Veridical and false pictorial recognition were assessed in individuals with mental retardation; groups were matched for MA and CA. Pictures were viewed in either a generative or static format at acquisition. The individuals with mental retardation and those in the MA-matched group had higher rates of false memories for critical items and lower hit…

Signaling noncomprehension of the spoken messages of others was examined for youth with fragile X or Down syndrome in comparison with each other and nonverbal MA-matched typically developing children. A direction-following task was used in which some of the directions were inadequate. Both syndrome groups signaled noncomprehension less often than…

In a matched-groups design, costs and quality of life outcomes for adults with intellectual disabilities with relatively low support needs were compared between those in fully staffed group homes (n = 35) and in semi-independent living (n = 35). Data were collected on participant characteristics, setting organization, various lifestyle outcomes,…

Persons with mental retardation often exhibit greater interference in visual selective attention tasks than do persons matched with them on CA. My goal here was to evaluate whether differences in distractor interference between persons with and without mental retardation may be related to differences in negative priming. Fifteen participants with…

Referential communication was examined in youth with Down syndrome or fragile X syndrome in comparison to each other and to MA-matched typically developing children. A non-face-to-face task was used in which the participant repeatedly described novel shapes to listeners. Several dimensions of referential communication were especially challenging…

People with Williams syndrome are extremely sociable, empathic, and expressive in communication. Some researchers suggest they may be especially sensitive to perceiving emotional expressions. We administered the Faces and Paralanguage subtests of the Diagnostic Analysis of Nonverbal Accuracy Scale (DANVA2), a standardized measure of emotion…

This review and critique of the use of comparison groups in 57 studies of mental retardation family research addresses such issues as: matching on age versus competency of the mentally retarded family member, demographic equivalence of groups, research involving siblings, research involving mentally retarded parents, and appropriateness of…

We conducted a longitudinal comparative evaluation of person-centered planning processes and outcomes for 20 individuals with intellectual disabilities and problem behavior (former residents of Willowbrook) and a matched contrast group, who received traditional interdisciplinary service planning (ISP). At the inception of the study, all…

Wilkinson and Green (1998) reported that differences in the procedure by which new words were introduced to learners with cognitive impairments significantly affected their accuracy in later tests of receptive understanding of word meanings. However, a limited sample and no control group rendered the data preliminary. Here, I replicated and…