Several theories in audiovisual education hold that learning from a visual illustration is directly related to the realism of the visual aid. In order to test this theory, five treatment groups were established. All groups were pretested, taught the same unit of instruction, and posttested. Four groups saw slide sequences in which were viewed illustrations with a different degree of realism: line drawing (black and white), line drawing (color), shaded drawing (black and white), and a shaded drawing (color). The fifth group saw a slide presentation with words only. The results of the study showed no significant difference among the five groups in learning achievement. The only significant difference observed was that the high IQ students who received the verbal-only treatment tended to score lower on the recognition test. (JY)