Abstract: In this paper, the authors divided children’s anticipatory image on geometric figure into two levels: recognitive anticipatory image and productive anticipatory image. There were three kinds of plan geometric figure and three kinds of solid geometric figure about anticipatory image works adopted in this paper. The former involved moving one straight line parallel, symmetry figures and overlapping figures, and the latter involved developing the surfaces of solid geometric figure, rotating a plane figure 360 degrees in space and cutting solid geometric figures. 300 children from 3 to 12 years old were tested. The results showed: (1) The emergence of children’s recognitive anticipatory images on geometric figure emerged from 4 to 5 years old three years earlier than the productive anticipatory images emerged from 7 to 8 years old;(2) Children’s anticipatory images on plan geometric figure tasks emerged earlier than solid geometric figure tasks ;(3) Children’s anticipatory images on simple tasks emerged earlier than complex tasks

Key words: child, geometric figure, anticipatory images, recognitive anticipatory images, productive anticipatory images