Presents a series of these experiments which examined cue function in trigram verbal discrimination learning by retarded subjects. The two variables of chief interest were: (1) trigram meaningfulness, and (2) reinforcement history. (Author/LLK)

Portions of this paper presented at Annual Meeting of the American Association on Mental Deficiency (92nd, Boston, Massachusetts, May 1968).

The book explores the legal profession's role in protecting the rights of mentally handicapped individuals. Section 1 provides background on mental retardation and residential care, explaining that mental retardation and poverty are closely interrelated. Section 2 reviews the long accepted public policy of supplanting institutional care with…

The relationship between self-control and role-taking deficits as exhibited by 37 female institutionalized juvenile delinquents was assessed by Chandler's measure of social egocentrism. Subjects, matched on the basis of their scores on the Matching Familiar Figures (MFF) Test, were randomly assigned to treatment or control groups. The treatment…

Perceptions of 160 institutionalized and 207 noninstitutionalized old people (mean age = 76.6 yrs.) were examined with respect to the quality of their family relations. Responses to six survey items measuring satisfaction with various aspects of family relations were cross-tabulated with gender, marital status, health status, age, and living…

The paper describes a special education staff's problems with teaching a severely handicapped institutionalized population and reports on observations of seven multiply handicapped (blind-mentally retarded) students. The students' feeding skills performance in the institution and the school was compared in such terms as diet, utensil use, special…

The study investigated three variables--juvenile delinquency, academic achievement, and attention span--with 77 incarcerated juveniles [18 emotionally handicapped (EH), 20 learning disabled (LD), 19 educable mentally retarded (EMR), and 20 nonidentified]. The Detroit Tests of Learning Aptitude were used for testing in the areas of visual and…

The effectiveness of a prescriptive teaching program on the reading, arithmetic, and linguistic development of 35 institutionalized mentally retarded children (mean age 12 years) was investigated. A prescriptive, precision teaching approach was used, along with positive reinforcement in the curriculum areas of reading, mathematical computations,…

Guidelines (established at the Syracuse Development Center) for conducting human research with institutionalized mentally retarded persons are discussed, particularly in relation to research in behavior modification. After a literature review, the five step procedure suggested by the Center is listed with such steps as submitting a proposal which…