To investigate organizational strategies of educable mentally retarded (EMR) and normal boys, the performance of 30 normal boys (mean IQ 105.1) and 30 EMR boys (mean IQ 69.9), ages 7-12 years, was compared on various free recall learning tasks. Three measures of input organization employed were category clustering, associative clustering, and subjective organization. Subjects were presented with five stimulus lists of 12 words each, and were given 12 trials on each list. Results showed that EMR boys demonstrated less category clustering and recall than normal boys on the categorized list, and less associative clustering and recall on a stimulus list composed of high-associative paradigmatic noun pairs. Difference in recall between the groups on a stimulus list of high-associative syntagmatic word pairs was significantly less than the difference in recall on a list of high-associative paradigmatic noun pairs. EMR boys also exhibited significantly less recall than normal boys on stimulus lists of low-associative paradigmatic and low-associative syntagmatic word pairs. (Author/KW)