Vocational counselling of mentally retarded young adults

Vocational counselling was given to a sample of mentally retarded young adults attending an Adult Training Centre. Counselling proved effective in the following areas: the dissemination of occupational information to the trainees; the development of trainees' vocational interests; the encouragement of trainees to express personal preoccupations; and the contribution to trainees' comprehension of the vocational and social aspects of their lives in the training centre. Counselling was too short to succeed in effecting a basic change of attitudes towards work. It is recommended that vocational counselling should be an integral part of any rehabilitation programme for retarded adults.     

Conditional discrimination in mentally retarded adults: the development of generalized skills.

The development of generalized conditional discrimination skills was examined in adults with retardation. Two subjects with histories of failure to acquire arbitrary matching under trial-and-error procedures were successful under procedures that trained one or more prerequisite skills. The successive discrimination between the sample stimuli was established by training the subjects to name the stimuli. The simultaneous discrimination between the comparison stimuli was established using either (a) standard simple discrimination training with reversals or (b) a procedure in which each of the two sample-comparison relations in the conditional discrimination was presented in blocks of trials, with the size of the blocks decreasing gradually until sample presentation was randomized. The amount of prerequisite training required varied across subjects and across successive conditional discriminations. After acquiring either two or three conditional discriminations with component training, both subjects learned new conditional discriminations under trial-and-error procedures. In general, each successive conditional discrimination was acquired more rapidly. Tests showed that conditional responding had become a generalized skill. Symmetry was shown for almost all trained relations. Symmetry trial samples were ultimately named the same as the stimuli to which they were related in training.     

Causal attributions of physical education majors and mentally retarded adults

This exploratory study examined the causal attributions and expectancies of 51 physical education majors and 25 mentally retarded adults. The majors completed a written questionnaire concerning their causal attributions and expectancies for motor performance of the adults. The adults responded through an interview procedure regarding causal attributions and expectancies for their own motor performance. Analysis did not support the hypothesis that people make stable attributions about the performance of mentally retarded populations and subsequently maintain low expectancies. Previous experiences of failure did not diminish the expectancies of the adults for their own future success.     

An examination of practice and laterality effects on the Purdue Pegboard and Moving Beans with Tweezers

The purpose of this study was to examine the relation of practice or learning and laterality on the Purdue Pegboard and the Moving Beans with Tweezers test. The subjects were 30 right-handed, healthy young male adults (age: M = 21.1, SD = 1.9 yr.). The subjects performed both tests five times with each hand. A two-way analysis of variance (hand x trial) for scores on the Purdue Pegboard showed that Trial 1 had a significantly lower mean than Trials 4 and 5 with the dominant hand, and scores on Trials 1 and 3 were lower than that on Trial 5 for the nondominant hand. For the Moving Beans with Tweezers test, Trial 1 had a significantly lower score than Trial 5 with the nondominant hand. The dominant hand produced significantly higher values on all trials of both tests. Intraclass correlation coefficients of Trials 2 and 3 were high, and means were significantly higher for the dominant hand. A correlation between other tests was not high (r = .37-.46) for both hands. All correlations among five trials on both tests were significant and high (Purdue Pegboard-Dominant: average r =.72, [r] = .60-.80, Purdue Pegboard-Nondominant: average r = .59, [r] = .43-.76), (Moving Beans-Dominant: average r = .74, [r] = .57-.81, Moving Beans-Nondominant: average r =.71, [r] = .55-.87). Correlations among five trials for the ratio of dominant:nondominant hand on both tests were significant and moderate (Moving Beans: average r = .28, [r] = .08-.57, Purdue Pegboard: average r = .41, [r] = .19.56). Performance with the dominant hand is superior to that of the nondominant hand on both tests. Practice effects are found for both tests across five trials. The Moving Beans with Tweezers test also showed laterality of practice effects. The two tests may measure different abilities.     

Association of weight and overactivity in institutionalized mentally retarded adults

An analysis was conducted on the association between weight and overactivity in a sample of 148 mentally retarded adults. The results indicate an inverse relationship between weight and degree of overactivity.     

Comparability of WAIS and WAIS--R scores among mentally retarded adults

This study compared the performance on the WAIS and WAIS--R of 21 mentally retarded adults residing in an Intermediate Care Facility. Tests were administered in one order, the WAIS initially and the WAIS--R second, with approximately two years between testings. Significant differences were found on the WAIS and WAIS--R for Verbal, Performance and Full Scale IQs. This finding contrasts with the differences between the measures as reported in the WAIS--R manual.     

A controlled outcome study of phobias in mentally retarded adults

Twenty-four mentally retarded adults in the mild and moderate range based on American Association on Mental Deficiency criterion were assessed for excessive fear of participating in community based activities. Persons were matched into pairs on degree of fear and sex and then one member of each pair was randomly placed into one of two experimental conditions: no-treatment controls or those who received participant modeling for their fear. The latter condition consisted of having a trainer rehearse going into stores and related activities with the mentally retarded person at a sheltered workshop. In the next step of training, the therapist accompanied the subjects to a community grocery store where they performed the tasks of shopping through successive approximations. Treatment was conducted for a period of three months. Fear level of the mentally retarded persons was assessed on target behaviors prior to and at the conclusion of training. Follow-up assessment of treatment effects and the continued status of the control subjects was assessed four months after the conclusion of treatment. Participant modeling proved to be significantly more effective than no treatment.     

Conditional discrimination in mentally retarded adults: the effect of training the component simple discriminations.

Two subjects with retardation who exhibited generalized identity matching, but who had extensive histories of failure to acquire arbitrary matching, were exposed to a series of conditions designed to train separately the components of a two-choice conditional discrimination. First, the successive discrimination between the sample stimuli was established by programming a different schedule of reinforcement in the presence of each sample stimulus. Schedule performance was acquired and maintained by both subjects, but neither acquired arbitrary matching. To train the simultaneous discrimination between the comparison stimuli, 1 subject was then exposed to a series of simple discrimination reversals and subsequently failed to acquire arbitrary matching. Both subjects acquired arbitrary matching under a procedure that maintained both the sample and the comparison discrimination by first presenting entire sessions composed of one sample-comparison relation and then gradually reducing the number of consecutive trials with the same sample until sample presentation was randomized (schedule performance was maintained). Removal of the schedule requirement had no effect on arbitrary matching accuracy. Both subjects subsequently demonstrated control by relations symmetric to the trained relations.     

Influence of item identification on the memory performance of mentally retarded and nonretarded adults

The role of item identification in the memory performance of mentally retarded and nonretarded adults was examined by varying the identification and memory parameters of a sequential same-different task. In Study 1, retarded subjects' identification ability was demonstrated to be less efficient than nonretarded subjects' ability. In Study 2, target duration and interstimulus interval were varied. Memory performance differed between groups, and the memory deficit for retarded subjects was demonstrated to be independent of their identification deficit. The target durations in Study 2 were relatively brief, and in Study 3, the target duration was increased to insure that all subjects could identify the target. Mentally retarded subjects were demonstrated to have a memory deficit. The results were discussed in terms of possible sources of the memory deficit.     

Comparison of nonretarded and mentally retarded children on tasks involving direct and rule-governed imitation.

The influence of intellectual level and social reinforcement on imitation learning was examined. Tasks involving direct and rule-governed imitation of a mode were presented to 20 mentally retarded and 20 nonretarded children. The children within each group were randomly assigned to either an affective ("good-fine") or an informative ("correct-right") social reinforcement condition. Reinforcement, administered on a fixed ration (FR4) schedule, was contingent on the child's imitative behavior. A multivariate analysis of variance showed that both the Population X Reinforcement Type interaction and the Reinforcement main effect were significant. Univariate follow-up tests showed that only rule-governed imitation contributed significantly to the multivariate effects. Analysis of simple effects indicated that retarded children performed optimally under affective reinforcement, while the nonretarded children performed highest under informative reinforcement.     

Comparison of selected gait parameters of trainable mentally retarded and nonretarded males

Although there were no significant differences in the single support phase of gait for 6 trainable mentally retarded boys (Mean age 9.6 yr.) and 6 nonretarded boys (Mean age 9.5 yr.), total gait time and time in double support were significantly different for the two groups, supporting previous research which showed gait was was deficient in trainable mentally retarded individuals.     

The lack of effects of enriched and automated environments on the adaptive and maladaptive behavior of mentally retarded persons

This study addressed the relative effects of repeated exposures to an austere institutional dayroom, a toy enriched dayroom, a PUSH (Play Units for the Severely Handicapped) room that contained automated stimulation devices within a physical terrain, and a modular room that contained wall mounted automated stimulation devices, on the adaptive and maladaptive freeplay behavior of six groups of institutionalized mentally retarded individuals (N = 6 per group). Group One was observed in all four settings, whereas the other five were observed in two or more of the active settings. The results indicated that (1) there were only slight differences in object-directed adaptive behavior when the three active settings were compared to the austere setting, and (2) only the higher functioning subjects (Group Five) displayed consistent individual differences on any of the measures when active settings were compared. None of the comparisons, however, revealed statistically significant effects. This study clearly demonstrates the need for active control conditions, raises questions regarding the relevance of much of the previous research, and suggests that further refinements will be necessary before environments such as those in the present study produce meaningful changes in appropriate environmental interaction in the absence of staff mediation.