Summary. Twenty‐six African boys entering technical school were given a series of intellectual tests involving verbal, numerical, pictorial and constructional material, and also an ‘abstraction’ test (Weigl) and ‘memory for designs’ (Terman‐Merrill). None showed qualitative differences from English subjects in their performance on verbal, numerical and abstraction tests. On the non‐language tests their performance was slower than would be expected of English subjects, and they showed differences in their innaccurate orientation of drawn and constructed designs.At the conclusion of two years' technical training, the subjects were retested on the same material. Significant changes were increases in scores on the non‐language tests. These were associated with increased speed and accuracy of orientation, and also apparently with a more ‘synthetic’ approach toward visual material.It is suggested that an ability which may be poorly developed under these cultural conditions, and which may be increased by appropriate educational methods, is that of perceiving visual material as a whole (or ‘Gestalt’ perception).