A study examined the effects of pictorial and verbal illustrations on the initial learning and long term retention of written instruction. Subjects were eighth and ninth grade students randomly assigned to one of two text conditions (literal or analogous instructions) under one of four pictorial conditions (no picture, functional drawing, expressive drawing, or functional plus expressive drawing). There were 14 subjects in each of the eight conditions. Subjects read texts according to their respective treatment conditions, then performed a sequence of five manipulations outlined in the instructions. Those who reached criterion on this task were evaluated on the same task without instructions 10 days later. Finally, they were asked to relate how they had remembered the initial set of instructions. Factorial analysis yielded no significant effect for either the type of text or the interaction between type of text and picture condition; however, ANOVA indicated a significant effect for type of picture. A post-hoc test revealed that subjects exposed to pictures significantly outperformed those in the no picture condition. A t-test indicated that subjects who had read the analogous instructions remembered more than did those who received the literal instructions. The results suggest that readers are more successful in completing instructions when pictures are provided, and that while analogous text does not seem to facilitate initial learning of instructions, it does enhance subjects' ability to retain information over time. (FL)