The purpose of this study was to extend the work of Freston and Drew (1974) which compared the free recall performance of learning disabled children as a function of organization of material and level of difficulty. A quasi-experimental design used 30 subjects classified as learning disabled and 30 normal subjects. For the normal group both material organization and level of difficulty influenced the amount of recall; for the learning disabled group, only level of material difficulty influenced recall. These results substantiate those of Freston and Drew (1974) and lend support to the hypothesis that the learning disabled population is unable to take mnemonic advantage of externally organized material, whether learning disability is defined according to an etiological, medical model or according to an educational, behavioral model as in this study.
Get full access to this article
View all access options for this article.
References
1.
Bartel, N.R., Grill, J.J., and Bartel, H.W.: The syntactic-paradigmatic shift in learning disabled and normal children. J. Learning Disabil.1973, 6, 518–523.
2.
Bousfield, W.A.: The occurrence of clustering in the recall of randomly arranged associates. J. Gen. Psychol., 1953, 49, 229–240.
3.
Cole, M., Frankel, F., and Sharp, D.: The development of free recall learning in children. Develop. Psychol., 1971, 4, 109–123.
4.
Drew, C.J., and Altman, R.: Effects of input organization and material difficulty on free recall. Psychol. Rep., 1970, 27, 335–337.
5.
Drew, C.J., and Berard, W.R.: Errors of retarded and nonretarded subjects by learning stage. Psychonomic Sei., 1970, 20, 65–66.
6.
Entwisle, D.R., Forsyth, D.F., and Muus, R.: The syntactic-paradigmatic shift in children's word associations. J. Verbal Learning Verbal Behav., 1964, 3, 19–29.
7.
Freston, C.W., and Drew, C.J.: Verbal performance of learning disabled children as a function of input organization. J. Learning Disabil.1974, 7, 424–428.
8.
Gerjuoy, I.R., and Spitz, H.H.: Associative clustering in free recall: Intellectual and developmental variables. Amer. J. Ment. Defic, 1966, 70, 918–927.
9.
Gerjuoy, I.R., et al.: Subjective organization by retardates and normals during free recall of visual stimuli. Amer. J. Ment. Defic., 1969, 73, 791–797.
Inhelder, B., and Piaget, J.: The Early Growth of Logic in the Child: Classification and Seriation. New York: Harper & Row, 1964.
12.
Johnson, D.J., and Myklebust, H.R.: Learning Disabilities: Educational Principles and Practices. New York: Grune & Stratton, 1967.
13.
Mandler, G.: Organization and memory. In K.W. Spence and J.T. Spence (Eds.): The Psychology of Learning and Motivation, Vol. 1. New York: Academic Press, 1967.
14.
Miller, G.A.: The magical number seven, plus or minus two: Some limits on our capacity for processing information. Psychol. Rev., 1956, 63, 81–97.
15.
Neimark, E., Slotnick, N.W., and Ulrich, T.: Development of memorization strategies. Develop. Psychol., 1971, 5, 427–432.
16.
Peterson, L.R.: Short-term memory. In: Readings from Scientific American: Contemporary Psychology. San Francisco. W.H. Freeman, 1971.
17.
Postman, L.: Short-term memory and incidental learning. In: A. W. Melton: Categories of Human Learning. New York: Academic Press, 1964.
18.
Riegel, R.H., Danner, F.W., and Donnelly, L.J.: Developmental trends in the generation and utilization of associative relations for recall by EMR and non-retarded children: The SORTS test. Research Report #54. Minneapolis: Research, Development and Demonstration Center in Education of Handicapped Children, Univ. of Minn., 1973. (mimeographed)
19.
Simpson, R.L., King, J.D., and Drew, C.J.: Free recall by retarded and non-retarded subjects as a function of input organization. Psychonomic Sci., 1970, 19, 334.
20.
Thorndike, E.L., and Lorge, I.: Teacher Word Book of 30,000 Words. New York: Teacher's College, 1944.
21.
Tulving, E., and Pearlstone, Z.: Availability versus accessibility of information in memory for words. J. Verbal Learning Verbal Behav., 1966, 5, 381–391.
22.
Utah State Board of Education. Remedial Programs for Children with Learning Disabilities Handbook.Salt Lake City: Utah State Board of Education, 1971.
23.
Wender, P.: Minimal Brain Dysfunction in Children. New York: John Wiley, 1971.
24.
Winer, B.J.: Statistical Principles in Experimental Design. New York: McGraw-Hill, 1962.
