Two studies were performed to investigate the effects of material and task variations in the acquisition of cognitive learning strategies. Groups of undergraduate students were taught to use mental imagery, meaningful elaboration, and grouping. The type of training task or the order of training and test materials differed for each of the experimental groups. Study and test materials included free recall and paired-associate word lists as well as reading passages. The results partially supported the need for training materials to be ordered from easy to more difficult. However, the type of training necessary to optimize learning appears to be dependent upon several factors, including the difficulty level of the materials with which the strategies will be used and the types of tests used to assess what has been learned. (Author)