Research supported by research grant MH-03008 from NIMH, U.S. Public Health Service.

Strategies of kindergarten children in discrimination learning were studied in a factorial design with temporal placements of two introtact probes and two types of pretraining. Results support the expectation that the posttrial probe would improve the short-term efficiency of children in both pretraining conditions. (Author/MP)

A total of 90 undergraduate volunteers learned a 12-pair, low-frequency verbal discrimination list. Independent variables were feedback (positive only, negative only, or both) and initial success (17, 50, or 83 percent correct on the first trial). While the main effect of feedback was not significant, that of initial success was. (Author/RH)

Subjects were tested (118 Down's Syndrome; 108 other mentally handicapped; 123 normal) in a simple discrimination task. Both handicapped groups tended to succeed in matching one card only, in position. The normal group tended to succeed with the full array. Down's Syndrome children tended to adopt a response bias. (Author)

Results revealed a significant Intelligence x Frequency interaction, which indicated that the retarded group exhibited an incidential learning deficit but only under the high frequency condition. A possible explanation for this finding was discussed within the context of depth of processing. (Author)

The study involving three mentally retarded children (7 to 10 years old) compared the effectiveness of preventing incorrect responses with allowing trial and error responses to a set of verbal instructions. Data provided further evidence for the notion of errorless discrimination learning. (SB)

The results showed that the performance of the autistic children was better than the other two groups on concrete discrimination tasks, was poorer than the other two groups on formal discrimination tasks, and the quality of the autistic children's performance decreased as task requirements for formal discrimination increased. (Author/SB)

The results offered little support for the hypothesis that teaching severely retarded learners to label stimuli would reduce the likelihood of stimulus overselectivity. (Author)

Stimuli varying in form, color, and size were presented on a demonstration trials procedure to 25 severely retarded adults and to 25 nonretarded children of equivalent MA. (Author/SB)

Three experiments investigated seven-month-old infants' ability to discriminate the facial expressions of happiness and fear. (CM)

A four-step instructional procedure to assist the learning disabled child to distinguish the distinctive features of letters is described. The procedure involves distinguishing the lower case "b" via a fading out technique from its upper case counterpart "B." The letter directionality can be cued so that the "b-d" distinction is readily apparent.…