This study was based on the hypothesis that familiarity was an unrecognized factor producing gains scored on previous studies to determine whether a relationship between achievement in beginning reading and cognitive synthesis could be demonstrated. Subjects were 56 randomly selected kindergartners given Farnham-Diggory's synthesis tasks as a pretest and then assigned to one of four conditions. One condition served as a control group; the second condition served to give familiarity alone; and the third and fourth conditions taught a learning set to respond to two or three symbols as a unit. Following training, all subjects were given a posttest designed to measure gains scored in transfer. The results showed significant differences for all the experimental groups but not the control group, indicating the importance of the increased familiarity afforded by all the training conditions. Therefore, because familiarity does affect cognitive synthesis, all earlier studies are invalidated and the question of the relationship between reading achievement and cognitive synthesis must remain open. (Author/TS)