consistent for 3 of 4 children. Within-session response patterns suggested that the 4th child occasionally imagined when prompted to do so, but the gains were not maintained. The results are discussed in terms of Skinner's analysis of problem solving and the development of visual imagining.