A study investigated the effects of induced mental imagery upon the comprehension of oral versus written discourse for above and below average readers. A secondary purpose of the study was to determine, through a follow-up interview, the students' ability to induce mental imagery. Sixty-three sixth grade students with above or below average reading ability were randomly assigned to one of two conditions--listen/read or read/listen. The students were met individually for approximately 25 minutes and each was instructed to "make pictures in your head to help you remember" under both listening and reading conditions. Immediately after listening to or reading one of two passages, the subjects responded to questions about their use of mental imagery. Following the interview, the subjects were asked to retell the passage information and respond to a cued recall test for the passage they had read. Results showed no statistically significant differences between the effects of induced mental imagery for listening and reading for either free or cued recall. The findings did support previous research conclusions suggesting that poor readers suffer from specific comprehension difficulties that do not appear to involve decoding skills. The findings were also consistent with the assumption that listening and reading comprehension depend upon the same basic process. (FL)