Antonietti A, Cerana P, Scafidi L
Department of Psychology, Catholic University of Milan, Italy.
Percept Mot Skills. 1994 Feb;78(1):179-89. doi: 10.2466/pms.1994.78.1.179.
Three experiments were carried out to study the effects on problem solving of visualization when subjects (secondary-school students and undergraduates) were instructed to generate mental images before the problem was presented and when they received such a hint after being given the problem. In each experiment an arithmetic, a geometric, and a practical problem were presented in three different conditions, a control condition, an "imagery-before" condition, and an "imagery-after" condition. Analysis showed that, in general, the "imagery-after" task helps subjects to overcome the misleading or fixating tendencies which interfere with problem solution; in contrast, the "imagery-before" task may enhance such tendencies.
