Reported were two studies designed to clarify the effects of verbal elaboration on children's learning. Study I was undertaken to replicate, with controlled training times, an earlier investigation of the effects of three types of extended verbal elaboration (sentences, semantic paragraphs, and syntactic paragraphs). Trials to criterion analyses…

The ability of 23 educable mentally retarded children (mean chronological age, 9 years) to transfer verbal elaboration techniques to a labeling task was tested following one, two, or no elaboration experiences. An additional 18 retardates were tested in two outside control conditions to identify the effects of reversal experience on acquisition…

Two studies investigated characteristics of verbal elaborations (length and number of relations provided by the syntactic construction) to determine what makes them effective mediators for young children. Study I treated the role of an elaboration's length in facilitating paired associate learning in 22 nursery school children. Data indicated that…