The Visual Thinking Strategies (VTS) curriculum was developed to engage beginning viewers in looking at works of art and has been used with children in many parts of the United States and Eastern Europe. The VTS was designed to develop critical thinking in viewing art and to enhance the function of the teacher as the facilitator of the reasoning process and aesthetic growth. To the surprise of the developers, teachers, parents, and administrators began reporting the transfer of the thinking patterns promoted by the VTS into other subjects. A study was conducted to explore the existence of transfer between the VTS program and other subjects. Data were collected from 25 experimental and 25 control subjects in 2 age groups (second and fourth grades) over 5 years and from the teachers of the students in the experimental group. The research instruments included a variety of tools, but the core of the analysis was the Aesthetic Development Interview, which studied the individual's mental constructions. A Material Object Interview, in which the subject was asked to comment on an object (natural or manmade) was developed to assess transfer. The likelihood that the VTS was increasing critical thinking skills was supported by the evidence of transfer among students in the experimental group, and improved achievement test scores for the school at which the program was implemented on the eighth-grade achievement test. Results from the study, which suggest that it is possible to develop critical thinking skills through the VTS and that such skills transfer to other subjects, appear to be more than findings of correlation; they appear to indicate causality. (Contains 5 tables, 12 figures, 31 endnotes, and 41 references.) (SLD)