An experimental reading program for neurologically impaired, mentally retarded, and severely emotionally disturbed children.
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Four adults with mild mental retardation were taught to sort based on what two pictures had in common and to name each object and common features of two pairs as well as to comply with a series of instructions to sort the pictures selectively. The criterion task was to inspect a sample pair, sort through a deck of 15 pictures to find those showing what the sample pair had in common, and to repeat a series of pairs. They failed this task and continued to fail even after a supposedly relevant self-instruction. After being taught to act on what they told themselves, they self-instructed correctly and sorted accordingly. Imperfect generalization by 2 participants was remediated by revoking self-instructions. They were taught to act on what they told themselves; thereafter, they self-instructed correctly and sorted accordingly. Imperfect generalization by 2 participants was remediated by re-evoking the relevant self-instructions.
Whether exemplar-specific or prototype representations were primarily used by children with mild mental retardation in a categorization task consisting of two groups of make-believe animals whose features were ill-defined was examined. Categorization performance of familiar, prototypic, and novel test phase exemplars indicated that these children were able to acquire and use both types of representations. A feature-labeling training procedure, expected to promote the formation of exemplar-specific representations prior to exemplar classification, was also incorporated within the current study's design. It was unclear whether such training had any impact on the formation of exemplar-specific representations.
Because traditional intelligence tests do not allow a reliable and valid estimate of the general cognitive abilities of individuals with IQs lower than 55, a dynamic test of analogical reasoning (Analogical Reasoning Learning Test-ARLT) was constructed for use with this population. The aim of the test is to distinguish individuals who could undergo more ambitious schooling and cognitive training from those who would profit little or none from such an intervention. Internal consistency and test-retest reliability of this measure are high. Discriminant and predictive validity, assessed with another learning test and with a one-month training on inductive reasoning, respectively, are satisfactory. The test is seen as a useful tool for diagnostic differentiation among low performers.
Three experiments assessed the likelihood that subjects with histories of equivalence class development would respond conditionally on new discriminations in the absence of differential consequences for responses. In the first two experiments, two groups of subjects with different experimental histories, but whose performances showed four equivalence classes, responded on trials without explicit reinforcement involving samples from two of the classes and comparisons from the other two classes, in a two-choice matching-to-sample format. Subjects consistently selected a particular comparison in the presence of a particular sample. Subsequent tests showed the emergence of equivalence relations between stimuli from classes linked by the unreinforced conditional selections. Subsequently, in Experiment II, the subjects' responses in the conditional selection trials were reinforced if the selection was reversed from that made previously. Although reversed selection was maintained, 2 of the 3 subjects continued to perform on equivalence relation trials according to their original unreinforced selections. In the third experiment, these 2 subjects responded on a series of conditional discriminations involving three new pairs of sample stimuli and one new pair of comparison stimuli. No explicit reinforcement followed responses on any trial in this experiment. Subsequent tests for equivalence between sample stimuli revealed the development of two equivalence classes.
Four groups of retarded children (N = 4 in each group) were trained to respond to a triangle with apex up (S+) and not to a triangle with apex down (S-), with and without errors. A free-operant procedure in which responding to S+ was intermittently reinforced and a trial procedure in which all responses to S+ were reinforced were compared. An extinction procedure in which responses were no longer reinforced was then introduced. Extinction resulted in substantial responding during S- for all groups, except the free-operant errorless group. S- responding during extinction did not differ between the errorless and error-trial groups and was maximum for the free-operant error group.
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Children and adolescents with mental retardation were compared with children and adolescents without mental retardation on their ability to recognize facial expressions. The groups were matched for either chronological age (CA) or mental age (MA). Children and adolescents with mental retardation recognized facial expressions less accurately than did subjects without retardation who were matched on CA. The MA-matched groups showed no differences in accuracy at the younger MA but a difference was found at the older MA. However, subjects categorized as having cultural-familial retardation did not differ from subjects without retardation matched for MA at either the younger or older MA. Results suggest that children with mental retardation are less able than children without retardation to develop emotional recognition skills by observational learning.
The problem of teaching relational discriminations to people with mental retardation was examined. The limitations of several commonly used teaching procedures were discussed and alternative approaches that derive from studies of simple-discrimination learning were described. Results of two preliminary studies were summarized that demonstrate the feasibility of these approaches and suggest new methods for teaching relational discriminations to individuals with developmental limitations.
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A series test composed of geometric figures placed in redundant patterns was designed to measure the ability of retarded adolescents to use of principle. It was administered to institutionalized and noninstitutionalized retarded adolescents and to nonretarded children from nursery school through fourth grade. Results revealed that four of the items accounted for most of the errors and that these four critical items were particularly sensitive to an inadequate scanning strategy. The retarded groups showed a mental age lag at least 1 year, 6 months and did not perform above chance on the critical items.
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OBJECTIVE: To test the validity and reliability of latent trait measures estimated from ratings by low-vision patients of the importance and difficulty of selected activity goals. DESIGN: Validation of a telephone-administered functional assessment instrument using Rasch analysis of self-assessment ratings. SETTING: Telephone interviews of respondents in their homes. Participants Consecutive series of 600 outpatients with low vision. INTERVENTIONS: Not applicable. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES: Ratings of the importance and difficulty of achieving 41 activity goals. Person and item traits were measured with the Andrich rating scale model. Measurement validity and reliability were tested statistically by comparing response patterns and distributions with measurement model expectations. RESULTS: Patients could distinguish only 3 categories of importance and 4 categories of difficulty. The distributions of person and item measure fit statistics were consistent with 2 unidimensional constructs: value of independence estimated from importance ratings and visual ability estimated from difficulty ratings. However, 8 of 41 activity goals were poor estimators of value of independence and 7 of 41 activity goals were poor estimators of visual ability. Person measure distributions could be divided into 3 statistically distinct strata for estimates from both importance ratings and difficulty ratings. Item measure distributions could be divided into 21 strata for estimates from importance ratings and 7 strata for estimates from difficulty ratings. CONCLUSIONS: The 2 variables that define visual disability-value of independence and visual ability-are valid constructs that can be estimated accurately and reliably from patient ratings of the importance and difficulty of activity goals.
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Mentally retarded children were taught to discriminate the dimensions of a visual display using a matching-to-sample procedure that provided full verbal feedback of the reasons for successes and failures. A control group attempted the matching procedure but received no feedback. The trained subjects exhibited marked superiority in intradimensional transfer. Two years later, the trained subjects continued their advantage but to a lesser degree.