This study investigated incidental learning in middle and lower class black and white preschool children. The study questioned whether (a) preschool children acquire learning incidentally; (b) there was a difference in the quantity of such learning between black and white children; (c) differences in learning was influenced by socioeconomic status; and (d) differences were as evident for familiar as compared with unfamiliar stimulus materials. The experiment used a measure of incidental learning obtained by exposing subjects to a room containing selected items but giving them no instructions to attend to the objects. A comparison group was also placed in the same room but instructed to attend to the objects. The second dimension of familiarity was added by including items in the room which were known to the children as well as objects likely to be unfamiliar. Following a fixed exposure of three minutes, each child was given a free recall and recognition test. The findings verify the presence of incidental learning in preschool children. Black youngsters did substantially better than their white counterparts on the recall of familiar objects. White preschool children did substantially better than their black counterparts on the recognition of unfamiliar objects in the incidental learning condition. (Author)