RECENT RESEARCH ON THE DISCRIMINATION PROCESS INDICATES THAT ERRORLESS LEARNING CAN OCCUR IF STIMULI ARE CAREFULLY PROGRAMED SO THAT THEY ARE DISSIMILAR AND GRADUALLY BECOME MORE SIMILAR AS TRAINING PROCEEDS. TO ASSESS THIS APPROACH IN TEACHING THE LOWER- CASE LETTER B AND D WITH KINDERGARTEN SUBJECTS, TWO SETS OF STIMILI CONSTITUTED THE FIRST…

Describes three experiments that tested autistic children's nonverbal and verbal categorization abilities. Concludes that autistic children do not suffer a specific cognitive deficit in ability to categorize and form abstract concepts. (HOD)

Since early research had shown that a total score on 27 Piagetian tasks was very highly correlated with a Wechsler and achievement composite, a study investigated the possibility of shortening the Piagetian test by means of classical analysis methodology. (HOD)

Language delay became increasingly apparent with age, and more so in boys than in girls. There was no significant difference between mental ages derived from standard ability tests and corresponding age equivalent scores of a symbolic play test. A developmental progression of play similar to that seen in non-handicapped groups was found. (RH)

An Australian comparison study of 26 children (mean age=10) with mild intellectual disabilities, 26 typical children of approximately the same mental age, and 26 children of approximately the same chronological age, found no mean differences on problem-solving abilities between the children with intellectual disabilities and children of comparable…

Examined the relation between a history of maltreatment and cognitive control functioning in two groups of preschool and early school-age maltreated and nonmaltreated children. Maltreated children showed developmentally impaired cognitive control functioning on a number of tasks. (RH)

This study compared the fears and behavior problems of 25 children with an autism spectrum disorder (ASD), 43 children with Down syndrome (DS), 45 mental age (MA) matched children, and 37 chronologically age (CA) matched children. Children's fears, phobias, anxieties and behavioral problems were assessed using parent reports. Significant…

Videotapes of mother/infant pairs were made to assess the influence of selected infant and maternal characteristics on parent/child interaction. Characteristics of interest were infant mental age, infant chronological age, infant gender, and parity. Subjects were 37 mothers (20 primiparous, 17 multiparous) and their infants (19 males, 18 females)…

Twenty normal and 20 retarded children were studied to determine the influences of mental (MA) and chronological age (CA) on the attribution of life characteristics to animate and inanimate objects. In both normal and retarded children, attribution depended on an interaction between M.A. and C.A. (DP)

Acquiescence, the tendency to respond affirmatively regardless of the content of a question, was examined in 57 mentally retarded children (11 to 17 years old) and 91 nonretarded children (3 to 8 years old). Embedded within the standard interview schedule for both samples were two pairs of oppositely worded questions on the same topic.…

Nine infants with Down's syndrome, seven nonhandicapped infants, and one severely handicapped infant were given the choice of listening to familiar nursery rhymes or to the same rhymes with each word reversed so that the rhythms, intonation and stress patterns were kept intact but the words became nonsense. (RH)

Finds further evidence of the close equivalence of scores derived from the Wechsler Intelligence Scale for Children (Revised) and the Stanford-Binet, but fails to support the practice of computing adjusted mental age scores. Subjects were (N=25) children in the bright normal range of intelligence. (JAC)

Describes two experiments conducted to explain why retarded children of younger mental age appear to be more selective on discrimination tasks containing relevant redundant cues than do children of older mental age. Findings are consistent with the hypothesis that the latter group of children are overselective because they tend to solve…

The performance of 25 children with Down syndrome (DS) on delay of gratification tasks was compared with that of mental age-matched typically developing children. DS children were significantly less able to delay gratification on two of the three tasks. Results raise questions about using mental age as the method for matching children with DS and…

Comparison of 80 "good" and 80 "poor" readers of either average intellectual ability or with mild mental retardation found relatively consistent differences between "good" and "poor" readers in each sample. The "poor" readers in each sample met the discrepancy standard for learning disability.…