Three experiments tested whether qualitative differences in processing of verbal materials result from congenital hearing impairment. Subjects were children with reading levels equivalent to grades 4 to 6. Experiment 1 used repeated measurements with two modes of response and two kinds of cues; experiment 2 used acoustic similarity to produce interference with learning; experiment 3 presented word triads for short term retention. Results on the first two indicated that normal hearing subjects employed implicit acoustic features of printed materials while hearing handicapped subjects encoded the material using visual aspects. Also, the effects of auditory training were apparent, with its lack noted in the performance of children with very mild losses from 0 to 25 decibels. (Author/JD)