Abstract
Inferior ability of the retarded compared to no rmals of the same mental age in learning and think ing has been reported in many studies. But we have had only a few systematic investigations of the complex relations between measured intelligence level and learning ability or abilty in concept formation.
The purpose of this study was to investigate these problems. The experiments consisted of paired-associate learning, trasfer tests, and verbalization tests.The subjects consisted of seventy eight retardeds and 50 normal children.
In each experiment two conditions were set up. The first: meaningful paired-associate learning in which meaningful relation between stimulus card and response word existed: the second;rote learning paired-associated which had no meaningful S-R relations.In the meaningful condition, certain atributes of an object that the response word meant was similar to the stimulus card either in color or in form.After the completion of the learning, the transfer tests and the verbalization tests were administered.
Some results of the experiments indicated that with equal MA, normals were superior to retardeds and that the changes in learning performance paralleled an increase in mental age. But the group with 4yrs of mental age and with lowe r IQ showed the lowest ability, whereas the group with the same mental age but with higher IQ showed higher learning and transfer ability.
Verbal and conceptual response were gained only from the group of Ss, 8 Yrs in MA (IQ, about 65) but not from the group with lower MA.
The facilitate effects of meaningful condition on the paired-associate learning and its transfer were seen in the groups more than five years in mental age.However these were not always conceptual but sometimes intuitive and/or perceptual level.
In summery, it was suggested that more systematic investigation of the cfmplex relation between learning and intelligence level (MA as well as IQ to be taken into consideration) in mentally retardeds was needed.
