This study investigated the relative effectiveness of verbal and visual modes of presentation on the learning of paired-associates by 64 3-year-old and 64 8-year-old children. Nine pictorial paired-associates and 9 verbal paired-associates were formed from pictures or names of familiar objects. At each age level, 8 male and 8 female subjects were assigned to one of 4 presentation conditions: (1) auditory, (2) visual sequential (subjects were shown the stimulus picture of each pair for 2 seconds followed by the response picture for 2 seconds), (3) visual simultaneous-2 seconds exposure (subjects viewed each stimulus response pair simultaneously for 2 seconds), and (4) visual simultaneous-4 seconds exposure (subjects viewed each stimulus-response pair simultaneously for 4 seconds). Following presentation subjects were tested individually for recognition in 3 trials. Results showed that the overall performance of 8-year-olds was significantly better than that of 3-year-olds in all conditions; however, the initial performance of the two groups did not differ significantly. The 8-year-olds showed improved performance only on the second and third trials. Only the visual-simultaneous conditions produced a significant difference in the mean number of correct responses when compared with the auditory mode of presentation. It is concluded that the influence of mode of presentation on learning is a complex phenomenon. (BRT)