Clarification of one aspect of Jensen's model of cognitive abilities provided the impetus for this study. Jensen found that sentence construction as a mediator facilitated learning of paired associates, except when kindergarteners were used as subjects. The purpose of the present study is to determine whether the failure of the mediators to facilitate the performance of young children is due to the fact that they do not know what a "sentence" is, or because they are unable to "mediate" when mediators are provided. The influence of experiential factors in language development was measured by using children from two different social classes. Also studied is the ability to transfer mediation strategy. Subjects were 32 kindergarten boys randomly selected from a predominantly white lower class urban school and a middle class white suburban school. The testing procedures are extensively described. Results gleaned from the study suggest that: (1) a mediation condition was more facilitating for middle class subjects; (2) lower class subjects exhibited a different strategy in approaching learning problems and were less proficient in generating sentences; and (3) providing mediators for young subjects does affect the learning of paired associates. Further study is suggested. (TL)