A study of the effects of pictures and context cues in teaching sight word vocabulary used six high ability and six low ability first grade students for each of four experimental conditions: word alone, picture, sentence with no picture (context), and sentence plus picture. The procedures included acquisition and test trials, a retention test immediately following the trials, and a delayed retention test (24 hours later). In the analysis of variance for acquisition trials, ability level was the only significant factor, with high ability children learning words in fewer trials. There were no significant differences in the immediate retention test data, because all the children responded perfectly. The analysis of variance for the delayed retention test revealed a significant picture by context by ability interaction. This pattern of interaction showed perfect retention by children of high ability for combinations of pictures and context, and differences among combinations of pictures and context for children of low ability. In this pattern, the low ability students had more correct responses when pictures alone were present and when context cues alone were present than when no pictures and no context cues were present. (Author/RL)