Two mathematical models of paired-associate learning were used to develop optimal strategies for presenting spelling words to 42 elementary school children. The study was conducted within a computer-based drill-and-practice project. For the study two computer programs were developed. One program presented and corrected the lists of words. The other program planned lessons for each child as a function of the mathematical model the words represented, the words the child was studying, and the child's performance on the words. An analysis of the correct responses made by each child through the study demonstrated that the strategy derived from the One Element Model produced significantly better terminal performance than the strategy developed from the Single Operator Linear model. (Author)