Sixteen learning disabled and a matched sample of normal children were individually administered a paired associate learning task which varied in abstractness. Specifically, eight abstract and a like number of concrete nouns were randomly matched with nonsense geometric figures and were presented within a three trial paired associate learning paradigm. As predicted, learning‐disabled children recalled significantly fewer abstract nouns than normals; and groups were similar in their recall of concrete words. While groups did not differ on their overall recall for the first trial, in successive trials normals out performed learning problem children who did not improve on trials two and three. The performance of learning‐disabled students was linked to a failure to employ the verbal strategies necessary in the mediation of abstract verbal material.
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