Four types of sentences differing in grammaticalness and amount of association between component words were presented to 80 educable mentally retarded children for recall after varying delay intervals. The children (all male and between the ages of nine and 14) sat quietly during the delay intervals of named numbers from a memory drum. The results showed a significant effect of type of sentence, nature of delay activity (silence versus number naming), and length of delay activity. A significant interaction of length of delay interval by nature of delay activity was also found. The results were interpreted as reflecting inefficient organizational strategies in processing linguistic strings. (Author/DO)