THE RELATIVE EFFECTIVENESS OF THREE AUDIOVISUAL TECHNIQUES WAS STUDIED WITH MENTALLY RETARDED PUBLIC SCHOOL STUDENTS. THE TECHNIQUES ESPECIALLY DESIGNED TO OVERCOME THE TRAITS OF MENTAL RETARDATES, CONSISTED OF (1) CONVENTIONAL FILM NARRATED BY A TEACHER, (2) UNNARRATED FILM WITH RESPONSES FROM CHILDREN ON THE SOUND TRACK, AND (3) SILENT FILM DURING WHICH STUDENTS PROVIDED THEIR OWN UNRESTRAINED COMMENTS. SPECIAL CLASSES OF EDUCABLE MENTALLY RETARDED CHILDREN PROVIDED 104 SUBJECTS. FOUR MATCHED GROUPS WERE ESTABLISHED TO PROVIDE AN EXPERIMENTAL GROUP FOR EACH OF THE FILM TECHNIQUES AND A CONTROL GROUP. DATA WERE GATHERED FROM PRE- AND POST-TESTS AND RECOGNITION TEST SCORES. FINDINGS INDICATED THAT USE OF ANY OF THE EXPERIMENTAL FILM TECHNIQUES WAS NO MORE EFFECTIVE FOR TEACHING EDUCABLE MENTALLY RETARDED CHILDREN THAN TEACHING THE SAME UNIT WITHOUT FILMS. (AL)