Overselective attention in discrimination between picture cards was investigated with three groups of children with different IQ levels: 10 severely retarded (IQ = 29 - 51, CA = 9.6 - 18 years), 10 moderately retarded (IQ = 56 - 85, CA = 12.8 - 16.3 years), and 10 non-retarded (CA = 10 - 12 years). (Author/IM)

Describes an empirical investigation of the differences in learning strategies or approaches of 30 university students. The results indicate that the differences in approach may be found in the kind of information focused on and learned rather than how much people learn in a quantitative sense. Thirty-six references are listed. (CHC)

Proposes a categorization scheme based on instructional design theory and empirical findings for employing various types of graphic/visual displays under specified conditions. (Author/CHC)

Reports that praise and extrinsic reinforcers, such as candy, increased the rate of letter recognition in preschool children and that the increase was partially maintained when the reinforcement was removed. (FL)

In this article infant operant conditioning studies are grouped according to distinct procedures: free operant; discrete trial with one discriminative stimulus; discrete trial with two or more discriminative stimuli; controlled operant with two or more discriminative stimuli; and unrestricted operant with two or more discriminative stimuli.…

Evaluated was the use of easy to hard visual discrimination vocational training procedures with 24 institutionalized trainable mentally retarded Ss (16-43 years old). (PT)

Children with mental retardation are particularly prone to failure on relational tasks such as oddity and match-to-sample, suggesting a differential sensitivity to relational information. This paper reports on several studies in which characteristics of stimulus arrays were enhanced. Results demonstrated the theoretical and practical significance…

Performance of 5 students (ages 8 and 10) with moderate intellectual disability was compared as they received the DISTAR Arithmetic instructional intervention and a Discrimination Learning Theory (DLT) intervention not requiring a fast-paced verbal student response. Academic engagement and skill mastery were greater during the DLT intervention.…

A probabilistic item response theory (IRT) model is developed for pair-comparison design in which the unfolding principle governing the choice process uses a discriminant process analogous to Thurstone's Law of Comparative Judgment. A simulation study demonstrates the feasibility of estimation, and two examples illustrate the implications for…

In two studies with 50 male and 50 female undergraduates, differences in learning highly interfering paired-associate discrimination tasks were compared with or without visual mediational cues and with aural cues only. Visual mediational instruction reduced interference between similar signals and facilitated their association with the correct…

This study found that the responses of 40 institutionalized adults with moderate mental retardation to the tasks of discriminating emotions and expressing empathy were poor in contrast to those with mild mental retardation. Of individuals with mild mental retardation, those with no chronic challenging behaviors scored better than those with…