In Experiment 1, the illumination of black stimuli on white backgrounds failed to facilitate discrimination learning. In Experiment 2, however, illumination of white stimuli on black backgrounds facilitated discrimination learning. Findings supported the use of changes in illumination as an attention-influencing feature of nonspeech communication…

Results of a study with 10 moderately retarded adolescents on the salience of transverse compound stimuli (combinations of positive and negative cues) were interpreted as an instance of developmental changes in unlearned stimulus salience hierarchies. The low saliency of transverse compounds was suggested to be related to reading difficulties.…

Sixteen individuals (ages 7-18) with moderate or severe mental retardation were taught to identify 2 comparative discriminations by a static or dynamic presentation procedure. No differences in percentage of unprompted correct responses were found between the two procedures in training, generalization, or maintenance. (Author/JDD)

Recognition scores of 12 moderately and mildly retarded children (mean ages 13 and 14 years) for positive and negative discriminative stimuli were tested after a single trial through a discrimination problem list. (Author/CL)