Representations of common nouns, proper nouns, and their pictorial counterparts were investigated in three experiments. In each experiment, subjects were initially required to name pictures and to read words. They later read words (Experiment 1), some of which had been presented as pictures, some as words , and some of which had not been seen earlier. Reading latencies for proper nouns were reduces by prior experience with either the word or a pictorial counterpart, whereas latencies for common nouns were reduced only if the subject had previously seen the word. Recongnition (Experiment 2) and recall (Experiment 3) were superior form pictures compared with words and for proper items compared with common items. Results are consistent with the idea that some memories are composed primarily of generic information (common nouns) and that some are composed primarily of specific information (pictures, proper nouns). Generic information is useful in aiding subsequent processing but not in discriminating that memory from other memories, whereas specific information makes the memory more distinctive but in general is not useful in aiding subsequent processing unless the same specific information is again involved.