Effects of instructed visual imagining on emergent conditional discriminations

McGee et al. (2024) asked adults to 'picture the image' while they learned word-picture pairs. Half the group got the imagery tip. The other half got standard intraverbal training only.

After training, everyone took a surprise matching test. No extra trials. Just see if the new relations popped out.

The imagery group doubled their accuracy on untrained matching tests. The boost showed up even for pairs they had not seen since baseline.

One sentence of instruction cut errors in half without adding practice time.

Guerrero et al. (2021) also saw strong emergence after simple auditory-visual training. McGee keeps the big effect but swaps modality for a quick mental prompt.

Weissman-Fogel et al. (2015) and Murphy et al. (2014) got the same jump in equivalence yields, but they needed lots of pre-training or overtraining. McGee matches the gain with one sentence.

Hansen et al. (1989) proved that adults with ID need careful component teaching. McGee extends the method back to neurotypical adults and shows that a tiny cognitive cue can replace heavy drill.

If you run equivalence classes for staff training or client programs, add the line 'picture the image' before you start. It costs nothing and can save hours of extra trials. Try it next time you teach new tacts, intraverbals, or matching tasks.