Preschool and fifth-grade children were asked to learn and recall lists of nine pictures of common objects in which the thematic relationship and the physical proximity of subsets of items were varied. Five presentation conditions (lists) were employed : (1) subgroups of three items simultaneously presented with an explicit theme., (2)the same items as in (1)but randomly arranged in the subset, (3) unrelated items presented simultaneously in groups of three, (4)nine items presented successively but temporally blocked in subgroups of three, and (5) nine items displayed successively in a random arrangement. Recall and clustering scores indicated that the older children spontaneously elaborated pictures when subsets of items were presented simultaneously and when these items formed a natural theme. The preschool children failed to elaborate, responding more on the basis of the proximity of the items. Proximity was a potent recall cue for both age groups. Long-term tests, carried out after one week, showed good retention, the output organization of which closely paralleled that observed during original learning.