The authors describe an electronically programed learning environment for early education of children with severe developmental retardation which is designed to demonstrate that such children can learn when instructional variables are clearly specified and controlled. Discussed are behavioral characteristics of severaly retarded children (such as…

Sixty-four high school students, stratified by field-dependent or independent cognitive style, were randomly assigned to homogeneous or heterogeneous groups of four to attain concepts in the sequence of complex to simple or simple to complex, with either minimal or strategy instructions. Subsequently, each student individually attained four…