title: Number-comparison learning by children classified as mentally retarded.
abstract: A training experiment was undertaken to determine whether children classified as mentally retarded could learn a general magnitude-comparison rule ("The number that comes after another in the number sequence is more than the preceding number"). After a pretest, 22 subjects were randomly assigned to an experimental or a control training group. On both immediate and delayed posttests, the experimental subjects significantly outperformed control children on trained number pairs. A modest amount of transfer was also evident. The results suggest that a counting-based approach that utilizes rule rehearsal can help children classified as mentally retarded to use their representation of the number sequence to make mental magnitude comparisons.
authors: University of Rochester.
authors: A J
authors: AJ
authors: Baroody
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D002648:Child; D003210:Concept Formation; D006801:Humans; D008607:Intellectual Disability / Q000523:psychology*; D007858:Learning; D008433:Mathematics; D011930:Reaction Time; D014163:Transfer, Psychology