Logical learning theory stresses that learning occurs through logical relation. Materials most "related" to the cognitive organization of the learner are most readily retained. To test whether the "chronological" constructs of covert rehearsal and familiarity could account for the learning attributed to "logical" relatedness, 56 college students who had previously shown a recall superiority for liked items were presented 28 consonant-vowel-consonant trigrams (of equal familiarity) such that subsequent rehearsal could be systematically controlled with interpolated tasks before attempted recall. Results showed that the recall of the liked items was independent of covert rehearsal. A significant decrease in overall recall occurred as rehearsal was increasingly limited but the reliance on the items considered the more meaningful (the like items) was significantly increased. This finding supports a separate, logical form of meaningfulness, and questions some axioms of learning and education. (JAC)