Contending that previous investigations into the efficacy of underlining as a study technique have yielded mixed results due to the specific experimental methodologies employed, a study addressed the issue by manipulating both the reading comprehension skills of students and the kind of information given to them about underlining. Specifically, the study examined whether providing college students with materials containing textually important information underlined would improve test performance for those materials. Approximately 100 students were arranged into three separate experimental groups. Those in the first group were told to concentrate on knowing the underlined portions of a text and were told that by focusing their study time on those portions they might do better on a test to follow. Students in the second and third groups were instructed to read and study the text as they normally would when preparing for an examination. No mention was made of underlining. Following the reading, each student completed a reading comprehension test and a test of language skills. Results indicated that students given relevant information underlined in the text did not obtain higher scores on the comprehension test than students who had unmarked texts. However, students provided with underlined text spent less time preparing for the subsequent test, and this effect was found to be independent of comprehension skills. (FL)