The effect of verbal labeling on serial memory was investigated in this experiment. A total of 120Ss, 40 at each of younger (kindergarten), middle (3rd grade) and older (5th grade) children were successively given 8 picture cards followed by a recognition test. Half of the Ss in each age group overtly labeled the stimuli during the presentation period and half did not. In younger and middle age groups verbal labeling facilitated STM performance but not LTM performance, while in the older age group there was no difference in performance for STM and LTM between the labeling group and the no-labeling group.