A total of 14 four- and five-year-old girls learned to read two blocks of 12 words, each block consisting of (1) four words requested by each child (own words); (2) four words mentioned by Ashton-Warner as "one look" words for individual children (AW words); and (3) four words from the Scott-Foresman basal reader series (BR words). Measures of emotionality/arousal, meaningfulness, word frequency, and word length were obtained in the following ways: individual child's rating of word emotionality, percent Galvanic Skin Responses (GSR) deflection, Noble's meaningfulness (number of different free-associates by the child), Thorndike-Lorge estimate of word frequency, and number of letters in each word. No significant differences occurred between own, AW, and BR words on a 2-minute retention test; but 24-hour retention was greater for own words than for AW or BR words. Own words elicited significantly greater GSR's and were more meaningful than either AW or BR words. Children also rated own words as significantly more emotional than BR words. In the variables of word frequency and word length, own words significantly differed from BR words, but were similar to AW words. Findings and their implications were discussed. Figures, tables, a bibliography, and an appendix listing the own words are included. (AW)