A study examined variables that affect the acquisition of automaticity of verbal skills. Among the variables examined were practice, novelty or familiarity of a word or word category, the speed and efficiency with which persons acquire automaticity, reaction time, and number of tasks performed concurrently. Subjects, 30 sixth and seventh grade students at the university school at the University of Wyoming, were randomly assigned to order of treatment. Each student participated in three 30-minute sessions. Session one included instructions, two 20-task decoding practice trials, instructions, and two 30-task decoding trials with reaction times recorded. Sessions two and three began with review instructions followed by three 30-task trials. Students were allowed ten minutes of game time with a computer game disk following the second and third sessions to add attractiveness to the otherwise monotonous decoding activity. The first task was a visual task, the second an aural task, and the third task was a dual-task involving both visual and aural modes. Single task reaction times were briefer than under dual task conditions, reaction time was reduced from trials one through eight and subjects responded to familiar words more rapidly than to unfamiliar words. Reading level, number of tasks, familiarity of stimuli and practice accounted for approximately 42% of the variance in reaction time for the aural task. (HTH)