IN AN ATTEMPT TO PROVIDE AN OBJECTIVE MEANS FOR IDENTIFYING THE DEGREE TO WHICH MATERIAL CAN BE TECHNICALLY TERMED "PROGRAMMED", THE SO-CALLED "BLACKOUT" TECHNIQUE HAS BEEN DEVELOPED. ALL WORDS IN A PROGRAM WHICH ARE NOT DIRECTLY NEEDED IN ORDER TO PROVIDE THE REQUIRED ANSWERS ARE COVERED WITH BLACK CRAYON, AND THIS EDITED VERSION IS TESTED AGAINST THE ORIGINAL. IF THE NUMBER OF ERRORS MADE ON THE PROGRAM HAS NOT INCREASED WITH THE NEW VERSION, THEN THE TOTAL NUMBER OF WORDS BLACKED OUT INDICATES THE PROPORTION OF THE MATERIAL WHICH HAS NO RELATION TO THE ANSWERS REQUIRED. THE MORE WORDS BLACKED OUT, THE LESS PROGRAMMED IS THE MATERIAL. WHEN APPLIED TO ONE PROGRAM DESIGNED FOR USE BY BANK PERSONNEL THIS TECHNIQUE REVEALED THAT 69 PERCENT OF THE WORDS COULD BE COVERED WITHOUT CAUSING ANY INCREASE IN ERRORS. FOR THIS PROGRAM ONLY 31 PERCENT OF THE MATERIAL COULD TECHNICALLY BE CALLED PROGRAMMED. A SIMILAR STUDY OF 12 OTHER PROGRAMS SHOWED THAT THE AMOUNT OF MATERIAL WHICH WAS ACTUALLY PROGRAMMED VARIED FROM APPROXIMATELY 90 PERCENT DOWN TO 10 PERCENT. SOME INDIRECT EVIDENCE SUGGESTS THAT BOTH INITIAL LEARNING AND LATER RECALL WILL BE HIGHER ON PROGRAMS WITH A LOW BLACKOUT RATIO. THIS ARTICLE IS PUBLISHED IN "AMERICAN EDUCATIONAL RESEARCH JOURNAL," VOLUME 4, NUMBER 2, MARCH 1967. (GW)