The effects of verbal analogies and quantitative and verbal aptitudes on comprehension and memory of a technical text were studied. In a cued recall test, the presence of an analogy decreased the performance of high quantitative aptitude university students and tended to increase the performance of low quantitative aptitude students. In a three-way interaction of analogy effects on free recall of factors affecting conductivity, the analogy increased the performance of the high verbal, low quantitative aptitude group, and had no effect on the high verbal, high quantitative group or either low verbal aptitude group. A difference in processing strategy was proposed as the cause of these effects. (Author)