a 2x2x3x8 experimental design was used to investigate the effects of two levels of the concreteness dimension (i.e. concrete and abstract) of nouns; two levels of verbalization (i.e. verbalization and nonverbalization) and three kinds of input modality (i.e. auditory, visual and auditory-visual combined) over eight trials of a paired associates learning task. two lists of fifteen noun pairs each were constructed: one list of concrete noun pairs and one of abstract noun pairs. an equal number of pairs from each list were presented in each of the three kinds of mode of presentation.