EFFECTS OF PERIODIC VARIATIONS IN AN INSTRUCTIONAL FILM'S NORMAL LOUDNESS LEVEL FOR RELEVANT AND IRRELEVANT FILM SEQUENCES WERE MEASURED BY A MULTIPLE CHOICE TEST. RIGOROUS PILOT STUDIES, RANDOM GROUPING OF SEVENTH GRADERS FOR TREATMENTS, AND RATINGS OF RELEVANT AND IRRELEVANT PORTIONS OF THE FILM BY AN UNSPECIFIED NUMBER OF JUDGES PRECEDED THE EXPERIMENT. AN ANALYSIS OF VARIANCE FOR THE FOUR EXPERIMENTAL GROUPS SUGGESTED THAT HIGHER MEAN PERFORMANCE WAS A RESULT OF DECREASES IN LOUDNESS RATHER THAN INCREASES, REGARDLESS OF RELEVANCY OF THE MATERIAL. ANOTHER ANALYSIS SUGGESTED, HOWEVER, THAT DECREASES IN LOUDNESS FOR IRRELEVANT MATERIAL RESULTED IN HIGHER PERFORMANCE THAN DECREASES FOR RELEVANT MATERIAL. FOR THE THREE CONTROL GROUPS WHOSE FILM SEQUENCES WERE CONSTANTLY RELEVANT, MORE LEARNING RESULTED FROM LOUDNESS LEVELS BOTH ABOVE AND BELOW NORMAL THAN FROM A NORMAL LEVEL. HIGH PERFORMANCE LEVELS WERE POSITIVELY RELATED TO HIGH INTELLIGENCE LEVELS. THE BIASING EFFECTS OF EXPERIMENTAL NOVELTY AND UNNATURAL ATTENTION FACTORS WERE DISCUSSED. APPENDICES INCLUDE STUDENT RESPONSE SHEET, INSTRUCTIONS TO FILM JUDGES, FILM SCRIPT, INSTRUCTIONS TO SUBJECTS, AND FILM TEST. A BIBLIOGRAPHY IS GIVEN. (LH)