Kurtz and Hovland (1953) and others have shown that children who name objects at presentation show superior retention for the material relative to Ss who do not. The conventional explanation for this effect is that it reflcts the superior potency of the word as a carrier of sense impression compared to nonverbal forms. In the present experiment, type of stimulus (picture/name) and type of response (find picture/name) were systematically manipulated and the effects on subsequent recongnition performance ascertained. Results suggested that, for Ss in the age range tested (8.5-10.5 years), a version of the trace modality hypothesis, (Wallach and Averbach, 1955) may provide a more satisfactory interpretation of this phenomenon, than a theory based on verbal potency.