There have been assertions in recent literature on visualization that students are reluctant to visualize when doing mathematics, particularly at the high school and college levels. While there is research evidence that in the classes of 'nonvisual' teachers even 'visual' students will suppress their preferred visual cognitive modes in favor of nonvisual methods used by their teachers, our data show that it is simplistic to claim that students are reluctant to visualize. In the present international study, the same instrument for measuring preference for visual methods in solving nonroutine mathematical problems was administered to students in three countries, South Africa, Sweden and the United States. Some results are analyzed here.