The entire educable mentally retarded (EMR) population of three middle and two elementary schools in Indiana were subjects for this interdisciplinary study that addressed the problem of determining what media techniques influence the attention of mildly handicapped learners toward relevant information and away from irrelevant information in instructional media. Conceptually, the techniques were divided into attention-getting and attention-directing and into learned and unlearned cues. Subjects were chosen to reveal any developmental trend. Conclusions reached were that most influencing techniques used in audiovisual presentations can have an impact upon the behavior of retarded as well as normal learners. Motion, an attention-getting cue, had a strong effect for both EMR and normal learners. Further, printed or spoken instruction to look at an object, an attention-directing cue, made significant difference in both recognition and eye movement patterns in favor of the target object. It was also noted that spatial location in the visual field, especially the upper central position in a frame, has impact upon attention to an object. The most consistent effect of attention-influencing techniques in fixed-pace media was on eye movements, which caused learners to look more quickly and for a longer time at critical information. (MER)