THE EFFECTS OF SELECTIVE MANIPULATION OF PICTORIAL CONTENT UPON PAIRED ASSOCIATE LEARNING WERE TESTED AND EVALUATED. STIMULUS MATERIAL WAS VARIED BY AUGMENTING CONTOUR CUES AND DIMINISHING IRRELEVANT CUES. FIFTH-GRADE STUDENTS WERE ASSIGNED TO NINE DIFFERENT TREATMENTS, INVOLVING STIMULUS SLIDES THAT VARIED IN TREATMENT OF CONTOUR AND CONTEXTUAL CUES. A TRIAL AND ERROR SYSTEM WAS USED UNTIL CRITERION PERFORMANCE OF TWO PERMUTATIONS WITHOUT ERROR WAS ACHIEVED. ANALYSIS OF VARIANCE OF TRIALS AND ERRORS WAS USED TO TEST FOR DIFFERENCES AMONG THE NINE CONDITIONS. FINDINGS WERE THAT, IN PAIRED ASSOCIATION, THERE WERE NO SIGNIFICANT DIFFERENCES AS A RESULT OF AUGMENTING CONTOUR CUES. IN ADDITION, THERE WERE NO SIGNIFICANT DIFFERENCES BETWEEN LEVELS OF REDUCED IRRELEVANT CONTEXTUAL CUES ON EITHER TRIALS OR ERRORS TO CRITERION, AND NO SIGNIFICANT INTERACTION EFFECTS BETWEEN AUGMENTED CONTOUR CUES AND REDUCED IRRELEVANT CUES. (GD)