This summary of a program of research in children's learning describes the effects of pictures and visual imagery on children's cognitive performance. The role of individual differences is highlighted throughout the paper, as are variables which potentially limit the effects discussed. Some of the conclusions were that in a large number of learning tasks children seem to learn better when the materials are presented in pictures than when the materials are presented in words; there appear to be limitations on the effectiveness of pictures in terms of both learner and task differences; subject-generated organizational strategies (visual imagery in particular) greatly facilitate associative learning; and the benefits from an imagery strategy have also been obtained on tasks requiring comprehension of a passage. Areas for further investigation are suggested. (RB)