In early studies concerning the organization of memory in the mentally retarded, it suggested that the categorical organization related to the concept utilization. Kamizono (1980), furthermore, clarified the developmental stages of memory organization in mentally retarded children and that an increase of mental age leads to changes in memory process of the mentally retarded. These changes proceed from passive to active functions as follows: (1) rote memory (2) some utilization of conceptual categories (3) effective utilization of conceptual categories (4) simultaneous utilization of conceptual categories and rehearsal strategies The purpose of this study was to see whether this developmental process is characteristic of the mentally retarded by comparing retarded children with normal children. The subjects were 50 retardates (CA ranging from 8:8 to 15:8, MA ranging from 4:0 to 8:10, IQ ranging from 29 to 66) and 50 normals (CA ranging from 4:3 to 8:10). Each subjects group was divided into 5 subgroups. The experiments were composed of two tasks. First, subjects were asked for their immediate free recall after the presentation of 8 drawing cards which were not meaningfully related to each other. Second, subjects were presented 16 drawing cards (mammal, insect, vegitable, fruit). Subjects were asked to recall the list after sorting the presented cards. The results as follows: The number of recalled items by the mentally retarded group (MR group), was less than the normal group (N group). The developmental trends on the recalled items in both group were similar except that they occured one year later in the MR group. However, the developmental trends were different in organizational score of both group. Therefore, data were analysed in the following three ways in order to clarify the organizational strategies in both group. (1) Cluster size and the number of clusters In the N group, the relationship between cluster size and the number of clusters in the recall protocol in 4-year group was reverse in 6-year group. From this result, it was suggested that the qualitative changes must be occured between 4- and 6-year group. On the other hand, this relationship was not found in the MR group. (2) Pauses in recall The pauses appearing in recall protocol classified into two categories the within-cluster pause and the between-cluster pause. The following results were found. In the N group, retrieval and recall based on conceptual category became possible at the level of 6 years. In 7- and 8-year group, it appeared that the increase of organizational score and subsequently increased number of recall depended on the utilization of conceptual structure and the effective availability of memory information which consisted of category size and the number of categories (monitoring effect in retrieval). On the other hand, the utilization of the monitoring strategy, which observed in the N group, was not found in the MR group. Even the higher-age groups in the MR performed the same processing as lower-age groups in the N group. (3) Errors in recall There were more errors in recall in the MR group than in the N group. From this result, it was suggested that the MR group was inferior to the N group about functionally checking whether the specific item recovered in memory was acceptable or not. Checking would be based on judgment, decision processes and monitoring process about the item which had been recalled. From these findings, it was suggested that the development of memory organization in the MR group was different from that in the N group, and that the characteristic development of the MR group was due to the inferiority of their basic cognitive processes concerning memory. It seems that the MR group has their own kind of memory organization which is different from the N group.

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Dichotic listening is an effective procedure to demonstrate Right Ear Advantage (REA) and hemispheric specialization for speech and language. Congenital hearing impaired children whose hearing sensitivity is moderate or severe are able to perceive, recognize and understand auditory signals with hearing aids. The author has clarified the developmental stage (5-6 years old) that the dominant hemisphere for speech and language appears and the role of right ear-left hemisphere becomes clear in linguistic function. The purpose of the present study was to examine the correlation of lateralization score (phi-score) and aided ear for a simultaneous dichotic listening task that consisted of four syllable meaningful words. The phi correlation coefficient is proposed as an index of ear differences in dichotic listening tests. The subjects were sensorineural hearing impaired children (CA Range 6-12 years old) whose aided ear was on the right side in five cases and on the left side in five cases. The findings were as follows: (1) Sensorineural hearing impaired children who have improved fairly well in auditory motor function, auditory function and speech production are of the storongly right eared type regardless of which ear has a hearing aid. (2) The percentage of subjects in which the phi correlaton coefficient is significantly dominant is 80.8% in the right hearing aid group and 60.0% in the left hearing aid group. (3) Linguistic learning deficient children with a minimal impairement in the higher central hemispheric area tend to get low scores in the dichotic listening tast and are of the typical left eared type.

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The present experiment was designed to clarify how listeners' images toward stuttering children would change when listeners actually encounter the situation in which children are stuttering. In this experiment, the same stimulus material was used for three different groups of subjects. The stimulus consisted of 3 minutes 15 sec. of filmed and synchronously tape recorded reading behavior of a 9 year old boy with severe stuttering. The subjects for this experiment were 124 university students divided into three groups. At the beginning, each of the subjects rated stuttering children by means of a semantic differential scale. Then, the sound film was presented to the subject in three different ways: the audio group listened to the tape recording of the sound track, the visual group saw the film without sound, and the audiovisual group watched and listened the film with sound. After the introduction of the above-mentioned experimental conditions, subjects of each group rated stuttering children again by means of a semantic differential scale. The results showed that attitudes toward stuttering children were most changeable in the audiovisual group and that the direction of the listeners' attitude changes was positive rather than negative. The results of this experiment were discussed to see how they should be incorporated into actual stuttering therapy.

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In order to clarify the incidence of obesity in mentally retarded children, a cross-sectional survey of standing height, body weight, Rohrer's index and skinfold thickness was carried out on 443 institutionalized mentally retarded boys and 250 girls from 9 to 16 years of age from 1979 to 1981. The intellectually normal subjects as the controlled group were 339 boys and 302 girls from Toyama city, and Japanese children measured by the Ministry of Education in 1979. Individuals were classified (1) as obese (above 160) and semi-obese (above 145) according to Rohrer's index, (2) as obesity oriented (120% above the average weight for their sex, age and height) on the basis of standard weight tables by the Ministry of Education in Japan, and (3) as slightly, fairly and seriously obese based on total skinfold thickness in the upper arm and scapular sites as described by Dr. Nagamine. The following major results were found: 1) The total incidences of semi-obesity and obesity classified by Rohrer's index were 5% - 19% and 14%-52% in the mentally retarded groups, and 3%-15% and 0%-16% in the controlled groups, for males and females respectively, aged 9 to 16 years. 2) In the mentally retarded groups, the incidences of obesity orientation were 17%, 16%, 9%, 10%, 7%, 14% in males and 11%, 22%, 25%, 31%, 19%, 14% in females. In the national survey, obesity orientation was 6% to 7% in both sexes, aged 9 to 14 years. 3) The total incidences of slight, fair and serious obesity classified by Dr. Nagamine's skinfold thickness method were 28%, 42%, 33%, 28%, 27%, 26%, 14%, 11% in the mentally retarded boys and 16%, 5%, 23%, 11%, 18%, 10%, 10%, 17% in the controlled groups for boys, aged 9 to 16 years. In the 9 to 16 year-old girls, they were 9%, 35%, 25%, 32%, 34%, 35%, 37%, 29% in the mentally retarded groups and 8%, 9%, 3%, 13%, 8%, 20%, 16%, 2% in the controlled groups. These results suggest that there is a high incidence of obesity in mentally retarded children.

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Considerable evidence exists in support of the efficacy of modeling in nonretarded children and adults. But only recently has the potential of modeling with the mentally retarded been explored. The mentally retarded are hypothesized to manifest an outer-directed cognitive style because of their frequent failure experiences and their high expectancies for failure. This heightened dependency on external cues for determining action patterns should facilitate the acquisition of modeled responses. Recent trends toward mainstreaming have resulted in increasing opportunities for mentally retarded children to interact with nonretarded peers in school. Presented with situations in which they can observe the behaviors of nonretarded peers, it is likely that retarded children may attempt to imitate many aspects of the varied behaviors of these peers. Thus, it is important to investigate observational learning in the mentally retarded. This paper reviewed the findings of studies in this area which suggest that modeling has a special efficacy for teaching mentally retarded individuals self-help skills, social behaviors and movements, problem-solving skills, vocational skills and language skills. Recently, however, investigators have begun to investigate more cognitive types of tasks, such as concept learning, using modeling. Bandura proposes that observational learning is divided into four subprocesses: attentional processes, retention processes, motoric reproduction processes and reinforcement and motivational processes. Acquisition of behaviors via modeling requires observers first to attend to the demonstration and then to retain that information in representational form for later reproduction. Because of proposed attentional and short-term memory deficits in the retarded, additional techniques for facilitating observational learning in the mentally retarded are necessary (for example, conceptual rule provision, verbalization, imaginal instruction, rehearsal). Motoric reproduction processes involve utilization of symbolic representation of modeled patterns to guide overt performances. Rate and level of observational learning are partially controlled by the availability of essential component responses. In the case of the mentally retarded a complex behavior may have to be modeled with a shaping procedure. The final function concerns reinforcement and motivational processes. This refers to activating the behavior that has been learned through observation. In observational learning, if the observer has attended to a novel modeling demonstration, if he has retained a representation of the modeled behavior, and if he is capable of performing all component responses of that demonstration, the accuracy of his imitative act will depend upon how well current motivational conditions encourage imitation. In observational learning with the mentally retarded, because of the lowered motivation that has arisen from their diverse environmental histories and conditions, employing an appropriate reinforcement agent is essential. Future directions for studies on observational learning in the mentally retarded are suggested as follows. (1) To what extent is observational learning in the mentally retarded effective? (2) Are techniques for facilitating observational learning in the mentally retarded effective? (3) What sort of model is effective for observational learning in the mentally retarded? (4) In acquirining what sort of information or skills can the mentally retarded benefit from modeling exposures?

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