3 groups of Ss learned an identical list of nonsense syllables under 3 conditions of presentation: 1 group learned with a constant starting position; in a 2nd, starting position shifted by 1 syllable on successive trials; and in a 3rd, the starting syllable was varied randomly from trial to trial. ½ of the Ss in each group were given instructions indicating the possibility of a shift in starting position. Significant differences were found among the trials to criterion of the 3 noninstructed groups, supporting Ebenholtz' (1963) conclusion that positional cues play a role in serial learning. The instructed groups showed convergence of their learning curves compared to the noninstructed. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2006 APA, all rights reserved)