Two different groups of subjects--incarcerated adult offenders and freshman nursing students--participated in an academic experiment which employed an individually prescribed learning system. The system featured programmed instructional materials and contingency management procedures to obtain stable cumulative records of learning performance. Contingency contracts and backup reinforcers were used to achieve optimum motivation, as indexed by test scores and ratios of empirically derived estimates to actual times for task completion. Intercorrelations between learning rate, various measures of educational achievement, and I.Q. were not significant. It was suggested that a behavioral analysis of other functions should be explored. (Author)