This study investigated subjects' ability to combine and organize information from different sentences, as well as their ability to retain that information. Ninety-six college undergraduates were given three trials to learn the characteristics of ships from a text. Attributes of each ship were clustered together (name organization), or sentences describing one attribute for all ships (e.g., their speeds) were clustered together (attribute organization). It was found that organization affected (1) level of recall, (2) subjective organization of recall, and (3) apprehension of certain relationships. Subjects tested for attribute organization, who had errorless recall, had difficulty answering questions that required combining information about each ship. Attribute organization produced the lowest free recall and caused subjects to impose a new order on sentences within clusters. The position of names and attributes was varied in the text sentences and learning objectives given to subjects. It was also found that the number of sentences incorrectly recalled increased if position was in some way incompatible with text organization. (Author/DI)