This experiment tested conjectures concerning the effects of learners' attending preferences on the establishment of auditory-visual intersensory associations in a bisensory paired associate task. Attending patterns were identified through the use of a bisensory diget-span task. On the basis of fifth and sixth grade subjects' performance during the recall portion of that task, two groups of attenders were identified on the basis of visual error rate. Performance of those groups was then compared on a bisensory paired-associate task in which half of the bisensory pairs had the visual item defined as the nominal stimulus while half of the items had the auditory member so defined. Overall, the former condition was less difficult. An ordinal interaction was found in which the low visual errors group outperformed the high visual errors group in the later trials of the visual stimulus condition. No significant differences were found in the auditory stimulus condition. Further, some evidence was found that suggests a relationship between the attending patterns and reading achievement. (Author/WR)