The ability to select (a) suitable retrieval cues and (b) the main ideas of prose passages was examined in college students and in school students between fifth and twelfth grades. The ability to select the main elements of texts improved over the entire age range studied and was not affected by experience studying and recalling the passage. Retrieval cue selection was also sensitive to age, with a dramatic shift in flexibility occurring between the high school and college populations. Prior to experience recalling the text, college students selected mainly the most important elements to serve as retrieval cues. After experience recalling, however, they selected units of intermediate importance. Realizing they would remember the main ideas without further effort, they concentrated on the intermediate level material which caused them much more trouble on their previous recall attempt. This shift in retrieval cue selection represents a fine degree of sensitivity to the relative improtance of text segments and to the function of retrieval cues in recall, a sensitivity not displayed by even the oldest high school subjects. (Author)