Young children's strategy acquisition and maintenance were examined by comparing the Imagerecall, clustering, and study behaviors ofchildren ofdifferent ages and intelligences. Three groups were included in the study: 5-year-old gifted children, 5-year-old nongified children, and 7-yeafrOld nongifted children. All Žvež•e observed and measured on 5 consecutive days, with training on strategy use provided on the third day. Several differences among groups werefound, generally favoring the gifted children in terms ofperformance and maintenance ofstrategies. In addition, the 5-year-old gifted children seemed to spontaneously use categorization strategies and clustered items in recall before training, while the 7-year-old children used categorization and clustering in recall after training. Implicationsfor instructionfor gifted students are discussed.