The purpose of this study was to resolve the focal attention versus context controversy. Eighty first-grade and 84 second-grade children from a metropolitan school system served as subjects. Subjects in each grade were randomly assigned to each of four experimental conditions: picture-word, no picture-word, picture-sentence, and no picture-sentence. Test stimuli for all four conditions were identical. Four index cards each contained a single word, either "cup,""cat,""bat," or "bed," printed in an artificial alphabet. The procedure of testing consisted of a warm-up period, a training period, and a testing period, all completed at one sitting. Subjects were told to look at the word, put a finger under it, and state what the word was. No feedback was given on the test trials. The results indicated that the word-alone treatment required significantly fewer trials to criterion. Furthermore, more correct responses were given with this treatment when compared with all other conditions. (WR)