Twenty-four educable mentally retarded children (10 to 15 years old) were randomly assigned to one of three treatment conditions (repetition-control, verbal context, and imagery) to determine the effects of elaboration on paired associate (PA) learning. Data from performances on two lists supported the hypothesis that elaboration in the form of either images or verbal contexts would greatly facilitate PA recall. Analysis did not support a secondary hypothesis that the imagery elaboration group would recall significantly more nouns than the verbal context elaboration group. No statistically significant differences were found between the two types of elaboration. Results were discussed in terms of A.R. Jensen's theory of primary and secondary mental retardation. (Author/GW)