Intra-Individual Variability of Normal and Educable Mentally Retarded Children on a Coincidence Timing Task

A visual coincidence timing task was used to compare the level of performance (constant error) and the intra-individual variability of 100 normal and 100 educable mentally retarded children. The mean performance of the intellectually normal children on this task was significantly superior to that of the retarded children, and the intra-individual variability of the latter was significantly greater than that of the former. The hypothesis that high intra-individual variability and depressed level of performance are closely associated was not supported.     

智障学生与正常学生内隐记忆与外显记忆的对比研究

本实验以探索智障学生与正常学生内隐记忆与外显记忆的发展特点为目的。采用2(材料类型:图片、汉语双字词)×2(贡献来源:外显记忆、内隐记忆)×2(被试类型:智障学生、正常学生)×2(年龄:低年级、高年级)的四因素混合设计,通过加工分离程序(PDP,process dissociation procedure)的包含和排除测验,计算意识和无意识的贡献大小。结果表明,⑴材料类型主效应极其显著;⑵贡献来源的主效应极其显著;⑶年龄效应不显著;⑷被试效应不显著;本研究结论可对智障学生的教育提供理论指导。     

L'Arche: Homes for People Who Are Mentally Retarded

The author describes L'Arche, an international federation of homes for mentally retarded people, and explores the views of Jean Vanier, the organization's founder, on issues of social justice and world peace. The therapeutic relationships formed in L'Arche communities are compared to healing counselor-client relationships, and the role of the counselor as consultant on problems related to mental retardation is discussed.     

Conceptual Organization and Memory in Nonretarded,Mildly Retarded,and Moderately Retarded Adults

Moderately retarded, mildly retarded, and nonretarded adults learned a list of 12 items from three categories to a criterion of 75% correct recall in a freerecall learning paradigm. Retention was measured 1 week later. The moderately retarded took more trials and had lower retention and clustering scores than the others. The mildly retarded took more trials and had lower retention than the nonretarded. The results violate Murdock's total time hypothesis (Cooper & Pantle, 1967) but support Mandler's (1967) contention that learning is enhanced by the mental capacity for organization.     

The Mentally Retarded Inmate: Prison Adjustment and Implications for Treatment

The purpose of this study was to determine whether or not there are differences in the prison adaptation of mentally retarded and nonretarded inmates.     

Kidney Transplants From Young Children and the Mentally Retarded

Kidney donation by young children and the mentally retarded has been supported by court decisions, arguments based on obligations inherent in family relationships, an array of contextual factors, and the principle of beneficence. These justifications for taking organs from people who cannot protect themselves are problematic and must be weighed against our obligation to protect the vulnerable. A compromise solution is presented that strongly protects young children and the mentally retarded but does not abdicate all responsibility to relieve suffering. Guidelines are proposed that prohibit the retrieval of kidneys from young children and the mentally retarded but permit one exception. They would allow retrieval of a kidney when the consequence to a first order relative with whom the donor has a meaningful and valuable relationship is otherwise imminent death. This would be done in accordance with additional guidelines that minimize harm to the donor. Since most patients with end stage renal disease can be maintained on dialysis the need for a kidney to prevent death should be an uncommon occurrence. This compromise is proposed as a solution to a dilemma that exists because two ethical principles are in conflict and one cannot be honored without violating the other.     

Memory for Objects and Faces by the Mentally Retarded and Nonretarded

Visual recognition skills of 26 mentally retarded high school students were compared with the skills of two groups of nonretarded students. All groups were taught to recognize 32 target faces and objects and were retested 1 week, 1 month, and 2 months later. The counterintuitive findings were that there were no significant differences between the retarded and nonretarded groups in memory for faces on any of the retest trials. All groups remembered faces significantly better than they did objects and remembered more of the pictures at 1 week than they did at 1 month or at 2 months. There was no significant loss over time in memory for faces. Relative to nonretarded subjects, the retarded subjects exhibited deficits in encoding and remembering objects but showed no such deficits in encoding and remembering faces. The results suggest that different configurational features may be used to encode objects as opposed to faces.     

On the Concept of Comparison in Mentally Retarded and Nonretarded Children

Two adjective pairs in comparative form, more-less and taller-shorter, were tested with moderately mentally retarded (MR) and nonretarded children (NR) matched on verbal mental age (MA) and socioeconomic status (SES) in a show and an act-out experimental condition. The data indicated that all the main effects, the group, the experimental condition, and the unmarked-marked relational terms were significant and so were the interactions of the Group × Experimental Conditions, Group × Unmarked Versus Marked Relational Terms, and Group × Experimental Conditions and Unmarked Versus Marked Relational Terms. A logistic regression analysis (LRA) showed that the relational term shorter in the act-out condition best predicted classification membership for the subjects in either group, suggesting that the MR children were less able to self-regulate behavior. The error types, however, mainly observed in the act-out experimental condition were the same from a semantic point of view in either group. The effect of the unmarked versus marked distinction cannot be considered independent of the experimental conditions applied.     

Patterns of Interaction in Families with Low Adjusted, High Adjusted, and Mentally Retarded Members

Family interactions were compared in three groups: families with a low adjusted child prior to formal clinic contact (LA), with a high adjusted child (HA), and with a retarded child (RM). Nine measures were utilized, described as: adaptation, stability, productivity, specificity, overt power, conflict, cohesion, and emotionality. Data suggested a failure of cohesion in the LA group, but many clinic-family stereotypes were supported. HA families showed high cohesion, but also high conflict. RM families showed cohesion, but many "auxiliary" control features, such as assigning "youngest sib" role to the handicapped child.     

Mixture Modeling Methods for the Assessment of Normal and Abnormal Personality,Part I: Cross-Sectional Models

Over the past 75 years, the study of personality and personality disorders has been informed considerably by an impressive array of psychometric instruments. Many of these tests draw on the perspective that personality features can be conceptualized in terms of latent traits that vary dimensionally across the population. A purely trait-oriented approach to personality, however, might overlook heterogeneity that is related to similarities among subgroups of people. This article describes how factor mixture modeling (FMM), which incorporates both categories and dimensions, can be used to represent person-oriented and trait-oriented variability in the latent structure of personality. We provide an overview of different forms of FMM that vary in the degree to which they emphasize trait- versus person-oriented variability. We also provide practical guidelines for applying FMM to personality data, and we illustrate model fitting and interpretation using an empirical analysis of general personality dysfunction.     

Suppression of Chronic High Frequency Spitting in a Multiply Handicapped and Mentally Retarded Adolescent

Excessive drooling and spitting are maladaptive behaviors often encountered among severely developmentally delayed children. In the present study a blind, deaf and retarded adolescent exhibited an extremely high rate of spitting which had resisted numerous classroom intervention efforts by teachers using punishment techniques. His recalcitrant spitting was eliminated with a behavioral intervention consisting of positive reinforcement for not spitting and facial screening for spitting. Experimental control was demonstrated using a multiple baseline across situations and within subject reversal design. The treatment package successfully eliminated the child's chronic spitting. Teacher reports one year later indicated the results maintained across time and spitting was no longer a problem. Social and academic implications of modifying such behaviors are discussed.     

中重度弱智儿童词汇表达的研究

中重度弱智儿童普遍存在不同程度的语言发展方面的问题,他们获得第—个词的时间通常是24—30个月,到四岁时。才开始出现较多的、有意义的词;弱智儿童的词汇量相当有限,而且词汇的累积和增加非常缓慢,使用的词类也不全面。国外的研究者对于弱智儿童词汇发展的研究主要形成了两种观点：其—是弱智儿童与相同智龄的正常儿童相比,在词汇表达和理解方面都要落后;其二是智龄可以预测弱智儿童词汇发展的能力。     

The Ability to Encode Facial and Emotional Expressions by Educable Mentally Retarded and Nonretarded Children

The object of the present study was to investigate whether 20 educable mentally retarded (EMR) children matched for verbal mental age on the Peabody Picture Vocabulary Test (PPVT; Dunn, 1965) with 20 nonretarded (NR) controls were adept in identifying emotional facial expressions and producing the equivalent word adjectives. I also reassessed the relationship between the phase of identifying facial expressions (i.e., happy, sad, angry, and scared) and the phase of producing emotional word adjectives, consisting of 16 emotional linguistic constructions (4 short stories for each of the adjectives) between higher in verbal ability educable mentally retarded (HEMR) children and higher in verbal ability nonretarded controls (HNRC) and between low in verbal ability educable mentally retarded (LEMR) children and low in verbal ability nonretarded controls (LNRC). There were no significant differences between EMR and NR children in general, despite the fact that EMR children had deficits in receptive linguistic competence.     

Custody and Access Evaluations: Issues for Mental Health Professionals Conducting Assessments withMentally Disordered or Mentally Retarded Parents

Mental health professionals are increasingly beingcalled upon by the courts to offer their expertise inchild custody and access disputes. This paperaddresses the specialized role mental healthprofessionals have in custody and access hearings,particularly in cases wherein one or both parents havereceived a mental diagnosis (i.e., of mental disorderor mental retardation). The focus upon thispopulation of parents is warranted, as there is adearth of both empirical literature and professionalguidelines to provide direction to the mental healthprofessional that is offering his or her expertise tothe court regarding these parents. Additionally,there are specific issues that the mental healthprofessional needs to remain cognizant of, above andbeyond general issues associated with conductingcustody and access assessments, when conductingassessments on parents with mental diagnoses. Theliterature on the parenting behaviors and risk ofchild abuse and neglect associated with mentallydisordered and mentally retarded parents is reviewed,and the limitations in our empirical knowledge ofthese areas are highlighted. Recommendations formental health professionals conducting custodyevaluations in hearings where one or both parents havea mental diagnosis are provided.     

Employment in Care-Giving Jobs for Mentally Disabled Young Adults: A Feasibility Study

The authors describe a study of the feasibility of employing mildly mentally retarded persons as care givers in a day care center.