This study was part of a project supported by the Medical Research Committee of the United Liverpool Hospitals, Research Scheme No. 74.

Twenty-four educable mentally retarded children (10 to 15 years old) were randomly assigned to one of three treatment conditions (repetition-control, verbal context, and imagery) to determine the effects of elaboration on paired associate (PA) learning. Data from performances on two lists supported the hypothesis that elaboration in the form of…

Presents a series of these experiments which examined cue function in trigram verbal discrimination learning by retarded subjects. The two variables of chief interest were: (1) trigram meaningfulness, and (2) reinforcement history. (Author/LLK)

Assessed were the effects of verbal placeholding and full verbal rehearsal (verbalizing aloud the critical components and sequence) on the direction following behavior of 14 institutionalized retarded adolescents (mean IQ 48). A control group from the same institution participated in practice sessions without the verbal rehearsal stress. Pre- and…

Operant conditioning procedures were used in four studies to establish instruction following skills in severely and profoundly retarded children. In the first study, a combination of physical guidance, fading, and reinforcement procedures were used to train an 11-year-old boy to follow 25 verbal instructions. In the second study, a transfer of…

The bibliography on learning in mentally handicapped persons is divided into the following topic categories: applied behavior change, classical conditioning, discrimination, generalization, motor learning, reinforcement, verbal learning, and miscellaneous. An author index is included. (KW)

Three measures of verbal input organization (category clustering, associative clustering, and subjective organization) were employed to compare the performances of 30 normal and 30 educable mentally retarded (EMR) elementary school males of equal chronological age on various free recall learning tasks. Subjects were given 12 successive trials on…

A multiple baseline design was used to investigate the effects of simultaneous sign/verbal presentation on the acquisition of verbal labelling of two Down's syndrome girls, ages 6 and 7 years. (Author)

In response to Whitman, "Self-Regulation and Mental Retardation" (EC 222 812), the author suggests that model weaknesses include its emphasis on language and cognitive processes, the questionable validity of the effectiveness of self-instruction techniques with lower functioning persons, and the mixed evidence for training generalization…

In response to Whitman, "Self-Regulation and Mental Retardation" (EC 222 812), the author sees parallels between Whitman's model and ideas of L. Vygotsky but also such differences as Whitman's focus on linguistic systems contrasted with Vygotsky's focus on the practice or activity of using language. (DB)

Seven papers address the teaching of self-management skills to disabled persons in supported employment settings. In "Competitive Employment: Teaching Mentally Retarded Employees to Maintain Their Work Behavior," (Frank Rusch and others), external cues managed by job coaches are contrasted to self-generated cues leading to employee self…