2 groups of mildly retarded boys (one institutionalized, the other living at home) were given the WAIS and WISC, respectively; tests of perceptual field dependence; and the figure-drawing test. On the Wechsler scales almost all the boys performed extremely poorly on subtests loading a verbalcomprehension factor and relatively much better on subtests loading an analytical factor. The retarded boys showed the discrepancy between these sets of scores significantly more often than two groups of normal boys. Among the retarded, as in normals, measures of field dependence (i.e., analytical competence) and figure-drawing sophistication-of-body-concept scores related significantly to prorated analytical IQ's but not to prorated verbalcomprehension IQ's. The frequent occurrence of cases with relatively high analytical and low verbal-comprehension ability in groups now identified as retarded may be the result of particular emphasis on verbal skills in routing children in the school-age period.