HYPOTHESES RELATED TO PROCEDURES PERMITTING STUDENTS TO BRANCH AT THEIR OWN OPTION WERE TESTED. THE FIRST HYPOTHESIS WAS THAT A FIXED-SEQUENCE PROGRAM WOULD BE LESS EFFECTIVE THAN THE SAME ITEMS CAST AS STATEMENTS IN TEXTBOOK FORMAT THROUGH WHICH THE STUDENT COULD SKIP AT HIS OWN OPTION. THE SECOND HYPOTHESIS WAS THAT PERFORMANCE ON A PROGRAM WHICH ALLOWED THE STUDENT TO REVIEW PREVIOUS MATERIALS, ONE ITEM AT A TIME, WOULD ALSO EXCEED PERFORMANCE ON A FIXED-SEQUENCE PROGRAM. SUBJECTS FROM JUNIOR AND SENIOR HIGH SCHOOL CLASSES WERE RANDOMLY GROUPED. THE FIXED-SEQUENCE GROUP WAS GIVEN, IN A FIXED-SEQUENCE, 61 TEACHING ITEMS ON CARDS THAT WERE IN A LOOSE-LEAF BINDER. THEY WERE TO GIVE A COVERT RESPONSE TO EACH ITEM AND COMPARE ANSWERS WITH THE CORRECT ANSWER. THE BACK-BRANCHING GROUP WAS GIVEN THE SAME ITEMS IN A FIXED-SEQUENCE, THE GROUP WAS PERMITTED TO REVIEW EARLIER MATERIAL BY LOOKING BACK, ONE ITEM AT A TIME. THE TEXTBOOK GROUP WAS GIVEN A TYPEWRITTEN TEXT OF THE SAME MATERIALS IN STATEMENT AND PARAGRAPH FORM. THERE WERE NO LIMITATIONS TO THE MANNER OF USE. MASTER OF THE TOPICS WAS TESTED WITH 24 FREE-RESPONSE AND 24 MULTIPLE-CHOICE QUESTIONS. HALF OF THE QUESTIONS WERE SIMILAR TO THE TRAINING MATERIALS AND HALF WERE ON SITUATIONS WHICH REQUIRED APPLICATION OR TRANSFER OF LEARNING. COMPARISON OF THE SCORES FOR THE TEXTBOOK AND THE FIXED-SEQUENCE GROUPS CONFIRMED THAT THE TEXTBOOK METHOD, WHICH PERMITTED FREEDOM IN BRANCHING, WAS BETTER. THE HYPOTHESIS THAT THE BACK-BRANCHING METHOD WOULD BE SUPERIOR TO THE FIXED-SEQUENCE METHOD WAS NOT CONFIRMED.