Annabelle Nelson Bisi Lalemi

Swisher and Deyhle (1989) point to the fact that American Indian students have unique gifts given to them by their culture. The following strengths have been reported for American Indian students: preference for pattern-symbolic learning (Walker, Dodd & Bigelow, 1989); strength in spatial ability (Diessner & Walker, 1989) and a strong preference for visual, kinesthetic and tactile learning modalities (Wauters, Bruce, Black & Hocker, 1989).

Imagery's attributes as a cognitive process align closely with Indian children's learning strengths. Imagery relies on visual, kinesthetic and tactile senses, since the area of the brain that organizes sensory information also mediates imagery (Nelson, 1988; Pribram, 1979). Imagery also acts to create internal symbols of external events that represent patterns and spatial relationships (Kaufmann & Helstrupt, 1985).

Research usually examines imagery's role as an extension of perceptional functioning (Shephard & Metzler, 1971), its role in memory (Greeson, 1981; Goldston & Richman, 1985; Rohwer, 1970) or its function in improving sports' performance (Suinn, 1983). A neglected area of research is imagery's role in creativity and problem solving (Speidel & Troy, 1985).

Initial research in imagery and creativity implies that they are closely related (Gowan, 1978). Horng and Torrance (1987) report that measures of flexibility, vividness and richness of imagery predict high creativity scores. Imagery assists creativity since it is the preferred human processing mode when tasks are abstract (Paivio, 1969), or require increased information processing in a novel situation (Kaufmann, 1980). Pylyshyn (1981) reports that imagery accesses an underlying matrix of information in the unconscious mind which can explain the insight or "aha" phenomenon that accompanies the creative process.

Since, imagery is closely tied to the creative process, and since imagery matches American Indian children's cognitive strengths, imagery training can be a strategy to improve these children's school performance. If this was documented, imagery training could be used as an instructional tool to increase American Indian children's creativity and problem solving ability in adapting to the school environment and in completing academic tasks.

The following study was designed to document whether or not imagery training in fact would improve children's creativity scores on the Torrance Test of Creative Thinking (TTCT) (Torrance, 1974). The TTCT has two sections, figural and verbal. The figural form was chosen as a measure of creativity because it does not appear to be culturally biased (Tonemah, 1987). Creativity as defined on the figural TTCT test is drawing novel forms in frequency and elaboration, compared to other children and to the student's own performance.

The subjects in both the control and experimental groups were second and sixth graders at San Simon School, a BIA day school on the Tohono O'odham Nation reservation 80 miles south and west of Casa Grande, Arizona. Tohono O'odham translates to desert people. This tribe's traditional lands are the Sonoran Desert which is in the southwest U.S. as well as in northern Mexico. The tribe now numbers around 15,000. San Simon school serves a number of small villages.

Both the control and experimental group each had 20 children. Each had eight second graders and 12 sixth graders. Average ages of the children in the groups are presented in Table 1.

TABLE 1
Subjects Mean Ages By Group

The design was a group design comparing an average composite TTCT score of a control group who did not have imagery training to an experimental group who received six 15 minute imagery training sessions.

Imagery training for the experimental group occurred in a small group setting outside the children's classroom for 15 minutes each day across 6 days. Training was implemented by a college student enrolled in an internship. A script was created for each session. The first author can be contacted for a complete script of the sessions. Each session began with the leader and the children using rattles to create improvisational rhythms. The principal of the school who is a Tohono O'odharn tribal member, reported no conflict with using the rattles in the classroom with O'odharn traditions. Creating improvisational rhythm, was done to vivify the imagery (Rider, Floyd & Kirkpatrick, 1985). Rhythm acts to stimulate the limbic system of the brain which also activates the imagery process (Nelson, 1987). Students could keep their eyes open or closed during imagery, since research reports that imagery is nearly as vivid with eyes open or closed (Marks, 1983). After each imagery session, students were given the opportunity to talk about their imagery, and at times they were also asked to draw what they saw. The sessions included the following content:

Session One. Students were shown a picture and then asked to close their eyes to see the picture in their mind. Students discussed one of their favorite movies and then were asked to see a scene from their movie in their mind, using several senses. Students were then asked to let that scene move, as if they were watching the movie.

Session Two. Several exercises emphasized using all senses when imaging. For example: See your favorite food and taste it. See a place outside that you like, walk in it, touch a leaf, feel the wind, hear a sound.

Session Three. Students were asked to see themselves at their desk performing a task well. They were asked to see an imaginary animal helper on their desk. Time was spent focusing on the perceptual details of the animal, and students were asked to interact with the animal in the image. See Figure 1 for a picture of an animal that a student drew when debriefing this imagery exercise.

Session Four. Students were asked to image a situation when they felt they had a problem in dealing with another student. Time was spent vivifying the imagery by noticing perceptual details. Children were asked to let the image transform into a solution. See Figure 2 for a picture a student drew of working out a problem with a friend. A focusing in technique was taught in which they looked at a vague form or color in the image and kept watching it until it became clearer.

Session Six. In this session students were asked to see what they would like to be doing in the future. For most children this took the form of what job they would like to have or places that they would like to visit. The leader assisted students in seeing perceptual details in the imagery and allowing the imagery to move.

All students in both grades were post tested on the figural form of the TTCT which has three different sections. The first section is Picture Construction. Children are presented with a large, black egg. They are asked to make a picture out of it that no one else will think of and to give the picture a title. They are urged to make it different, interesting and complete. In the second section, Picture Completion, children are asked to add lines to ten incomplete figures. In the final section, Lines, children are asked to elaborate on up to thirty sets of two vertical, parallel lines. They are asked to see how many different objects or pictures they can make. Children are given ten minutes to complete each subtest. Children were given the tests in their classrooms as a group. See Figure 3 for an example of the test items and a child's response.

Scoring consisted of rating the originality and elaboration for picture construction, and the fluency, flexibility, originality and elaboration for picture completion and lines. In general, fluency had to do with the number of different drawings, flexibility with the number of categories pictures fell into, originality with the uniqueness of the picture based on norms provided by the TTCT scoring manual, and elaboration dealt with the number of different pertinent details. For purposes of this study, two observers scored the tests independently to check for reliability of ratings. Observers were unable to achieve a reliability percentage over 80% on elaboration, so that measure was thrown out. The three other scores, fluency, flexibility and originality were added to create a composite TTCT score.

The primary results of the study were composite average scores on the TTCT for the control and expenmental group. The control group's composite mean was 53 with a standard deviation of 16. The experimental group's composite mean was 67 with a standard deviation of 17. See Table 2 for a break out of means by grade level and treatment group.

TABLE 2
Composite TTCT Means

A t test on difference on the two means was significant at the .02 level. The degrees of freedom were 38. These results indicate that the imagery training was effective in increasing the children's TTCT composite score.

This study was unique in that a thinking process which other researchers have documented as a strength for American Indian children was used in a training study. Children were trained to use the mental process of imagery which capitalizes on American Indian cognitive strengths of tactile, kinesthetic, visual, spatial and pattern processing. Imagery is also linked to the creativity process.

The reported results showed that Tohono O'odharn children can increase their figural creativity scores on the TTCT after imagery training. The imagery training procedure was short and because of the scripts, did not require extensive training to administer.

Improving children's creativity can have a number of benefits for American Indian students. First, students' self esteem can be strengthened if they are aware they have cognitive strengths and that these can be used to improve their performance. Secondly, students could use their increased creativity to solve problems in the academic environment. Some research indicates that American Indian students' school failure in an environment based on European traditions results from lack of cultural continuity between home and school. The Indian cultures are devalued since they are not represented in the school environment. Increased problem solving ability could help Indian students figure out the unwritten rules and expectations of the school culture for both social interactions and academic tasks.

In addition, if teachers could be taught to use imagery as a teaching tool then American Indian students could capitalize on their strengths, as opposed of dealing with teacher expectations that they will fail. Imagery skills could bridge the cultural gap between the American Indian student and the educational classroom of the mainstream culture. Instead of perceiving school as a setting of potential failure, American Indian children could say "Aha. What's the problem here? Let me visualize it. Let me see how to solve it." In addition, if teachers were trained to use imagery instructional strategies, they could present information and concepts to match the children's cognitive strengths.

One factor that seemed particularly important in the imagery training was giving the students pointers about how to use imagery in specific problem solving situations. For example, one strategy taught was to see an object in the mind and then watch it transform. This type of specificity on how to make imagery training useful would assist in curriculum development.

In answer to the original problem of whether or not imagery training would assist students, the answer appears to be clear. Imagery training will increase creativity performance. This evidence suggests that imagery could be an effective instructional strategy. Other research supports the efficacy of imagery in memory (Rohwer, 1970), sports performance (Suinn, 1983) and self esteem (Speidel & Troy, 1985). Because imagery has a wide array of utility, teaching American Indian children to use imagery would give them an adaptive strategy for succeeding in school. The theoretical implications of these data are that the cognitive strengths reported by other researchers are accurate.