The purpose of the present studies was to examine the effects of perceptual processing of target words on explicit and implicit retention tests. In Experiment l, subjects read target words which were presented for 18 ms, 54 ms, or 540 ms. In Experiment 2, the match in script between study and test was manipulated, in addition to the processing duration of target words. The results showed that reading a target word produced a priming effect on an implicit retention test and performance on explicit and implicit retention tests was not affected by processing duration if the target word was only read. The results are discussed in terms of a transfer-appropriate processing framework.