Looked at children's ability to learn new words by listening to a story once, and investigated the theory of the" rich get richer" effect (ie, above-average intelligence students benefit while others do not). 57 Ss (aged 8–10 yrs) were read Farmer Palmer's Wagon Ride by William Steig (1974). The vocabulary test consisted of 10 words from the story. After pre-and posttests, the findings support the theory that only above-average readers gained significantly in incidental learning. And even when children revisited the story context, the extent of the gains favored the better readers. It is suggested that to close this gap, average and below-average readers should do more independent reading with the use of a dictionary, rather than listen to stories.(PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2016 APA, all rights reserved)