It was hypothesized that the effect of advance organizers (principles, organization concepts, subsuming concepts, etc.) on learning and retention was additive rather than interactive--i.e., that any increment in score could be accounted for by specific factors such as additional information, additional practice, learning set, etc. One hundred and twenty-three college undergraduates took part in four groups. On 5- and 35-day retention measures, the advance organizer-only group was significantly better than a no-treatment control. The advance organizer plus learning group was significantly better than a learning-only group on the shorter retention period but not on the longer. The advance organizer-only group was the only group to not decline in score over the 35-day interval between measures. Results indicate the learners, after learning suitable principles at a high level of generality, are able to generate with some degree of accuracy specific answers to questions. Learners also seem to be able to retain the organizing principle well enough to regenerate answers as long as 32 days without a decrement in score. A 28-item bibliography is included. (Author/MJM)